CHILDCARE INTRODUCTION
There are many childcare choices for your
baby, and there is no one right choice that
applies to all families. However, you will
have to make an educated choice based on the
factors of your specific family. Whether you
decide to be a stay-at-home parent, place
your child in daycare, or hire a nanny, it
is always best to research a variety of
options. And, stay flexible with your plans.
You may decide after a couple of months,
that your needs or attitudes about childcare
have changed.
The following offers a description of
several childcare options along with tips on
how to select the right one for you and your
baby.
SELECTING A CAREGIVER
Sooner or later, you will
probably be faced with having to leave your
child in the care of someone else.
Regardless if it is just an occasional few
hours or forty hours a week, you will want
to feel confidence in the caregiver that you
select. You will need to be a careful judge
of character and ability to help ensure that
your child will be safe and happy. While you
can never be 100 percent sure about a
caregiver, you can learn a great deal by
having them interact with your child in your
presence for a couple of days. Make sure
that you feel comfortable with how your
child relates to the caregiver, and how the
caregiver cares for your child. As
importantly, check the caregiver’s
references carefully.
Whether or not you are
selecting a babysitter or a large-scale
daycare facility, there are some
requirements that are absolutely necessary.
The list of necessary requirements are:
-
Ability to protect child
from injury
-
Ability to feed and
change child
-
Infant CPR certified
Caring and affectionate
-
Good communications
skills with children
-
Ability to set and
maintain reasonable limits for child
-
Joins child with play
without disrupting activity
-
Rewards child’s efforts
and comforts child when hurt
-
Limits adult
conversations and activities in presence
of child
DAYCARE FACILITIES VS. IN-HOME CARE
Daycare facilities, also
known as child-care centers, provide
child-care primarily to working parents and
are often open from 7:00 am to 6:00 pm. They
usually care for ten or more children and
are licensed. Advantages of a daycare
facility include longer hours, structured
programs, and multiple caregivers within one
facility. Disadvantages include your child’s
increased exposure to infections and
viruses, less personalized attention than
in-home care, and frequent personnel
changes.
In-home caregivers can
provide more personalized care than daycare
facilities, but they are not required to be
licensed. For this reason, it is very
important to check references and ask for a
work record of at least the last five years.
In-home caregivers often work through
agencies and frequently will help with
housework, as well as with childcare. When
interviewing for a caregiver, it is
important to find out about her approach to
feeding, comforting, playing, and
disciplining, so that you can determine if
your styles will be consistent for your
child. Advantages to in-home care include
having your child stay in familiar
environment with dedicated attention and
care, not being exposed to other children’s
illnesses, and not having to make other
arrangements if your child is sick. The
disadvantages are the higher cost involved
with in-home care (generally, two to three
times the price of daycare), lack of privacy
in your home, dependency on caregiver’s
reliability, and inability to know how well
she is performing her job when you are not
in the home.
PARENTS RETURNING TO WORK
More than 50 percent of
mothers of young children work outside of
the home. Mothers work for a variety of
valid reasons including out of financial
necessity and for career satisfaction. While
some people have negative feelings about a
mother who chooses to work outside of the
home, there is no scientific evidence to
prove that the children of working mothers
have any more developmental issues than the
children of stay-at-home mothers. A child
who is well cared for and well loved will
succeed regardless if the mother chooses to
work outside of the home or not.
STAY AT HOME PARENTS
Approximately 45 percent
of new mothers and 1.5 percent of new
fathers choose to care for their children at
home for at least the first five years. Most
stay at home parents temporarily or
permanently leave jobs and careers because
they feel that there is no more important
job than raising their children. They value
being part of the day-to-day development and
growth, while knowing that their child is
always in a safe and loving environment.
Some parents decide to become stay at home
parenting after unsuccessfully attempting to
juggle outside work and parenting. For other
parents, it is partially a financial
decision, as it may be more expensive to
place a child in daycare than to have one
parent stay at home.
