Our baby isn't due until July but nearly everyone asks - "Have you found daycare yet?!" Of course this question comes right after, "How are you feeling?" (By the way, I'm fine. Thanks.)
It wasn't until talking with a few neighbors that I realized the urgency of finding a daycare - I guess they fill up fast. Which I can believe since nearly everyone who is of age to have a baby seems to be having a baby... anyone else notice this?! This light a fire under me to figure out what our daycare plan was going to be. Again, I've never been a parent so I had to lean on a few friends to help point me in the right direction.
First and foremost, this takes some serious coordinating with your partner in crime - for me, my husband. He works within minutes of where we live while I work 1 hour and 10 minutes away, 3 days a week (2 days at home). However, in the spring and fall, he spends long hours farming. Our first question was - where do we look for daycare - near where I work or near our home. We decided that near our home was the best option since I work from home 2 days/week and he is only minutes away and has the ability to be flexible. I'm thankful he is willing to take the lead on this aspect of parenting.
We also had to decide if we wanted our baby to be in a daycare center or an in-home daycare. We chose in-home daycare since our options are somewhat limited, living in rural Iowa.
Since we live in a small town, our friends and neighbors were more than helpful with suggestions of local daycare providers - everyone knows everyone around here so word of mouth is great for advertising and reference-checking.
Figuring out what questions to ask is where I needed help... thanks to a few good friends and a couple of websites I figured out which questions were most important for us. That's the key, decide what's important to you as a parent. As most of you know, everyone has an opinion.
Here are the questions I asked:
Do you have an opening? (If not, no need to go any further)
How long have you been doing daycare?
Are you registered?
How many kids are at your daycare?
What are the ages of the other kids?
Are there any other infants?
How you let the other kids interact with an infant?
What is your daily schedule with the kids?
Do you do any learning and development activities? (Important for when they are older)
Do you offer parents a daily report for their child?
What are your hours? Are you flexible? (Important since I work over an hour away and Adam is busy farming in the fall and spring.)
What is your holiday schedule?
What is your policy for sick days? For you? For our child?
How do you notify families of sick days?
What are your expectations of parents?
What is your pricing structure?
What's included in the price? (food, baby wipes, diapers, formula??)
How and when do you like to be paid?
While these questions were really important to us, the best advice we were given was to Trust Your Gut. We did and are pretty excited about the daycare provider we found.
What other advice would you recommend for finding daycare? Weigh in with your thoughts below in the comments!!
oh this is so tricky....I found (what I thought) the perfect lady for Easton. We visited once a week while on maternity leave and when he started I was unbelievably calm. It ended up being a complete disaster and she ended up being a terrible provider. Thankfully now we have someone great. I would highly suggest stopping in unannounced a few times at different time during the day. Yes, it might seem rude, but when they know you are coming to "meet and visit" (if they are anything like the first lady we chose) they can put on a show and make you seem like everything in hunky dorey and it's not.
ReplyDeleteHappy you found a great place!
That's a really good idea!!
DeleteI have a couple to add:
ReplyDeleteIn our area, our options are mostly home daycare. When I picked up the list of providers in the town we were looking, I didn't personally know any of them! So, my decision on deciding who to approach first was all based on first impression. I drove by the address. If the home didn't look reasonably neat and organized on the outside they immediately went to the bottom of my contact list! Reason being, if they cannot manage their home, how are they at managing a handful of children. Once I started making calls, I learned that a number of daycares were full or didn't take infants period. So, YES, ITS IMPORTANT TO HUNT EARLY. :) Luckily I started so early, I did a second round of calling all my top choices (even after I booked a 2nd choice option for safety's sake) and one had a spot open up. When we met with her, she had a written contract of her daycare policies. Again, I really liked seeing the organization and forethought written policies. Made me feel good. Some of the questions I asked in addition to your list: 'How does your meal plan work?' Some providers are on meal plans where they get some assistance, so knowing how they structure meals/snacks is nice to know. 'What's your philosophy on raising children and how do you manage discipline?' I wanted to know how closely her ideals matched mine. 'Do you take children outside the home and how do you manage their safety?' This question applies to activities even in their own yard. A daycare down the road from ours has often let children, even small toddlers, outside without an adult being outside with the kids. My daycare lady is always outside with the kids. She also takes them to the library, park and swimming pool in the summer. And I'm okay with this because I know how close she stays to all of them. Another question you did have on your list, but was really important to me was if she provided learning activities or structured activity of any kind, because I believe kids really benefit from structure. One last one....This may have been more important to me because my daughter had leukemia, but communicating the health status of other children was crucial for us and would be nice for any parent. I could always report back to the doctor what she may have been exposed to. It also brings up the conversation of how the daycare manages sickness in their home. Our daycare will even shut down daycare if too many kids get sick just to control the spread of illness or reinfection.
Such good ideas and things to think about!! Thanks for the thoughts!!
DeleteI agree that it is important to find daycare well in advance. It seems like you have a lot of good questions to ask the daycare provider. It seems really important to find a provider you can trust. http://www.resselschoolchildcare.ca/about.html
ReplyDelete