Comments on Family Day Care?

[nox]

I am kinda thinking about putting my 7.5 mo son in some sort of part time care. I have been recommended to consider Family Day Care.

Does anyone have any thoughts about this? Is it 'better' than traditional day care? What have been your experiences?

In addition if anyone is in the Prahran, E St Kilda area and can recommend me a carer that would be great!

[AnyDream]

Love it love it love it!
I prefer it to a child care centre because I feel it's important for bub to have a home-like environment, not an institutional environment. They have a one-on-one bond with their carer, unlike a centre where the carers rotate. And they usually have exposure to a number of different age groups, unlike a centre where they are in with children of the same age. I also feel that because it's a smaller group of children, they pick up fewer illnesses in FDC (JMO).

The other huge difference is FDC can be a lot more flexible with times. We live far from family and our carer has been happy to have DD1 occasionally of an evening so I can attend class/go out when DH is away, or for us to have an evening out together. This is a lifesaver when there's no one else to look after your kids. Having said all that, we have used child care centres occasionally, and DD enjoyed it, I just prefer the total FDC environment, for me it's much closer to the care that I would be providing at home.

[christy]

I'm a fan of FDC as well. A few reasons for us, one is our carer. In our house Lizzie is a much respected individual. Before I signed on with her, I went over & discussed philosophies on child rearing... so what I believed, how I spent the days with my children at home, what things I thought were important for Matilda (at first). She spoke about her children & how she structured her time. She is a very organised woman & sets a rhythm of the day according to the children she has there. She keeps details of everything they have done, but brings out activities such as painting and watering gardens as special times during the day.

She look after Matilda from 14 months - 3 1/2 and started looking after Jovie at 8 months. She is flexible with times for us & we've never had any problems with her.

I have had to use emergency care with other carers before & I haven't been as happy leaving Matilda places I don't know. One place was just half a house and the kids were just let loose to roam & go nuts, no structure or organisation.... which is okay as well but Matilda gets scatty when she doesn't understand what is happening. At home, I'll say "Its a home morning" and she knows exactly what that means.

So it does depend on the carer, but we love ours and will be devestated when Jovie hits kindy age.

[Karina]

We use family day care for our daughter, who is 14 months. She has been for about 2 months now. I like it as she gets to know the carer well and since there are only a few kids she gets familiar with them too. She gets a bit flustered when there are too many people around her so I dont think she'd go too well in a day care centre at the moment. There are usually only 4 kids a day at ours, but sometimes 3, sometimes 5 depending on school holidays and stuff. Its also nice because the times are a little more flexible than the day care cenrtes in our area and the fees are a bit less too.

[ajw0108]

Good question Nox, I've been wondering about FDC & have a few questions too... DD is 5 months old and we'll be looking at putting her in childcare part-time in a couple of months.

With regard to kids of different ages being with one carer - those of you who have had babies in FDC, do you find their needs are met when there are older children who can vocalise & express what they require, are more mobile & independent and more assertive in their play?

Also, how much interaction do they have with the other, older kids?

I'm worried about 'too much' but this didn't actually occur to me until an encounter at the park last week where a 2ish yr old snatched a toy from DD who was strapped in the pram, refused to give it back to me when I kneeled down to ask (while scanning for apparently absent parent) and then proceeded to poke her fingers in DD's mouth and flap (not slap) her on the face/eyes, making her cry...all the while her mother who appeared tried to extract the toy from her grasp with one hand, balance a full cup hot coffee directly over DD's pram with the other and yelling 'Gentle! Gentle!'. Yeah, right.

I am not too keen to go for the institution-style childcare centres as I think a smaller group, one-on-one care & a home-like environment would be far better for DD, but feel that she might have a better chance against rougher, more snatchy kids if they're all roughly the same age & size (even though I know they are all shapes & sizes!)...especially when babies don't interact and play with each other too much until they're older. Is this totally misguided??

Any experiences/advice very welcome.


AJ

[nox]

just to follow on from what's been mentioned already...

Have you all put bubs into FDC when they've been older? Do you think that's better?

Also a friend mentioned that at 12-18 mo that maybe ds would get more out of normal day care because of activities etc. Hat has been anyone's experience about this? He is already very very active.

Thanks again