So we are looking for daycare for our baby. She is currently 6 months old and we will be starting in July or August. I visited a home daycare today and I liked it until the provider's 4 year old came home. I then saw how loud and full of energy she was. Which is great, but scared the crap out of me for my tiny baby. She even took a toy out of my babies hands. The provider attempted some boundary setting and rules, but then the little girl let their two giant dogs into the house without warning. They are sweet dogs, but big and excited, and once again baby. The baby would be napping in the little girl's room, whats to stop her from bounding in to the room during naps? This home day care is close to my house and so much cheaper then the center we have a spot in. My husband thinks it will work, I am so scared. Will I be scared with any placement or are my concerns really relevant? I need some feedback!
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You should not be worried about leaving your child there everyday - you should feel confident that she will be well taken care of!
I assure you paying more $$ for peace of mind is worth every penny!
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I feel uncomfortable with in home situations in the first place but this sounds like something I definitely could not put my child into. Two big dogs with no boundaries and a 4 year old with no boundaries would frighten me. I'm a fan of kids being separated by age, which is something daycare does. I don't' even like it when the big kids and little kids mingle when they combine rooms at the end of the day!
I don't think I could handle that...
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Dogs are a no-go for me, but I know they aren't a deal-breaker for everyone. I wouldn't worry as much about the 4 year-old because she was probably just super excited about the baby being there. She'd calm down and mom will set boundaries and it would be okay. Would it just be your infant and the 4 year-old, or are there others?
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My advice is to follow your instincts. I think that mothers tend to have stronger instincts about this than fathers do. When I was getting ready to go back to work and we had lined up a daycare center for our twin boys, I ignored some weird feelings because it seemed like everything was good, plus it was affordable. But after three days, I pulled them out and insisted to DH that we move them to another center that also happened to be significantly more. If I was going to be leaving them in someone else's care, I wanted to feel totally reassured and sometimes, you can't really qualify why you feel the way you feel, but it doesn't mean you should ignore the feeling. GL!
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@Jess1483: She has a 4 year old and a 19 month old (who is very sweet). She also has a licence for up to 6 more kids, one infant, 2 school age, the rest toddlers. I didn't mind the dogs when I saw they had a separate fenced in yard with gates, but the gates don't stop a 4 year old.
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@msplatypus: you could ask her if she'd be willing to put a lock on the gate to prevent the 4 year old from opening. She would most likely be willing to!
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*I* have a dog and dogs are a deal breaker. Dogs are unpredictable creatures. I certainly would not trust someone else's dog that I don't know around my baby.
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I feel wary about home daycares to begin with, but the dogs would be a big sticking point for me.
Do you guys have dogs? We don't have dogs and my son appears to be very allergic to them. Besides dogs being animals and unpredictable, having a potential allergen like that around would scare me.
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@Adira: we don't have dogs, but I generally don't have a problem with them. We do have a cat.
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My baby will be 4 months when I go back to work and I had the same reservations about home daycares for such a little baby. I ended up going with a infant program at a daycare where she will only be with babies 6 weeks- 12 months. It costs A LOT more but I will have much more peace of mind leaving her.
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@Mrs.Pinecone316: Yeah, we actually have a space in an infant care room starting in August. The expense is a problem and they can't do 5 days a week, only 4 and the day they can't do is Thursday.
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I'm putting LO2 in a mixed age in home daycare in November when he will be 5 or 6 months. Honestly, I am nervous about it even though I am really comfortable with the daycare and LO has been there over a year. DD started there at 8 months and she seemed young but it worked out fine.
I am uncomfortable with the dog situation. I would need a more defined plan for keeping the kids and dogs separate.
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I have a dog. We love her, we trust her with our children... But dogs at daycare make me very nervous.
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Our in homes have varying ages and one has a dog-and she is kept separate from the kids, though. And our in homes don't have their own kids there (that's a lot of kids!). I wouldn't like if a 4 year old wasn't corralled better. Go with what you're comfortable with.
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