Post by SusanBAnthony on Aug 9, 2012 12:29:13 GMT -5
Thoughts in general? Would you consider it all all? Under what circumstances?
Details: My babysitter quit on me- she is dumping me and taking back an old family. I sort of understand but I am sort of bitter. Anyway.
She recommended a new lady, who I called, and will visit next week. New lady is unlicensed, and takes one full time family and a few others part time. I will use her one day a week for Birdy (age 2.5) and for occasional backup, like if I need to take ds to a dr appointment, or I am going to be out of town for 2 days in september so the kids need to go to daycare. She is super cheap, 30$ a day, but that seems to be the going rate around here for in homes. I was paying 35 a day.
Post by SusanBAnthony on Aug 9, 2012 12:37:41 GMT -5
I can't do a center because I need one day a week. There are none around here that do that, so it has to be in someone's home. Having a sitter come to our house is an option but is is about 2.5 times the cost, plus there are scheduling issues, plus I don't know that it is really any safer. Either way it is a single adult who could be doing god knows what.
We moved here 4 months ago, and I got a personal reccomendation for sitter #1. I have no other leads for reccomendations, other than sitter 1 suggesting sitter 2. I was completely happy with the care sitter 1 gave, but she was flaky. I have looked on care.com and sitter city, but I don't feel any more confident about going that route- it is still someone I don't know.
My stepsister runs one. Sent both my kids to it, and she has regular holiday parties for the kids and families - everyone, including us, adores her and how she cares for the kiddos.
If you get solid references, I think it's perfectly fine.
in home is something I am uncomfortable with personally, but licensed or not doesn't really phase me. We only use 1 day a week, lucky for us there seems to be a lot of openings in our area (economy?) and ours was happy to make an exception for us.
Im having this debate now. Most licensed centers don't take babies under 12 months bc most people here have mat leave. Im scared of giving ds to a home provider but i will gave have to since I'm going to need one when he's about 6 months.
Have you tried contacting your department of children and family services? Ours has a complete listing of licensed home daycare providers.I work part time for one and have been fingerprinted and had a full background check done. They also did a background check on my husband.
It doesn't really mean anything, from what I understand. I'd much rather care about the experience of the person than a license.
I agree. Here, the only difference between a licensed/unlicensed in home daycare is that the licensed person has had a background check. Theoretically, the state people are supposed to do routine check ups and all that, but from what I understand, that rarely happens.
If the person had lots of experience, and got had good references from parents, that would make me more comfortable than a license on the wall.
I would not unless it was someone I already knew and had a relationship with.
This. If she's unlicensed, then has she had a background check? Have all persons living in her house have a background check? Too many questions for me. I am paranoid, though.
Unless I'd known the person for a long time, there's no way I'd go with someone who is unlicensed. I love in-home providers and think they are a fantastic childcare option, but there are things that licensing can help with beyond just a background check (which is really important to me, anyway). For instance, at the in-home where Warner used to go part-time, the county does periodic checks and makes sure that there is more than one clear exit from the house in case of fire, that food is properly stored, medicine/cleaning supplies are properly out of reach, etc.
(Honestly, it's stuff that I'm likely to not think about in my own house, so I know that's a bit hypocritical of me, but I only have 2 kids to worry about and keep an eye on.)
If everything else checks out, the only thing that really bugs me about unlicensed providers is that there isn't a check on the number of kids they can watch, so I would worry that they would be watching way too many kids. And if something shady did crop up, there isn't anyone you can report violations to, or if she got caught watching kids unlicensed and shut down, you would be SOL again.
Ours is a licensed in home. I didn't know you could be unlicensed, to be honest.
Ditto that. I got good rec's for the one we send BabyLiu and she's great. BabyLiu adores her. If you get good rec's and you like the person, I think in-home is fine.
Around here there are a bajillion licensed in-home daycares (there are four in walking distance from my house that I know of), so it wouldn't occur to me to go unlicensed.
No. Says me without kids. But my mom works in early childhood education and has held many positions, including the director of a few centers.
I would wonder what the prohibition is to her getting the license. Cost? Privacy? Ignorance? Skirting the rules in terms of number of children? Or something even worse?
Accreditation is a huge PITA and can be expensive. Licensing is NBD, IMO.
I have a friend who worked at daycare centers for years and got her certification in it. She tried the in-home daycare for a few years before she had her own kid and got her license. When she described the process, it sounded like it was much more about keeping business and home life separate (like her DH couldn't sit on the couch in the living room when the kids where in it) rather than quality of the person providing the care.
Our home DCP provided her own resume and background check paperwork and also a contract with terms in it, so that mattered more to me than other things like if her grand kids came over in the afternoon or not.
But I'm an anxiety ridden lunatic when it comes to my kids, so take that for what it is.
This is me. I would really need to know the person extremely, ridiculously well. I have 3 friends that would make that cut and that's it.
My great-aunt watched me and a bunch of other family members' babies most of my childhood. It was the worst, starting with she was narcoleptic (untreated, naturally) and it went downhill from there.
Our nanny watched Z in her home for several months. I really only wanted the transition from being home to work and she lived down the street. She also only had him for 3 days out of the week. She was not licensed. Z was her only kid.
We interviewed both her and her H, who worked full time, in thier home. We did a full walk through of her home. She was CPR and first aid certified as she was also a part-time teacher taking a break. I found her on care.com, so she had a background check. I paid for a check of her H and they happinly obliged. I then googled the hell out of them.
We want to get a nanny to come to our home this next go around. I will probably use care.com again.
Post by downtoearth on Aug 9, 2012 14:46:43 GMT -5
Yes, I would consider and have used unlicensed care (SAHM who watched two newborns - so two different families) and an unlicensed provider who was awesome and ran her place better than most lic. places. I think you know as soon as you meet someone if the licensing matters to you, so I would meet her and consider it.
However, I've never really had a bad daycare situation and even at licensed places, the state lic. people can't monitor everything and in at least 2 situations that my IRL friends have had, they have still not revoked lic. after proof of a broken skull during the caregiver's watch and losing a child out of the front door twice.
No. We used one very briefly and it did not work out well. Of course there are different circumstances like using family for care, and I wouldn't expect a family member to be license to care for my child. But no, I would never use one again.
Our DCP's grandkids come over all the time. She is still licensed. Its allowed, as long as the kids don't push her over the limit of how many kdis she is allowed to have (which they don't, she factors them in) Her h is also around at times and can interact with them. In fact, if he's home for lunch, he will often help her get them all in the main house (where they nap), especially if its raining. Again, licensed. He just had to under go a background check, too.
Now if my friend was going to do me favor by watching DD, then thats different. But I wouldn't go to an official Daycare that wasn't licensed.
Post by penguingrrl on Aug 9, 2012 18:07:08 GMT -5
Only if it was someone I knew anyway who happened to be available to provide childcare for me. Otherwise I would prefer someone with a license for oversight.
That said, my mom mostly had us in unlicensed home care and nothing happened. In fact, the one grandmotherly woman who watched us for several years was like family to me and when she passed years after watching us I went to the funeral. The other woman who watched us was a SAHM who was a total bitch and her son was a wimpy brat, but she never did anything bad to us, just wasn't the nicest. We read and did artwork and played and did all the activities we would have done in a preschool so it wasn't the worst place ever, she was just cranky and favored her son.