FDC vs Childcare centre

[Visitor8]

I know that feeling. I used to be so scared sending my boys to Launceston to see their dad knowing they were so little and couldn't tell me what was going on (this was when they were 1 and 2). There is a big age gap (5 and almost 4) compared to your bubbas

[moki]

My son went to FDC and my daughter is now at a CC centre. My thoughts are that the difference between FDC and CC (apart from the cost) is that with FDC you are choosing one specific person to look after your child. With CC, you choose the centre have to trust that all the carers follow the ethos of that centre. You also have to get used to (and check out) the multiple carers in your child's room and then accept changes in carers (when the carers leave the centre or the room, or when the child moves to the next age group). This is my little bug-bear at the moment because the main carer in my daughter's room last year was The Best, and with the new year everyone's been shuffled around and it feels like we're starting over getting used to the new carers.

Although, we actually had the experience of the FDC carer passing out! When my son was about 18 months, he had been at this FDC for only a few weeks, she was sick and passed out. The problem was that she had left the front door unlocked and the 3 kids got outside - and she lived on a main road!! The next-door neighbours saw the kids and brought them back, so they were safe. But the council had to remove her from their service.
The council organised a different FDC and the new lady was fantastic (and her house was set up for day care, with a large playroom safely separated from the rest of the house and a gated yard so no chance of escaping children). She was also studying child-care by distance education so knew a lot about child development and did lots of age-appropriate activities with the children. She even provided healthy, kid-friendly, food.
So, we've really experienced the good and the not so good with FDC.
The main reason my daughter's in a centre and not FDC is the length of the FDC waiting lists, and the fact that even when there's an opening it may not be with the 'right' carer so getting to the top of the waiting list doesn't necessarily mean getting a place in care.

[Visitor8]

Moki I know what you mean about waiting lists. The boys were on one for almost a year before I got them placed and that was just for 1 day a week!