Nursery vs childminder

[Milknosugar123]

Hi everyone,
My LO will be 1 in January, and we are trying to decide whether to send her to nursery or to a child minder. I am keen for her to go to nursery as I like the idea of her being with lots of other children and having more than one adult being her main carer, but DH thinks we find a CM and put her in nursery at 3. What are others experiences? Any recommendations on finding good child-minders if that’s the route you’ve taken? I worry that with a childminder we will also be more at risk with things like having to take time off for sickness etc.

Personally I don't think you can compare generic nurseries with generic childminders as all settings are so different. I think you need to explore the possible settings in your area and compare the specifics for each setting eg trips, meals, opening times dependent on what is important to you. No good deciding that the idea of a nursery suits you if all nurseries close by open 9-3 termtime only for instance.

Speak to both nursery and childminders in your area, then find the best childcare for your individual child.

I currently just use a childminder PT but later this year my DD, just before she is 3, she will also go to a nursery. She will then be in childcare full-time.

My CM has had and currently has a few children who do this.

(Oh in regards to sickness - my colleagues who use nurseries bubbles broke a few times in the last 16 months, there as my DD has only been off once.)

I was very in favour of childminders but had a bad experience with a childminder doing really horrible things (shouting and making nasty comments about another child in the setting in public when they thought no one was looking).

I still think CMs can be really amazing but it’s hit and miss and although ofsted will inspect every few years, they aren’t part of a team who will pick up when there are problems.

So with my second we went for a nursery. We had an issue where his key worker didn’t seem very warm and he didn’t settle. We asked to swap to a different group and key worker and they immediately clicked and she said he was good as gold. So I do think problems happen in nursery too but you can get an alternative person.

Both mine have gone to a nursery from being 8 months, but that's because I viewed both locally and the particular nursery was the one for me. The baby room has had a max of 3 kids in at any one time, the full time room leader has worked there 12 years so they built a relationship with her. It's personal preference.
My sons were full time attending and so i needed somewhere reliable, where they could mix with other babies but also build a bond with the main carer.

View a handful of local nurseries and meet childcare providers. Find a good local childcare provider or nursery in the area to use for LO. Make sure to learn as much as possible first. This is a list of things to make inquiries on-
Contact details
Meals
Learning
Safety policies
And so

Take a look at the website too. It will always have useful information on there worth looking at in addition.