Good advice ^

I recently spent three months looking for a new FDC for my little boy...I am very picky

The first thing I looked for was someone who had the children inside the living areas of the home. Their willingness to do this tells you alot about how they feel about children being there. I looked at many carers who had set up areas segregated from the rest of the house - in coverted garage areas mainly - and I don't like that sort of set up. To me, family daycare is about my child being in a home environment, interacting with the carer as he would be interacting with me at home...helping me clean (well not really helping but you know what I mean LOL), make dinner etc as well as having one-on-one play time. So yeah anyone with that sort of segregated set up I didn't really consider.

Then obviously the warmth of the carer, see how they are with their own kids...that can tell you alot...and looking to see that their parenting philosophy is in line with ours. Obviously safety and cleanliness, you don't want to see any glaring safety issues but this is usually ok because FDC have pretty strict standards.

Ask about sleep and feed times, whether everyone does everything at the same time or if she can work more with your own routine that bub is used to.

Ask about outings - some carers go out and take kids with them, others don't. I interviewed one who regularly took four - yes FOUR - children under two years old to the shops on the bus...by herself! Not freaking likely with my child lovey, and I told the scheme that was not on when they asked why I didn't want to use her

There are some really wonderful carers out there, if you have the time up your sleeve to be choosy do so, you will know when you find the right one. This has definitely been the case for me both times, I instinctively knew and both times my kids have been really, really happy and settled and we knew we made the right choice. Good luck