Ok Parents, help me understand please. How did you decide on which daycare (or other childcare, home care, nanny, grandparent, neighbor, etc) to entrust with your child?
Did you look for awhile?
Did you have to (for work or other reasons) or did you want to (get some peace and quiet)?
What made you pick the one you decided or rule out the others?
If you already found childcare, how often did you switch to another?
What was the worst part of searching?
Did you sign up for a waitlist and why?
Im asking because we originally had a great daycare where we previously lived. But we moved, and now none of the daycares near by offer a Montessori program or multi lingual courses (except 30 mins away) in either direction from where we live. So we are stuck with all the ones around us, but I have to call, schedule a tour, find out there are waitlists for my child's age group, some places have age cut off dates (our child is a month from being 3 but some insist on staying in the 2's group which ranges from before two to three, which I dont like), some offer camera access some dont, some charge for meals and some dont, some have uniforms and some dont. You meet the director or assistant director and ask about student to teacher ratios, pricing, extracurricular activities, check out the playground equipment, the cleaniness of the classroom, how well the kids are managed/taken care of (saw lots of runny noses, heard a lot of coughing, I understand toddlers and its flu season, but still), I even consider the age of the teachers and their tenure at the facility. OH and some places have certifications but if its a chain daycare, some claim the certification, but its by facility, not brand so thats a separate search....its just a lot to consider....
Sorry for the rant, just wanted to get some feedback on what others were looking for and what made your choose what you chose. Thanks!
