Child care good or bad?

[PasstheStarmix]

Hello, just wondered if anybody has ever put they're babies in child care and now they found it? I've heard mixed reviews on the child care system and don't know what to do. I'm in a situation where we can either scrape by or go for the child care option and don't know what to do. Interested in hearing what your experiences are?

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if anybody has ever put they're babies in child care

No no one ever has 🙄

What do you mean by "the child care system"? There is no system. There are nannies, childminders, private day nurseries, pre-schools and probably other providers that I can't think of. Which one do you mean?

Do you need to use childcare to return to work?

Do you mean putting a child in the care system? Social services rather than paid for childcare?

Was meaning it as an unbrella term with all of the things you mentioned coming under I suppose

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Sorry I'm not up with the terminology as no experience with it which is why I made the thread

started rather

So paid for childcare. I honestly didn't think you could mean that when you asked if anyone had ever put their babies in childcare.

Is your baby very young, is that your concern?

Ok, so it would be helpful to know why you need childcare - is it to return to work? If so, is it regular office hours, or shift work etc?

What are the mixed reviews that you've heard, and what type of childcare did they refer to?

Thank, no concerns and I haven't heard any experiences which is why I'm asking. just wanted to hear if any ladies have babies that are in child care and how they find it to help me make my decision.Thanks.

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Oh and I'm currently on maternity so still plenty time, I'm just weighing up all options thanks

I went to see 8 nurseries and they were all different, one made me cry, a few were fab. I didn't even consider childminders or nannies. I think you might need to narrow it down from 'child care' because there is a huge range.

I was just thinking about a private day nursery where the kids will all be a fixed age bracket...

You don't necessarily have plenty of time. Excellent nurseries usually have long waiting lists, I would find out now from ones you're interested in how long their waiting lists are.

We chose an excellent private nursery for our children, it had outstanding Ofsted reviews, but more importantly I loved the feel of the place when I went for visits. I liked how the staff interacted with the children and the activities they were doing. I liked the indoor space and the outdoor space was large and very well organised.

My DC go to a childminder. We're very happy with the care and cost is reasonable. We looked at nurseries originally and had selected one before we ended up having to move and went through the process again. No nurseries near the train station I'd be using to travel to work which is why we looked at CM instead.

Things like cost, open times, location etc will all come into your decision so you'll likely need to understand what you need first and go from there. Your local gov website will have lists of all registered childcare providers. Childcare.co.uk is also useful.

Thanks that's that's great. Think I better get visiting some nurseries. I'm not going back to my full time job after maternity because they couldn't reduce my hours and travelling to time consuming for my situation to work. It'll be in the hopes of me obtaining part time employment closer to home next year. I came be SAHM until get things worked out I suppose.

Hi OP, we went with a nursery as they are open all year (no getting stuck if someone is off sick or away), with the exception of bank holidays.
We found one that has a lovely atmosphere, wonderful attentive staff, great spaces to play, eat and sleep and a great menu selection.
Our baby started at 8 months old and loves it, she loves the staff, always reaches out to go to them at drop off and we frequently pick her up and see her going for cuddles/sat on their laps.
We get a daily handover of her day, they ask how she is every morning and we frequently get photo/video/EYFS development updates via their Tapestry app.
For us nursery was the best choice as the opening times and always open suited our working pattern

Sorry about typos, fidgety baby on my lap...

can & too that should say

ineedwine99 That nursery sounds absolutely lovely and I love the idea of the updates. I think the babies are probably fine and it's us parents that it affects more! I guess once they're happy and settled in it'll feel alot better.