Center or Home Day Care?

RedSoxGirl10 · October 2013

I know this has probably been asked before, but I can't find it in the search so I'm sorry in advance

I am looking at day cares for my not-yet-born son. I am a kindergarten teacher with a degree in early childhood but I still find it SO hard to know what to look for (obviously 5 year olds are completely different than 6 month olds!). I have done a lot of online research and basically know what questions to ask at this point. However, I am really having a hard time figuring out if I want my child to be at a center or a home day care. I've visited one of both so far.

It seems that most of the home day cares in the area (or at least those I've looked into so far) have similar standards to centers. They provide a daily log, they have to sanitize toys, keep everything baby proof, be trained in infant CPR etc. They tend to have slightly lower ratios, but they also have kids of different ages together so that adds a different challenge. They are slightly cheaper, especially if I end up doing 3 days a week which I may do. The home day cares will also be more flexible with me as far as the summer months since I am a teacher. However, I don't want cost to be my only factor. I obviously want the best possible care for my baby

I would love to hear your thoughts on this and what you decided to do, if your child is in day care. I know it's going to depend a lot on the place so I plan to look at several and do some comparing.

Samiantha101 · October 2013

We chose a center. I just think there tends to be more accountability at a center versus in home. The center where my dd attends is 4 to 1 ratios, which I find to be perfect. She gets to interact with lots of kids her age. Also, they have lesson plans that are very age specific. Their room is filled with nice/new age specific toys, and the toddler aged kids have their own toddler playground. It's a really really great facility.

There's downsides to both. My dd has only been in daycare a month, and our whole house got sick within a week of her being enrolled. There are also more stringent rules than I imagine would be at a home center. For instance, we cannot buy treats for the class for birthdays or holidays.

There's also bonuses that I haven't mentioned. You probably won't have to find alternative care for when you're provider goes on vacation or gets sick. This is big for us. My husband is active duty military. He can't just call in, so I would have to take all the time off of work myself, if we're not given much notice.

I decided to leave money out of my decision making, but I live in a low cost of living area. Even the best and most expensive centers were do-able. My dd only will spend approximately 15 hours in daycare each week, but we pay for full time. I am happy with our situation.

shannm · October 2013

To me, accountability and having multiple caregivers who support each other are huge benefits to centers. Having said that, if you find an in home care giver that you love, go for it.

MNgirl326 · October 2013

We went with a center because we found in our search with centers in our area

-there is a more set curriculum

-there is more accountability

-there are multiple rooms so kids around the same age are in the room together

-and for me, as a teacher as well, I needed something that would be open every day except for major holidays. If a teacher at a center is sick, they have a sub. If a teacher in a home daycare is sick or wants a vacation or what not, that person closes the daycare. For us, I needed some place where I could depend on it being open. Also, I wanted to be able to take the summers off and with a center I had that flexibility where I could put down $100 deposit and that held his spot for the summer. In a home daycare, I didn't have that flexibility and would have had to send him to daycare during the summer.

Ultimately it depends on what you find in your area for in homes and centers. There are some great ones out there and some bad ones. But there are also some great in home daycares too, and there are some bad ones.

Tour a bunch, and go with the one that fits your needs the best. You will know which one is "the one" when you tour it.

gypsymystic · October 2013

The state has a lot more involvement in the centers in case of injuries or accidents, so there is more accountability. I work in a center, it is a small montessori with low ratios and they accommodate many teacher parents, you can disenroll for the summer to save the trouble of having to hold your spot. The teachers are also required to have continuing education and I generally tend to see their standards for teachers, and cleanliness/sanitization are higher because of the state involvement. I do also tend to see problems with mixed-age groups I personally think it heightens biting incidents and the like. Most centers will not combine age groups unless absolutely necessary or unless it's the end of the day and numbers have significantly dwindled, in some centers.

fancynewbeesly · October 2013

We chose an in home.

The women my daughter goes to---she absolutely LOVES. She is a retired kindergarten teacher and she tries to get them all "kindergarten ready." She does a daily log---supplies breakfast/snacks/lunch. (With my daughter's food allergies--she really works with us). They go outside a lot---and for long walks. She is very careful about ratios, all toys get sanitized at the end of the day. She stores them in different books and throughout the day has different toys out.

Right now my daughter goes there part time, there is a 6/7 month old, another 2 year old and part time kindergartener (our district is only half day kindie.) She does have 3 other elem. school kids that she picks up from the bus at the end of the day and puts them on in the morning. She calls them the breakfast club. (roughly a 1st, 3rd and 5th grader.) My daughter LOVES them as well.

SLGILL1978 · October 2013

I did both! When I returned to work after maternity leave there were not any in home daycare's that had room. I sent her to a center. She was 9 weeks old. I did like it because they went of the babies schedules. They had their own curriculum just like the big kids did. But the cost is what killed me. It was so expensive. I know my baby got lots of one on one time but there was one teacher and then depending on babies she 2-3 aides. I also work for the school district and I took my daughter out for the summer. I would have loved to kept in part time but still cost was an issue. I would have had to pay a deposit or pay the weekly part time rate just to keep her spot if she wasn't attending for the summer. While she was attending the center I got a call back from one of the in home daycare's that I was looking at because she had an opening.

I decided to switch because of the cost (I pay $110 less now) and my babysitter takes fewer kids. She only has 6 kids (even though she is licensed for more). She doesn't have any help. She texts me pictures of my baby throughout the day and if I miss a milestone she has a picture ready. She makes all their food even the babies. She has three babies my daughter (8 months), a 10 month old and a 8 week old. Then she also has a 2 yr old and a 3 year old. I also work in the school district and I don't have to pay a deposit in the summer just to keep my spot. She has two other teacher kids as well and eventually she will only take teachers kids. The dates that I am off coincide very well with her dates that she requests off. I only pay for days that my daughter attends. So if we don't go one day because I am off then I don't pay. If my babysitter is sick and says she can't take kids, I don't have to pay for that day, etc.

When I was growing up I went to an in home daycare and in the summer time my mom hired high schoolers or someone from our church to watch my brother and I so we could stay at home. I wanted something like that for my little girl as well.

aylafsu88 · October 2013

We chose a center for a variety of reasons. The first one was schedule and consistency. H has a busy job and does not have a lot of time off. A center with 5 days a week care was a huge factor for us. We like not having to worry about a home care provider being sick and unable to care for LO that day. The center has a ton of activities that they do with the kids. They do art, go to the small playground, have music time, and play in the dance room. The activities and stimulation were important to us. The final factor was that we did not know anyone who was a home care provider. I would not feel comfortable with someone I did not know or a friend did not know. Since we did not know anyone or get any recommendations we went with a center.

cecilyandgautam · October 2013

I use a licensed in-home and what I love about the set up is all the personalize attention and love my daughter gets. Through my work, I just came across a study about the benefits of family-based care - a family environment is conducive to a certain kind of attention and affection being showered upon the child. It's not that a center-based employee can't also show that to her charges, but there is a certain closeness my provider feels towards my daughter that I think really stems from DD being in her home, interacting with her teenage children, eating out of her kitchen, and learning her language that is just more cozy than it would be if all our interactions were at her work place. Before official preschool begins, cognitive development really seems to be a function of love & stimulation rather than formalized lesson plans and curriculum, so for the first few years, I love the in-home model.

With a licensed in-home, you want to really ensure that the provider is fully licensed - read her license paperwork on the wall, call the licensing authority to confirm she's still licensed and up to date on all requirements, etc. I'd also really encourage you to get in writing the days she's closed - the Friday after Thanksgiving, religious holy days for her, Christmas week, etc. All the pseudo holidays that are essentially work days that most people take off - find out if your provider is off on those days because if you have to work those days, it's not easy to find back up care. Also ask about safety precautions because it is different at an in-home - like if she has family visiting, what's the set up during the day when the kids are there, etc.

Edit/addition: Like others, I also really appreciate that my DCP is able to be flexible - we did baby-led weaning, cloth diapers & wipes, glass bottles, potty trained well before 2, all things that can't be accommodated in many centers in my area. She even stored some of my backup BM in her freezer! Now that the kids eat proper meals - DCP takes our input regarding meals. I have a lot more say than I would at a center. As she gets older, there are fewer issues like this, but it was nice not having to compromise on some of the most basic aspects of infant care.

FemShep · October 2013

We chose a center for a number of reasons. First, I love not having to worry about someone's sick days, vacation days, oversight, benefits, taxes, etc. We know staff will always be available to care for our LO. If you use a FSA for childcare, you can only get the benefits if your provider reports the income and pays taxes, which not all in-home centers do. Also, I went to an in-home center growing up, and had a bad experience. The kids didn't get a ton of hands-on care from adults, especially from age 4 or so; we generally amused ourselves and the older kids watched the younger ones. If the sitter had to run an errand, so did all the kids. If she was sick or having a bad day, we all felt it. I loved the idea of a more accountable, structured routine found at a center. If you don't have a strong preference either way, tour both places. You'll find great centers and terrible ones, and great in-homes and terrible ones, and there's no right or wrong decision so long as you choose a place that is legal, licensed, and makes you and your LO happy and comfortable.

RibbitGrl930 · October 2013

I was more comfortable with a center for the accountability and dependability. Our sitter when I went back to work is a dear friend and she loves our DS and took such good care of him, but she was out a couple of times due to migraines which had me or DH needing to take time off work to stay home. Considering I didn't have a lot of PTO available, and there are sometimes periods of weeks at a time in my husband's job in which he can't take off, it made for a stressful time. With a center, we knew that, even if the main teacher was sick, there would be at least be a substitute (and in the infants room at our DC, there are actually two primary teachers; one opens and one closes, and they have decent overlap in the middle of the day). No getting ready for work and worrying about getting the call or text message that we'd have no childcare.

sdlaura · October 2013

We have had a great experience with our licensed in-home. We haven't dealt with some of the downsides some others have mentioned. We have been there a year, since DD was 3 months old, and our provider has never taken an unscheduled day off or sick day (she does get two weeks of vacation which she schedules far in advance, so we have family visit during that time to help us or plan our vacation at the same time). She also doesn't leave the house with the kids other than to go for a walk or to the pool, so no driving or errand-running. Pluses have been that our daughter has not gotten sick at all (I have only had to keep her home one day in the past year), while most of my friends' kids in centers have gotten sick frequently at the start. Also I just like the family like environment, and that DD will be 21 months when our second baby goes, and they will be together like they would be at home with me. But we don't save any money by doing an in-home - she actually costs more than the centers around here.

mb314 · October 2013

We chose an in-home daycare, although it is large and almost run like a facility. Our DCP has about 15 children between the ages of 6 months and 4 years, and she has three other employees. One advantage I find with the in-home daycare is that there is less pressure for DS to meet certain criteria/milestones at certain points. A lot of daycare facilities say that kids have to be off of bottles by age X, or be walking before they move to a different room, or start solids by X age. With the in-home daycare, changes are more natural and gradual, like they would be in your own home.

Because our DCP has several workers, we don't have to worry about unexpected closures if the main woman is sick. She does close two weeks out of the year, and I've had to find alternative care those weeks. But I know about the closures months in advance and can plan for it.

My DCP isn't licensed and I'm okay with that because I like the environment she has in her home. I like that DS mingles with kids that are older and younger than him. He really likes older kids and thrives around them.

In the end, I think it depends on the facilities and in-home providers that are available to you. We toured a lot of facilities, and liked some, hated others. There are great and bad in-home daycares too. In the end, the in-home daycare we found we felt was best for DS and for us, with the added bonus that it is cheaper. I recommend touring as many places as you can, as early as you can.

AmberDerek · October 2013

We use a center for several reasons. My DH travels a lot for work and I cannot take sick time for myself, my DS and for when the daycare provider is sick. Also I like that DS interacts with kids that are his own age. His daycare has a licensed teacher in every room and they have structured activities. His daycare offers date night every other month for free which is amazing!

Carnation77 · October 2013

I think you just have to look at the options and go with your gut. I think you subconsciously pick up on a lot more than you realize. We interviewed nannies, looked at centers, and finally settled on a home daycare because we couldn't find a nanny we felt comfortable with and the centers around us had bad records with the state for incidents of leaving infants unattended. The home daycare we chose is minutes from work so I can BF twice during the day; the provider is college educated; its regulated; and there are only three children there right now. I also feel like I'll have a better sense of what's going on there because I'll be there more often during the day. I definitely want LO in a center when he's older, but as an infant it just seems more natural to me for him to be in a home environment.

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