I'm torn between a rock and a hard place. DD started child care at 4.5 months. She loves it. She loves the carers (especially the ones from her old room) and she has a special bond with some of the kids - there are two she is always with and have been dubbed the "Three Musketeers". However, DH and I have become increasingly uhappy with the centre and the current carers. Some of it is small and trivial but it all adds up; they can never tell us about her day and how she went - we always get "Oh, I've just come into the room" even though they are the designated carers for that room!; she is NEVER in her home nappy (they do change the nappy before we get there but it is never the one from her bag); twice we asked for DD to be given food at a certain time (when we had to collect her later than usual) and it wasn't given; the medicine debarcile a few weeks back; the current fee debarcle we're having (don't ask - let's just say I'm NOT happy!); DD is CONSTANTLY in the younger room (when they have too many kids, some go up and some go down... but why is it always DD who goes down and not the younger kids?); they don't seem to be able to control DD all the time - she will just waltz into another room to see her fav carer if they leave the door open and won't bring her back for fear of a tanty!
So DH and I have been discussing for a while about changing centres. The one we currently go to is in our old suburb and not really on the way to work for either of us. But DD is happy there (despite not wanting me to leave of late... but then she doesn't want to be collected at the end of the day either!) and we didn't want too many changes so kept her there... but now we're seriously thinking of changing.

Today we went and saw a brand new centre near us. The staff seemed friendly and the kids were definately happy. The Director was so happy to show us around even though we dropped in without an appointment. But my concerns are this;

it is on a main road (as is the current centre) and has bar fencing (you know, kind of like a pool fence and you can see through it) which does nothing to reduce smog etc into the play area. Our current centre has colourbond fencing. This also reduces ick factor for any unsavoury people...

There are very few children in the centre (probably because it is new). There are rarely more than 5 children in DD's room. Her current centre often has 7+. I'm worried this will reduce her socialisation skills as she enjoys the kids company at the moment.

The new centre has few resources and I worry about whether or not DD will be exposed to the same range of things she currently is (craft etc) the playground looked very bare - none of the slides that the current centre has and DD loves.

It's a new centre and I can't help but feel "better the devil you know".

A plus is the small class size means more attention for DD.

Another plus is that the new centre is MUCH cheaper than the current one and provides all the same things...

Any advice? And yes, we have to utilise child care.

TIA

MG