In Home Day Care vs Day Care Center

For those experience parents, we hoping to get information and input on who they use for either in-home day care (such as a live in nanny), residental day care (out of someone's home) and day care centers for an infant. (We are not trying to open pandora's box on opinions of why people select day-care...we just need info) Also, if members could share which local providers they use, that would be great. We are trying to get the day care lined up before our baby arrives. Thank you in advance for your input.

 

Speaking as a mom that had to go back to work:

I found an at home daycare, highly recommended, licensed by state provider that took my child at 3 mos and had her until 2 years of age. She was wonderful with my child. She looked after 3 other little kids. She only watches kids until age 2 and we also moved to Ashburn at that time. We transferred our child to Open Arms at age 2.5

I have been blessed with the wonderful daycare provider that provided services out of her home. I was equally blessed to place my child in the preschool she is now in. Very high retention rate, all teachers know the kids by names, etc...

It was tough going back to work and not be able to stay home the first year. I am sure my child's illnesses (Oh joy Rotavirus at 6 mos old) was alot higher then those that stayed at home. I did not use a nanny. We could have but I was just so impressed with the at home provider that we found. I DID NOT like any of the daycare centers I had seen in my area when I was looking for my infant. I would leave in tears when I looked. However I have seen some good places in Ashburn since moving here. Hope that helps.

 

We have two children. Our daughter is in an at home day care and has been since 10 weeks old. She is 9 months and it is the perfect setting for her. She is there with two other children the same age as her as well as the day care provider's older children. We love our at home day care provider.

Our son went from the same at home day care to school (day care center)when he was 2 and 3 months. He attends Open Arms. We love the Open Arms. He needed to be around kids his age and needed a lot of activities to keep him busy. It was the right time to move him to the day care center.

When our daughter is between 2 - 3 we are hoping to enroll her in Open Arms too.

We love both situations. Having a nanny was not an option for us financially.

When they are an infant it seems that being in a small home environment is best for the one-on-one attention and the school environment helps in regard to structure when they are older.

Only my opinion... hope that helps.

 

Thank you for the great input. We are leaning towards a home day care enviorment. Other than a state or county lisence, could either of you please shed a little more light onto requirements that you looked for in selecting a provider? Also, it seems that some of the home day care providers are word of mouth...how did you go about finding your providers? Thank you again!

 

Good luck with your search. It is tough to choose child care options. Our little girl is 19 months old. She has been going to BeanTree Learning (near Home Depot) since she was 3 months old. It has been a great experience for us. We also weighed the nanny option but decided to try this first, and it has worked out really well.

 

I personally believe in-home daycare is the best option -- around here at least, especially if the provider has children of her/his own in the home. I believe they are more personable and accountable...

 

I don't have any experience, because I am still expecting, but we plan to put our baby in a center (Kindercare in Ashburn Village. I feel more comfortable with that situation, because I think it may be more reliable than a single in-home provider (what happens if the caretaker gets sick?), and the accountability factor seems greater, with more adults, including a center director, to look out for problems.

That said, if I knew I could find a trustworthy in-home provider, I would have gone that route. And there are centers around here where I would NOT put my baby.

Good Luck!

 

As you have gathered, there are tradeoffs. We had a child who was difficult as an infant, and I was concerned that an individual provider might get frustrated and have trouble with patience. When kids can talk, it's easier to make sure there are no issues, but when kids are infants there isn't as much of a check.

Yes, an individual provider can get sick, but so can your kids. In a center, your child has to be fever-free for 24 hours before they can return. For infants with frequent ear infections or fevers from teething, that can add up.

We went with a care provider in our home for a year after our 9-month old got thrown out of daycare. He had been there for 6 months, and the story that we got was that "he wanted to be held too much." I didn't argue; I got him out of there as fast as I could. We went back to the center route at 18 months and have been extremely happy. Open Arms and Winwood have both had consistently good reputations. The director sets the tone of each center. We've been happy at Open Arms for 6.5 years.

It's gut wrenching as a parent to make these decisions, but each family situation is different. There isn't a best option between a center, in-home provider, or nanny. You just have to weigh your most important needs every so often to make sure the current situation is the best one, because it will change over time.

 

I just want to add I found that my child was less sick at the in home provider than at a larger center. Even though she is at Open Arms, and they have to be fever free for 24hrs. by the time a child shows symptoms it is usually too late. Also you deal with less parents at an "in home" situation. There are parents that send their kids in - Tyenol them up knowing they are sick, but send them in anyways. At home care, the person does not want to get sick, because it directly effects their income, I think they tend to practice a harder line on sick kids.

So for those first two years of life, I thought smaller scale less exposed to germs vs. when she is now older and has a high immunity.

I lived in Fairfax at the time, so I used their licensing list and found my person there. But I also found a really good recommendation of her on my then HOA forum.

 

Just a quick thought- a lot of parents are afraid of their kids getting sick at day care centers or even at in-home daycare. I'm a firm believer that an infant (after 6-8 wks) or toddler needs to get sick. That is how they build immunities and go through a lot of the more common viruses. By the time they get to school, they have had a lot of the common viruses and are absent from school a lot less. Yes, it is a pain in the *** to have them sick a lot, but it is better than waiting for them to get to school to be sick and missing a lot of school.

My 2 cents. BTW, my youngest went 2 years at in home setting and then we transferred to Mulberry at RailStop for almost 3 years until hubby got laid off. Loved both arrangements.

 

Which ever you choose - In home or Day Care Center, always evaluate and Re-evaluate the care your child is receiving. The great care your child receives one day may change because of change in personnel, care provider's personal problems, etc.

Mike

 

Thanks for all the info. Other have also told me to go with my instinct, also Open Arms has been mentioned a few times...is there a minimum age requirement?

 

I believe Open Arms takes children as young as six weeks old. There is usually a wait list for the infant program so you probably want to get added to that list before your baby arrives. They have a website:

http://www.openarms-ccdc.org/

Two of my children have attended preschool there; my son was enrolled in their opening year. I have nothing but good things to say of them.

 

Open Arms take infants at 6 weeks. In regard to the waiting list... from our experience our son was on the waiting list from when he turned one (1) until a space opened up at 2 yrs. 3 months.

I cannot say enough about how wonderful the school is. The staff has very long tenure too.

I will tell you that the in-home care that our son went to and our daughter is at now is NOT state licensed. Same with our very first in-home day care provider for our son. We actually interviewed several licensed in-home day care and one place I walked out of and said my child will NEVER go there.

As many have said... it is a very hard decision to make... but know that once you start with a particular provider you always have the option to drop by whenever you want and you can always terminate the contract and go somewhere else.

 

Hi - we have a live-in au pair. It's not for everyone, but there are definitely some advantages to having flexible, live-in care, and the cost is very similar to daycare. Our au pair is great with our baby and we're very comfortable with our childcare decision. Please e-mail me if you'd like more details.

 

Both of my children (3 1/2 and 14 months) are enrolled in BeanTree and I couldn't be happier with the level of care they receive. When my oldest was born, I put him in an in-home daycare in Herndon. It was an ideal situation at the time, but the program didn't "grow" with my child. Also, the provider had two older kids of her own, and she often had to close early for their school events, doctor's appointments, etc. While I certainly understood these closings were necessary, the constant schedule changes began to wear on me. One of the benefits of a daycare center is a reliable operating schedule, and that is very important to me especially now that I have two kids. If you want to know more about BeanTree, please feel free to send me an email.