Hard to find non-religious daycare!

ibis · October 2009

I'm sure we're in a small minority, but DH & I don't want our child to receive any kind of religious instruction. It seems like about 90% of childcare facilities and providers in town are Christian. Fine for most people but not us.

Is anyone else looking for non-religious care?

Rachel2315 · October 2009

I worked in a Catholic daycare during college. ?I honestly did not feel like we taught them anything religious ever. ?We didn't even have prayers before meals or anything like that. ?I would ask how much religious instruction they give. ?

MAprincess · October 2009

Where are you located? Do you not have kindercare or a Malvern school near you? Our DS is in DC and it is not religious based. In fact, I only know of a few at churches around here (in PA).

Autumn_bride2b · October 2009

Really? Do you live in a small town? Because secular day care centers are on every corner here.

realisticdreams · October 2009

Dh's father is actually going to watch LO but we would never put her in any type of religious daycare. That's our preference. Luckily his parents have the same views as we do pretty much..so that shouldn't be a problem.

Sorry you're having such a hard time, you have have to find a babysitter instead of a daycare. If they watch X number of kids they usually have licenses, etc. as well.

ilovemyprince · October 2009

I'm confused..How are they going to teach a infant in daycare about religion or anything for that matter?

Stephanie586 · October 2009

We found it to be 50/50 secular to christian. We stuck to a chain. The Goddard School. Its more focused on education. Can you look for a chain like Kindercare, La Petit, etc. ?

JLG95 · October 2009

I've come across a few licensed home day care providers that don't provide religious instruction, etc. They were cheaper too.

ibis · October 2009

We live in a city in the Midwest.

We do have Kindercare, I've contacted them and waiting to hear back. It's not impossible to find non-religious care, just surprisingly challenging.

I would love to find a place where we could have LO go for years and not just until he's able to learn about Jesus. I don't think it's that weird to want to find a childcare provider who has similar views as we do.

tak2002 · October 2009

I would never send our child to a religious day care. You're talking to someone who refused to have the words god, jesus and lord in our wedding ceremony! We were raised differently and have different beliefs.

Stephanie586 · October 2009

ilovemyprince:
I'm confused..How are they going to teach a infant in daycare about religion or anything for that matter?

Kids generally stay in the same daycare (unless there is a problem) until they are old enough to go to school.

Shekinah Robinson · October 2009

All I can say is I wish I had that problem here. There didn't seem to be enough Christian child care options in the area for me to choose from. There is a Kindercare up the street, but when I took the tour, I was not impressed and they offer the most expensive child care in the area. I ended up using a home daycare for my daughter and I really love it. She has been there since she was 1 y/o.

rissainthesky* · October 2009

Havent had this problem- most of the daycares here are not religiously based.

In fact, I want to send our LO to the Jewish Community Center (more like a YMCA than a religious daycare), but they wont take infants.

greycoral · October 2009

I understand where you are coming from. We live in a town of about 50,000, and there are 7 daycare centers in the whole town. 4 of them are religion based, 1 doesn't take any infants under 1 year, 1 has a 2+ year wait list, and the other one I've been waiting for 5 months already, and has had zero openings. It's incredibly frustrating. Daycare here is scarce, especially for infants (under 24 months), and once I find a place, he's staying there for a while. I don't want any kind of religious instruction at all.

There are also no big chains like you mentioned...they are all independent day care centers.

wheelenl · October 2009

That's weird. Religious-based daycare is definitely the minority where I am.

What about in-home care? Is it any religion or just Judeo/Christian? Is there maybe one based on another religion?

Also, depending on your reasons, you might want to just consider whether the daycare is "religious" or whether it just meets in a church/temple. Most "Christian" preschools where I am don't offer any religious curriculum so I would assume there are "religious" daycares that also don't do that.

Good luck.

superaunt · October 2009

I hadn't even thought of this - and religion has never even been mentioned at any of the places we've looked at, nor is it in their brochures. Interesting though. GL!

vegemom302 · October 2009

Go with a chain. We're against religious education of any kind also and ended up putting DS in a chain daycare. He only goes two days a week but we really like it so far. Good luck!

ibis · October 2009

We have an in-home provider as our top candidate right now. I feel like I am some kind of creepy stalker who's trying to win her affections, lol. She has told me twice already that I should call back when I'm a little further along and then I can come meet her... so I'm looking into other options while I wait.

This is more just me being goofy, but would you send your kid to a place called Children's Heaven? It sounds like a kiddie funeral home! Totally creeps me out.

nadiarl · October 2009

I won't be using daycare, but I feel your pain. When I see "now enrolling" signs that boast that it is "Christian" I roll my eyes. I think it is 90% marketing. The owners think that is a big selling point. As if the places that are secular would be teaching anything inappropriate.

vegemom302 · October 2009

Doodler:
Ugh...if I were looking for childcare I would be in the same boat around here. Back home in Vermont it wasn't a problem...but we ran into it when considering sending my daughter to a private school. In the whole Augusta area, there are tons of private schools...only ONE is not religious. When I asked someone I knew about the school she said "yes, but it isn't a Christian School"
Gag me.
So...I feel for you! I would suggest grabbing the phone book and just calling anything that you feel might NOT be....then go check the places out and ask them about it.

This is exactly how our area is with private schools! I'm hoping DH's job moves us by the time DS has to go to school. I have no idea what we will do here.

wheelenl · October 2009

I'm a Christian but I don't think I would ever send my child to a Christian school. I think I would only do it if our public schools (which are really good) went ape $%*^ or something.

For me, it's about being educated about the "rest of the world." Also, I think religious education should be left to parents, not school.

JaiKriBaby · October 2009

Our options are about 50/50 here thankfully. We are Catholic, but chose a non-religious daycare. Let me tell you, we definitely had some pretty bad experiences with some of the Christian daycares in the area trying to convince us that we are heathens for being Catholic ;-)

fellesferie · October 2009

I went through this with my first kiddo. It was really difficult to find something AND it was more expensive than church-based daycare systems.

We pay tons of money for this highly-rated preschool that has no church affiliations, and they still make my DS (4) pray and say the pledge of allegiance. DS also gets upset if one of us says "god" or something like that. It drives me bonkers, but he likes the school and I'm not going to pull him out at with less than a year until kindergarten.

If there are things you specifically don't want your child exposed to, I'd try to narrow that down and ask about it specifically. For example, I was okay with singing christian-based songs, but I didn't want DS to be forced to pray. I also didn't want him to be taught that taking god's name in vain is wrong. I think the other major thing for me is that I didn't want him to learn about heaven or hell (specifically hell).

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