Nursery vs Childminder

[Hamishsmummy]

My ds is 4 months and I'll be going back to work almost full time when he is 7 months, so I have 3 months to sort out childcare.

I'm not sure whether to go down the nursery route or to find a childminder. What's the pros and cons of each?? It's gonna be such a wrench letting someone else watch my wee fella so i want to get it right!

Could you lovely mumsnetters out there help?

for a 7 month old i would say childminder. more one on one attention, home environment, less overwhelming, more consistency of carer etc.

also - in my experience childminders tend to be a bit more knowing of how to care for babies than some of the staff in nurseries who i hate to say it are sometines very young girls. obviously gross generalisation there, but in my experience i have found childminders better for babies, nurseries better for 3 yrs plus. just my opinion tho.

I work in a nursery for older children so should say nursery really, but as your ds is such a dink, I would say childminder.

With a childminder they will get that one to one attention that is harder to get in a nursery setup where the staff child ratios can be higher.

In a nursery they would have more children so the social aspect would be greater, but a child minder could easily take him to a mother toddler group if that was important to you.
Both nurseries and childminders if they are ofsted registered have to follow the early year curriculum (yes there is a curriculum for babies) so the child gets a rounded experience when they are not with you. Good luck with your choice.

Visit some of each and see how you feel, and don't leave it too much longer to start.
I had a bad time with a child minder and switched to nursery, but think that a good childminder should be better for that age than a nursery.

try and find a really good childminder who thinks the same way as you do...go and visit a lot and trust your instincts...

I think nurseries are scary places for adults never mind babies - the ones I've seen have been chock full of kids and underpaid staff...

and baby boys are reputed to do better in the home-based environemnt of a childminders...

my ds2 has been at nursery scince he was 7 months, (now 16months)its a busybees nursery and have always been very good. the youngest girl is 24 the rest are all mothers themselves so i havnt come across young girls looking after him. they had a 1 to 3 ratio which was good.
my ds2 went to nursery from 22 months and did very well. he could write his name and read letters by the time he was 4 and im sure it gave him a head start at school.

personally i wouldnt be happy with a childminder but maybe its because of things i have heard from someone that did use a cm.

i guess you have to whatever you feel is right and make sure you view several places before deciding which to use.

Obviously as a childminder i would be biased but its what you, the parent want for your child that matters.

I think if I were a parent going back to work, I would visit both to get a general idea of what cms do and what nurseries do. These days us cms have to do observations, policies etc so we are getting more like nurseries which, we think, are detrimental to the quality of care we offer. There are more people in a nursery team to do things like observations whereas there is only one of us to do everything. Children are usualy assigned a keyworker (we are the keyworker) in a group at about 3 yrs. Before then in a baby room you will have a room leader (NVQ Level 3/BTEC qualified) and about 2 or 3 assistants who are either NVQ level 2/ btec qualified or are progressing to that with day release at college. I was reccomended to do NVQ level 3 while working in my childminder job so I could work in a nursery as a room leader now.

I would have a cm look after a 7month old, I'm not saying they are not good, some nuseries are brilliant having worked in one but there are 17/18 yr olds who have no experience of their own children.

This one is tricky! it's all what you prefer.I have sent mine to nurseries!
My son started at 7 months old and I cryed every day for 2 months! But then we both settled and all was good!

We actually had a young girl without children herself (probably 18-19) at the nursery who our son spent most of his time with, he loved her and she gave him a lot of attention. I don't always think the age of the staff is what you should concentrate on!

Emlo

I went back to work when DS was 7 months and it is a big wrench but like most things you get used to it. I went with CM for reasons already stated, home atmosphere, one to one attention, DS loves it there and it is obvious that the CM dotes on him, he has become part of their family... DS loves playing with other wee boy and goes to a playgroup and softplay so is defn sociable but I think I was very lucky as had such a good experience but also because she was the only CM who had space for him in our area!! so would echo starting early to find childcare.
be prepared for it to be upsetting, i did a dummy run week to make sure he was okay, just as well as would have spent all day at work crying uncontrollably... he was so unbothered!

It's so difficult to talk in the abstract about this one. Obviously, a good cm is better than a bad nursery and vice versa,

I had my heart set on a childminder for my 7month dd, but had difficulty finding one I liked who could do the hours and days I needed (I found several lovely ones who were fully booked, I must add ).

so dd ended up going to nursery. key advantages are we get a slightly more flexible hours, so i can work early or late as my diary demands, other babies for dd to mix with, lovely big outdoor play area (we don't have a garden), no concerns about a childminder taking holiday/sick leave.

I guess what I'm saying is look at both, and choose afterwards .

My ds has been at nursery since he was 6 months old (he is now 2) and he loves it. I have no experience of using a childminder but decided on a nursery for a number of reasons:

• there is cover if staff are sick whereas if a childminder is sick then you are left with trying to arrange emergency childcare or taking time off work
• nursery is open 52 weeks of the year so don't need to find alternative cover for holidays etc
• they get to do allsorts of messy play which I would never of thought of even at 6 months - cornflour gloop and body painting to name but 2
• they get to mix with others of similar age/development and learn to share, take turns etc

The nursery that we use has a wide range of staff ranging from fully qualified to training and a wide age range too, not all unqualified 16/17 year olds. They are also listed in The Times top 100 employers so pay and conditions can't be that bad (I work for a large multinational company and I know for a fact that my employer isn't on that list!)

I would suggest that you go and visit nurseries and childminders and go with your gut feel for what would work for you. Please bear in mind that there are good and bad childminders and good and bad nurseries - you can only really go by what you feel about a place. There is also no reason why you can't change your mind if it doesn't work out..

One to one attention is often cited as an advantage to using cm. But how many cm's only have one baby/ child to look after?

I'm going back to work after Xmas and my DD will be almost 10 months. We've got her name down for nursery. We visited loads and the one we liked felt nice. The staff are mainly older ladies with children of their own.

TBH what puts me off cms is that there is no-one there watching them (unlike nursery where there are other staff) so you don't know what goes on. Before you all yell at me, I know they are regulated and inspected, but a woman I was friends with when my kids were tiny went on to be a cm when hers went to school. She spent all her time with her kids screaming like a fishwife (I know, we saw eachother 3-4 times a week) and tended to watch TV and let them get on with it. I see her car parked on the drive of our nearest cm every day... It's coloured my views because I couldn't bear the thought of paying a cm to look after my DD only to find my friend was there-possibly shouting at her- all the time.

Usual caveat about good and bad nurseries and good and bad childminders.

Personally, I prefer nurseries.

One-to-one is not an advantage of a childminder, unless she had only one baby to look after, in which case I would wonder why she does not have other children to mind? More homely atmosphere at a cm, is probably more accurate. But think of a family with more than one child, baby has to left to cry at some point because the mother/carer is attending to another child - fact of life.

Conversely, I find that in a nursery (which has to keep to the 3:1 ratio by law), the fact that there are more carers means that if a baby is crying, there is greater chance that one of the carers will get to the baby sooner.

I spent hours sitting with the babyroom carers in my ds' nursery as part of the settling in process. So got to observe the goings on warts and all. I would say it is rare to have more than one or two babies crying at once. And if so, help got to that lil'un fairly sharpish. Also, the nursery drafted in more staff to help out at feeding times.

And most importantly for me, for pre-verbal children, the checks and balances that a nursery offered. Less chance a baby will be neglected or worse if there is more than one person in the room at all times.

And yes, lots of sticky messy play. Carers are focused on children, meals are freshly prepared on site by a cook, babies are taken out for walks in buggies (less often now that weather is colder), clean cheery atmosphere.

But you must have a good feeling about the nursery - because there are good and bad. Always visit and ask lots of questions first. Choose wisely.

imo personally nursery
my baby went in FT nursery 6month, is v happy, loves it. the structured activity and other wee ones all fabby.

do some settling in sessions
talk to other mums
ask to observe some of the activities

think of all the positives socialising
structured activity
confidence
you make bit money

i chose nursery as the majority of staff are NNEB trained, and choose to work in nursery setting. nursery offer a career path, eg room manager, manager.

i preferred that to the other options eg nanny or child minder. personal preference

chin up - as u will (inevitably) encounter folks who do not favour nursery and just can not wait to tell you why and share anecdotal storiesbut the vast majority of nurseries are reputable and good

finally look at ofsted site to help u chose
Look at how to chose a nursery"

"Look at this page",
"ofstedchosing a nursery"

When I was looking for childcare for my DD, who was 6 months when I went back to work, I thought I would go for a childminder.

However, I interviewed about 10 and didn't like any of them - there was just something I couldn't put my finger on. I realised, after a conversation with a friend, is that I had problems with the fact that my DD would have another home environment, and another "mum" figure, and I HATED that idea (sounds a bit irrational now!). You might actually quite like the idea of having another maternal role model.
So I went to a few nurseries and as soon as I went through the doors of the one she's still at (she's 20 months now) I knew it was the perfect one, instinctively. I haven't looked back. The staff are all fantastic, there are two in DD's current room that haven't been mum's but they're bright and enthusiastic and DD loves being there.

HTH x

My DS went to a childminder at 6 months when I went back to work. He loved it and she was great with him. However she had her own 3 year old still at home in the mornngs and so every time he was ill she couln't look after DS. She also fell pregnant a couple of months ago and struggled I think with tiredness. She decided to not look after DS and so we have had him in Nursery for 2 weeks now.
I found it so stressful on the days which she phoned to say she couldn't have DS, trying to find someone else to look ater him, I have a job which relies on me being there at certain times ie, not very flexible! So a nursery is probably more reliable, if you need this. I thought a home environment whilst DS was little would be better, but a friends son went to nursery at 6 months and seems happy, even a little bit moe sociable and confident in certain areas than my son.
I suppose really it comes down to what works for you!

oh, and the point about nursery staff being young. Just because someone is young does not mean that they cannot be absolutely fabulous with children. Working in a nursery is hard work and I can't imagine anyone choosing it unless they really loved children and wanted to be with them all day long.

And the fact that they do not have children? Well, all first time mothers don't have children prior to their own, and somehow they cope.

Come to think of it, I am a, erhem, mature lady with 2 children of my own. I would be pants working in a nursery.

I chose a childminder precisely because I did want ds to be in a home environment with a substitute mummy (although he only goes for 2 mornings a week).
I wanted him to be in a quiet, peaceful and soft-furnished environment. Agree though that it is a very personal choice and I am lucky that my CM is so great.

Thanks everyone for your posts. I'm gonna get my skates on and check out who we have in the area (both childminders and nurseries) and go with gut feel. Will let you know!

My sister has been a chhldminder for 20 years, and when I was torn over this issue for dd, 7 months, she said...'unless you have a personal recommendation for a childminder, choose a nursery.'
She knows her local childminding scene, and sees some very substandard care.

I've noticed myself that a cm baby can of6en spend huge chunks of the day in the car on school / preschool / ballet lesson runs.

At a nursery, the staff are ONLY looking after the babies. That's what they do. A cm may be doing housework, cooking, paying the bills, checking emails, on the phone... well, just like e parent. But I think nursery in some ways gives more thab a parent ( more than me, anyway ), the girls are down on the floor playing with the babies ALL day.

One downside is that nursey babies are pretty much stuck in one room (plus garden and the odd pushchair outing). I have to make sure we go out loads on my days off to compensate.