How to choose the right daycare for you and your child

There are several things you must take into consideration before choosing to send their child to daycare.  I sent my daughter to daycare at 6 months old.  I struggled with the idea of sending her at such a young age and only did so because I am in school and I will help to walk you through six key points that will hopefully make your decision easier.

Figure 1: Classroom

• Location
• Safety
• Price
• Education
• Acceptance requirements
• Religious factors

The first thing to consider is the location of the daycare.  It may be more helpful to pick a daycare close to your home, work, or school.  This is helpful incase your child would get sick or hurt and you need to pick them up quickly.  Also location will tie into the second factor of safety.

It is extremely important to send your child to a daycare that will provide the upmost safety.  It’s already hard to entrust your child into someone else’s care and you will be worried by nature.  If your child’s safety could even possibly be jeopardized, this will clearly be a deal breaker.  To make sure your child is safe, here are few things to look into: 

• get to know how your child’s caretaker and their background
• make sure the caretaker/ child ratio is at the state requirements
• always try to get references.
• see what safety requirements the school demands for your children.  For example at my daughter’s school, she cannot be picked up by an adult unless they are on a approved list by me and they must still show proof of identification before picking her up from school.

Another thing to worry about is price.  You can compare the prices of different daycares and see what you can work into your budget.  However, your child’s safety and happiness is way more important and shouldn’t be decided on price.

Also, there are acceptance requirements and they all differ from daycare facilities.  For instance, some take children as young as 6 weeks, while others only accept children who are potty trained (and that’s usually around the age of 3).  Many daycares, if not all are very strict about children being up-to-date with their vaccinations.  This helps to keep the children from spreading any illnesses because with several children in a room together all day, they are bound to contract some sort of illness.