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January 2011 Moms
Has anyone started looking for child care?
I'm making a list of day care centers and home centers in my area so that DH and I can start visiting/interviewing. I got all teary-eyed when I was talking to my DH about the list. I can only imagine how tough it's going to be for me to leave my baby and go back to work. SAH is not an option for me for financial reasons, but also because I enjoy working outside the home.
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Re: Has anyone started looking for child care?
We are going to look around but I already have my name on the one through work since it's decently priced and I'm working there part time and know what the care is about, plus all the spots are already filled for January/February. I will be going probably alone to see other places. I've worked in 6 different facilities throughout my college years and such for extra money and I know what to look for, for my own preferneces.
I will share that I know I'll be a basket case, I cried like a baby when I dropped off my puppy at the vet and also when we boarded them when we went camping (oh yeah and we came back a day early because we missed them too much) I'm going to have to have them pry my child away from me lol
Oh, can you give me some advice on what to look for? Thanks!
The best time to go is just before or during a meal time to visit. Yes it's not a #1 prority at the moment because you're only dealing with an infant but it can give you a good idea about how the food handling/hand washing policy is, plus the older babies will most likely be eating around then and you can see if they practice what they preach. (example: one center I worked in used to put cheerios/goldfish on a chair for older kids to snack on in the afternoon, this being the same chair their dirty butts were in all day long...and it grossed me out soooooooooo badly....they saw nothing wrong with it but it was a big no no for me)
Take a good look and talk with the care givers. Some people say the older the better that you don't want a college kid, but I say BS! I was running an infant classroom at 21 and my kids weren't any different from the room next to me who had an older woman. Ask for experience and education. Watch them change a diaper/clean a high chair. Things like that to make sure they are cleaning up after themselves/using gloves, etc.
(I'm totally spoiled from working at a Bright Horizons center $$$$ they have shoeless infant rooms and I love that idea of not having your kid crawl in dirt and crap all day long but I can't afford the 1400.00 a month the center near me charges)
Listen to not only how they talk to your child but other classrooms as well, it'll give you a good tone for the overall center.
Absolutely check to make sure all staf have CPR certs and that it's not one person per classroom. I know of a child who died of SIDS at a daycare because the care provider in that room was out to lunch thus no one started CPR!!
Watch the interactions between children and how the caregivers interact with them and how they observe the children.
Find out about the schedule and cirriculum. Most centers even have infant cirriculums. Not just sit on the floor and drool time...lol
Oh and NAYEC accrediation doesn't always mean it's the best. Look around and go with your gut and make multiple visits different times of the day before choosing. Oh yeah and see if they have an open door policy once your child is enrolled.
That's all I can think of at the moment but these are the things I look out for.... As my hubbs keeps telling me no place will ever be perfect, we have to find the one that has the things that bug me the least. lol
Thanks so much for these suggestions. I will definitely take them into consideration. There are 2 Bright Horizons centers on my list and I hope I like them.
Whoa! $1400! Our bright horizons charges $900/mo for 10hr days.
It sounds like a lot of you are looking already, which is great, and I just wanted to say it is SO important to do this now! I was very lax about it during my pregnancy with DD and it all worked out because we send her to an in-home daycare run by a relative, but I was very naive about how everything worked.
As it is, I will not have full time daycare for this baby until the end of June and depending on when I deliver, I will be going back to work sometime in April. My mom is coming for 2 weeks when I go back to work, my DCP can take both kids 2 days and DD has a spot 4 days a week, I am home on Mondays, and DH will have to take 1 day off, so we will have to figure out day care for 1 day a week for the baby for about 8 weeks. Once the school year is over, several of the toddlers at the dc have moms who are teachers so that opens up a summer spot for the baby and two of the kids will be going to Kindergarden in the fall, so I am set. Just stressed about those 2 months!!
We put our name on the list at DD's daycare for #2 at 12 weeks and we were lucky to get their last opening for April. So definitely look and get yoru name on. At the two different places DD has been at, families already established get priority...so good for me now but when we were trying to get DD started, she got bumped out of the #1 spot because a family already established came forward and decided they wanted an infant spot.
As far as what to look for:
What is the sick policy and how soon are you expected to pick up your child if they get sick there?
How often do they sanitize/wash the toys...they're always in babies mouths..how do they control for some of the passing around of toys?
Do the infants each have their own beds and cribs/beds aren't shared?
How is breast milk and formula handled. At the centers we've been, breastmilk is thrown out after the feeding and they wouldn't keep it for the 4 hours it's actually good for...so you get to be really good at not sending extra so it doesn't get wasted! They also warmed up the bottles with warmers and warmed up BM bottles with a different warmer than formula.
once baby starts on solids, are you bringing the solids in or do they provide? Can they be homemade or have to be jarred?
What sort of activities do they do with the babies? I'd stay far away from a center with swings for fear they'd be in it all the time. In DD's infant room, they only had bouncy seats but everything else was on the floor--lots of toys, a pull up balance bar, foam mats, etc. They even had a curriculum for the infant room, so she was exposed to sign language, art projects (feet prints, hand painting, etc) from 4 months on.
How does the daily schedule run?
Do they get to go outside?
We are at a goddard school which is on par with Bright Horizons and also Primrose School is another chain that is up there with those two. All three of those are Franchise Owned, so while the curriculum may be the same, the way the school is run and the feel of it may be different depending on location. So if there are two close by of the same chain, I'd look at both of them.
We are penciled in at one daycare, and we are just debating which location of that franchise. DH and I visited before he left for his training, and we loved it! We know people who both work there and have their children there- and we were thrilled with the interactions of the staff and kids. They go above and beyond the state requirements on every thing (smaller kid to teach ratios, every staff member is CPR cert, ect). They also have shoeless rooms for ALL classrooms. We got to go in and sit with the infant class for a bit and observe the activities, and the director gave us the tour. In each room, the kids knew her and ran to her for hugs- it was the kind of loving reaction that you can't fake for potential new families.
They also are willing to work with our schedule issues, and let me come spend an hour with the baby on days that I have work and school and will miss seeing the baby before bedtime. They also work with a lot of military families and are prepared to deal with a child who just had a parent leave for active duty.
I'm near Boston, our BH centers charge around $2200 for 5-day infant spots... I cringe even writing it down.