Though we may want to spend our days caring for our children, that just isn’t the reality for much of the world. Parents have to work, which means needing to find consistent child care. But finding the right care services can feel difficult.
There are more than a few factors to consider when it comes to finding a good day care or other care services for your child. These six tips in particular can help you along if you are looking into the possibilities and aren’t sure what to do.
1. Check the Floor
This might sound weird, but the first thing you should do when checking out a daycare is look down. A great care service should see staff members down on the floor playing with the younger children. Whether it be holding them in their lap or showing them how to play with toys, how staff interact is crucial.
Though bigger kids may be up and about playing on their own, the younger ones need the most attention. An attentive staff means that they are getting the time and attention that they require.
2. Check the Policies
Each child care centre will have its own set of policies. Do they have policies on discipline (scolding, timeouts, and so on), do they have policies on television use? What snacks or drinks are there for the older kids? Knowing these policies can not only help you prepare for the average day but regular life in a daycare.
It is important to know the various policies that each day care may have. If you have any disagreements with their implementation, it means being able to adapt or at least to find another option.
3. Getting a Commitment
Children who require care need consistency and reliability. With those two things, they can develop a feeling of safety and security when it comes to the attachment to caregivers. Without that trust, no care facility will be a good fit in the end.
One of the most important considerations to make in any child care facility is the commitment level of the staff and the facility at large. Find out more about the caregivers, how long they have been working there, how much turnover there is at the centre, and more. It will give you a better idea of just how stable the facility is.
4. Get a Candid
We can get a pretty good indication of the level of care provided by a facility while we are there, but it is the things that we don’t see that matter most. Sometimes what we don’t see is actually better than what we could have hoped for. Sometimes, it is worse.
Take the opportunity to drop in and peak in on your children when the staff isn’t aware of it. Just a few moments can give you a great indication as to how the staff interacts with the children and what the level of care is actually like.
5. Open Communication
For the most part, daycare is for children who haven’t quite developed the ability to effectively communicate. Even if words are coming here and there, it isn’t clear and concise, especially when it comes to communicating how they are feeling.
Take the opportunity to develop a rapport with the caregivers. Tell them about how your child slept, changes in activity or mood, and anything else that can make caring for them a bit easier. Likewise, the staff should convey what they did that day, how they behaved, and all the important details involved.
6. Listen to Your Gut
We tend to generally not trust our gut instinct when it is the loudest. Parents have that natural sense when it comes to their children when something just isn’t right. When it comes to those who are caring for your children, listen to that voice.
If something isn’t quite right, don’t settle. Look around for other options. Ignoring that gut feeling and going with that choice can leave you with self-doubt on a daily basis and that can be stressful. Your gut may not always be right but it is better to move on than to be stuck with a daycare that isn’t right for your child.