Day Care Tips

While some mothers may feel bad placing their child in day care upon their return to work, it is not a bad thing for the child. The child will get the regular socialization and interaction with other children they may not have received on a regular basis from a stay-at-home mother. Also, a day care center will help to provide your child with routine and structure.

However, along with some of the advantages to day care, there are also drawbacks. While your child may get more interaction with other children, this also means they are more likely to get sick when other children arrive to the center with illnesses. Also, you may have difficulty in finding a back-up to your center should you have to work on a day that they are closed (due to such reasons as inclement weather or a national holiday) or finding a back-up to your center should your child be sick.

If you are starting a search for a day care center, there are several resources that you may use to help you find ones in your area. A good place to start would be the Yellow Pages or the Internet. Be sure to ask friends, neighbors, co-workers, or your pediatrician if they know of any and if so, would they be willing to recommend them to you.

Once you have a list of day care centers at your disposal, start calling them and ask them questions concerning the state licenses they hold, their costs/fees, their hours of operation, their general philosophies in watching children, and if they are able to accomodate any special needs you may have. You should be able to get at least somewhat of a good feel based by how they answer your questions and even bring up topics you may not have thought about yourself. You may also wish to find out about their ratio of students to teachers, if they are willing to assist you in potty training (if need be), and what types of activities they offer your children.

Ask the potential day care centers for references both from parents with children currently enrolled and parents who have removed their children. Find out if they would recommend the center to you, and if they have removed their children, ask why.

When you have narrowed your choices of day care centers down to a few, meet with the administrators of the centers and ask them to take a tour of the facilities. As you tour the centers, they should be able to tell you exactly what the purpose of each room is, whether or not the children have access to certain areas of the center, their policies concerning security of the buildings themselves, and if there are rooms with televisions, exactly when they are turned on and for what reasons (generally it is NOT good if day cares have too many televisions or use them to keep the children occupied!).

Once you have toured the day cares and found some that appear to be good centers, ask if you can bring your child for a visit. See how your child interacts with the other children there and how they respond to their teachers.

After you have selected a day care and enrolled your child, set a start date for him or her. Try to make it a date where you can be there for your child and accompany, or at least observe them, so the transition will be easier for them.

Don't be upset if your child at first seems to be scared or not to like their day care. This could be somewhat of a rough time for them and take them a little time to adjust to their new surroundings and the other children.

If a period of time passes and your child still seems not to have adjusted to their surroundings at day care, schedule a meeting with the teachers and/or administrators so that you may be able to determine the situation. Some children may take longer to adjust than others, but you should know your child well enough to know whether or not your child is still adjusting or if there is something more concerning going on.

Make sure to choose a day care center whose location and operating hours work with your schedule. If you choose one that is too far away or has short hours, you may not have enough time before and after work to get there. If your day care situation starts affecting your ability to arrive at and leave work on time, then it may defeat the purpose of placing your child at that day care center. You may wish to find an comparable alternative that is closer or has longer operating hours.