what are your thoughts on daycares?

I used to work at a daycare and I can tell you that I would never leave my child in one. I think in most cases there are way to many children for the amount of workers that there are. THis particular day care was turned in numerous times for being understaffed, but the inspectors let the day care know b4 they are coming!! On the day they would come the owner would pull people from the other daycare that she owned so that she looked fully staffed!! It is hard to keep staff because in most cases the workers are only paid minimum wage. SO i guess I am saying that if you do have to do day care(I understand that it is an only option for some) b4 deciding on one make surprise visits more than once so that you can see if they are fully staffed. Ask the staff to give you the names of some other parents to see there opinion. The parents are the ones that will really give you an unbiased opinion.

I have been lucky because I have never had to use a day care . I think I would be very nervous if I had to do this . I have never had anyone watch any of my children that I didn't know extremely well and that was not a part of either my family or my husbands family . I don't feel comfortable when I have to leave my children with someone else , just because , I don't feel anyone can do as good of a job as mommy can . I understand many people have to do this as they have no other choice but if I was ever in a situation where I had to do this , I would be checking the day care out as much as possible and would be questioning my child when he/she came home from there to make sure he/she was happy and at the least bit of suspicion , I would be pulling my child . There have been too many cases where you see children are being harmed in places like this and that would be my biggest fear .

I cringe at the thought of leaving my kids with someone else so much. Ironically I care for other people's children for a living and they are all so trusting. Of course I take good care of them but I don't know if I could trust someone else the way they trust me.

My son will be 2 in July and up until a few months ago I'd been a stay-at-home mom, spending nearly every waking (and non-waking) moment of his life with him. But then his father and I seperated for a week and we had to put him in daycare. *I* chose the daycare and I must say I'm really happy with my choice, she's a wonderful lady and all the other kids (about 5 of them) are his own age or around his age (the oldest is 3). I was terrified at first about leaving him with someone and whether or not they'd be taking as good a care of him as I did. The other downside was having to pay someone to do something that I could do myself from home for free. Right now I'm looking for a job so it's even tougher to not be working and to be sitting here every day while he's at daycare, but that's the way it has to be right now. I think it's been really good for him though to have that sort of interaction with other kids his own age and he really does love it there. I think that if it's something you have to do, and you can find a daycare provider that you trust enough and that your child genuinely likes than it isn't so bad.

Hi alilswt! I do not prefer to leave a child in the hands of strangers. I do not mind if a known person babysit. I firmly beleave that if daycare services can be avoided in any manner for your chld avoid it. In this age the child requires the love and affection and supervision of its dear and near ones.