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Home care or day care center?Jun 21 '00 (Updated Jul 05 '00) Write an essay on this topic.It's an unfortunate fact that in most families, day care is a must. A decision that many parents struggle with is whether to place their child in a day care center or in a private home for care during the day. There are pros and cons to both. I hope to convince you that placing your child in a licensed day care center is the better choice. Placing your child with a babysitter in a private home may offer tempting advantages. For one thing, it’s usually quite a bit cheaper than a day care center. It may be someone that you know in your neighborhood, or even a family member. It may seem more flexible and easy to deal with. It's often easier to find a home care provider. You may also think that having fewer children per caregiver would be an advantage of home care. But there are several reasons why I feel that a licensed, reputable day care center is better than a babysitter. Security At a day care center, there are usually extensive security precautions. Access is limited; in order to get past the door, a person may need to know a password or have their name on an approved list, and/or similar precautions. The children are under constant supervision. On the other hand, in a private home, things may not be so secure. Granted, most babysitters are not going to fall for a person claiming to have been sent by you. But let me share a story with you. An acquaintance of mine had her child in a private home along with several other children. There were, in fact, not only one babysitter but two in the house. For whatever reason, the babysitter had actually asked that she not knock on the door when coming to pick up her child, but simply walk in. Obviously, the door was not kept locked. One day she stopped by an hour or so early to pick up her child, walked into the house, and found her two-year-old along with a couple of other children of similar age, playing in the living room. She sat down with her daughter and played with her for a bit, then went and got a snack for the kids. No less than half an hour after she had walked through the door, one of the caregivers came downstairs to give the kids their snack. My acquaintance, for obvious reasons, was furious. Anyone could have walked in, picked up her daughter, and walked back out, and the caregivers would have been none the wiser! I'm not saying every babysitter is this lax in security, but this does illustrate the potential problems. No reputable day care center would ever have had such an incident. Safety A related topic is that of health and safety. You naturally want your child to stay healthy and unharmed, no matter where they are. A licensed day care center takes specific steps to insure this. They never leave children unattended. Have you ever read a newspaper article about a child who strangled in its high chair because they were left alone? I have, several times, and each time it was at a private home. At a licensed day care center, if a child has a fever over a certain level, they are not allowed to go to the day care center because of contagion. While this may present the occasional inconvenience if you have to take a day off work to care for your sick child, isn't this a better option than allowing contagious children to play and eat together, spreading the illness through the entire group? Most babysitters in private homes don’t have any such policy. Social interaction In a private home, your child may be one of several being cared for in the home, but chances are there will be not more than one or two of his or her age group. In a day care center, many children of the same age group are cared for together. Usually, children are separated in classes based on their age group. Thus, your child will have the opportunity to interact with many other children of their same age group, which is beneficial for their development. Structured activities There's a reason why day care centers are also called "preschools." It's because they provide structured activities which are not only fun for your child, but also help them to learn and to become accustomed to the structured environment which school will present. It will give them a head start when they enter kindergarten. In a private home, the babysitter rarely makes such a concerted effort to provide structured activities which will stimulate your child’s mind. Which leads us to... Caregiving A babysitter in a private home has many tasks to occupy her during the day besides caring for your child. She has meals to prepare, bills to pay, laundry and cleaning to do, and so on. Not so in a day care center. The staff who are caring for your child have nothing else to occupy them. Their attention is on the children, not on extraneous distractions. The straight caregiver-to-child ratio may not be as significant as the focus that caregiver has - is their focus on the children, or on their own affairs? Nutrition A healthy diet is very important to keep your child well. Licensed day care centers are required to provide several well-balanced meals and snacks which meet the needs of the children in their care. In the babysitter's home, you must either trust to the babysitter to provide your child with good, healthy food, or you must take the time to pack their food daily. Even then, there’s no guarantee that your child won’t be getting Twinkies and Gummi Bears in addition to – or instead of! – the healthy foods you've packed for them. Summary I don't mean by this editorial to say that all babysitters in private homes are bad. Each and every one of the disadvantages I've mentioned could be compensated for by a babysitter who makes an extra effort. But the fact is, such a babysitter is a rare gem indeed! I also don't mean to say that all day care centers are good. There are undoubtedly some bad day care centers out there. There are lots of great articles – on this site and elsewhere – that give good advice on how to choose a good day care center. I'd like to suggest this one, for a start: http://www.epinions.com/./kifm-review-7E4-38B8B62-38D3F13B-prod5 Read them, then - unless you've been so lucky as to find that rare gem I mentioned - choose a reputable, licensed day care center for your child.  |
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