In home daycare

stephcarter · January 2014

Interviewing someone who runs an in home daycare center today. It's about 10 minutes from the new house, 20 from my house now, and about 20 from the train station. She's been running it for 8 years, had great reviews, kids of her own, taught preschool for 3 years before doing this, and has an edu degree.

Anyone here know if there are any advantages/disadvantages to using an in home daycare vs a daycare center? Would you use an inhome?

B's never been to daycare before. I'm only in the office 4-5 days every 2 weeks and my sister used to watch her. But she starts student teaching this semester so that's out

StefanieM522 · January 2014

She sounds really good with all the training she has. I use a daycare center for Wesley so i don't have any experience with a at home daycare but i did interview a few at home places before making my decision. I choose my daycare center because i liked the way they were set up. I like that there are only ever up to 8 kids at a time in the toddler room and that all the kids are around Wesley's age with two teachers watching them with extras if needed. I also liked that in case Wesley's teacher was sick they had a backup so i wasn't looking for last minute babysitter so i could go to work. My friend uses a at home daycare for her kids and loves it, but she does always complain when her daycare lady is sick and she has to find something else. But it sounds like you have some flexibility with working at home or in the office so that might not be an issue for you.

stephcarter · January 2014

Thanks, these are all great questions!!

She is licensed and I ran the background check. All clear

Luckily I do have a lot of flexibility with work so I could leave, take off, or work from home if I needed to.

Sillygirl85 · January 2014

My big thing when I looked at in in home daycare was what happens in an emergency? If a child has to go to the ER who would go with them? And who would stay with the other children?

stephcarter · January 2014

Writing all these down!

You guys are so much better than google

StefanieM522 · January 2014

Also ask about if she takes vacation time. I meet with one lady who had all holidays off and took two weeks of vacation time off and required full payment even during her vacation time.

stephcarter · January 2014

Met with her and I really like her.

She has 3 kids of her own, 2 go to school during the day and 1 is almost 2 but my giant kid is bigger than her hahahha. She's got 2 babies that come during the day (5 and 8 months) and a 4 year old that she takes to preschool 2 days a week after the others leave for school. She would be taking B and the others with her to drop the 4 year old off but has a van that seats 8 so that's not a big deal. And it would only be Tuesdays, B will be home with me Thursdays.

In the event of an emergency she would contact one of us and she'd be able to transport the kids with her if needed. Her husband is home when the bigger ones are home from school.

She only charges for the days when B is there. If B is sick, on vaca, or I'm off she doesn't charge. If someone takes a half day, she only charges a half day. She's also all sorts of certified.

She would help with potty training as much as she can. She's working with her almost 2 year old now.

She's anti tv.

We supply the food. She mentioned that if the kid is sick, she wants us to keep her home. Makes sense. If she's sick, I want her home.

Still debating. I've got 3 weeks to decide. Her house is super kid friendly.

stephcarter · January 2014

Fever, vomiting, diarrhea. For me though, if she coughs funny I'll even keep her home. My job is flexible enough that I can. I know B can be clingy when she doesn't feel good. I'll keep that clinginess for myself hahahha

stephcarter · January 2014

Oh and her kids were all super sweet, polite, and all talked so clearly. That was a huge deal for me too. And her 22 month old girl was totally in love with Bailey. They were chasing each other around and playing together. That's the first time she's ever been around and played with someone her size. She kept pointing at her "baby!" Hahaha

JoNi2010 · January 2014

I wish I found a good in-home - lots of people who use in-home really like it. But I have been satisfied with my daycare center. The only thing I would make sure is that the ratio for under 2years-old is still 3:1.

Sillygirl85 · January 2014

Did you get to meet the husband? I would want to meet everyone who is going to be around my child.

stephcarter · January 2014

I did get to meet the husband. He was really nice. He's Air Force, which is how they ended up in Jersey. They moved up here from Florida.

It would be a 4:1 ratio for under 2, but the one will be a month away from 2 when B would start going there.

stephcarter · January 2014

@LauraT25 I did ask about that. She asked that we provide the car seat, which I probably would have done anyway. DH and I both have car seats in our cars and she's rarely in DHs car (we take mine everywhere) so giving her his when she's there wouldn't be a problem. I'll probably look into just buying one for her though, just for the convenience for both of us of not having to move it all the time.

Since it's only Tuesdays that she will be transporting and it's only to the school which is only a few miles away, it wasn't a deal breaker. If it was further and more often, I might have stressed about it more.

Ziegeficker · January 2014

We switched out of an in-home because she took all federal holidays off (paid) plus two paid weeks vacation "at her discretion." This didn't include sick days for her. With no family in town to help out during those days (which could come at a moments notice), we couldn't afford the instability. I, by the way, don't get a lot of federal holidays (like Presidents' Day, MLK Day, Veterans Day) off, so all those absences were a huge problem for us.

She also pressured us to pick Henry up at 3pm, even though she previously agreed to watch him until after 5 (when both DH and I get off work). One great benefit of a center is that there is less pressure to pick him up by a certain time because its not a single person handling all the care.

Even though centers are more expensive in general, when we considered all our lost vacation time and drop-in rates for days we would have to leave Henry at a center when the in-home daycare was closed, the costs were a wash.

stephcarter · January 2014

If Bailey isnt there, she doesnt charge for the day. This includes if B is sick, she is sick, holidays, days I have off (I'm off 1 day every pay period). If I take a half day and pick her up early, I only get charged for a half day. No daycare centers offer that around here so its one of the major advantages of using her. She only gets paid when she's watching B.

@Ziegeficker, that sounds rough! If that was the case with her, I wouldnt even consider it. It would be much cheaper to go through a daycare center if that was the case for us. She's open from 7am-6pm and she mentioned that she has one kid who comes at 6:45 (because the mom wouldnt make it to work any other way) and one that usually is there until 6:20. She's extremely flexible. Dropping off before 7 would be out of the question for me, and one of us is always home before 5:30.

stephcarter · January 2014

@momtobe2912, there's about 10 daycare centers within a mile of my current house lol. We have a HUGE business park not too far from me though. 35 miles is way too far. I don't know how you moms who aren't within 10 mins of a supermarket do it. I salute you!

Ziegeficker · January 2014

stephcarter said:

If Bailey isnt there, she doesnt charge for the day. This includes if B is sick, she is sick, holidays, days I have off (I'm off 1 day every pay period). If I take a half day and pick her up early, I only get charged for a half day. No daycare centers offer that around here so its one of the major advantages of using her. She only gets paid when she's watching B.

@Ziegeficker, that sounds rough! If that was the case with her, I wouldnt even consider it. It would be much cheaper to go through a daycare center if that was the case for us. She's open from 7am-6pm and she mentioned that she has one kid who comes at 6:45 (because the mom wouldnt make it to work any other way) and one that usually is there until 6:20. She's extremely flexible. Dropping off before 7 would be out of the question for me, and one of us is always home before 5:30.

I didn't mean to sound anti in-home daycare -- It's just that my experience with one wasn't that great. And it really depends on your situation, because if you have enough people who can pitch in on days when your provider is sick/out of town/on holiday, and if you get alone with and trust the provider, it can be a great arrangement.

Our in-home lady originally said she was perfectly fine with our 8:30 to 5:30 schedule, and then about a month in said that if we wanted to keep to that schedule the rate would be higher. Then, after that she said she couldn't do it because her husband wanted her done with daycare by 5. My point is that, in dealing with one person (versus a center of many), any changes or miscommunications can mean a bigger problem for you. Still, there are a lot of great benefits to in-home daycare, so take my experience with a grain of salt. My issues stemmed from that particular woman and not in-home daycares in general.

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