day care vs. baby sitter

Just hoping you ladies could share your thought on ths subject with me. I work nights and my schedule changes each week. DH works a regular 9-5 jobs. I think I would only need day care for 2 days a week while I sleep in the morning. But I was thinking maybe a babysitter would suit our needs better. How do you choose between daycare and in home babysitters?

day care vs. baby sitter

From what I understand, it's hard to find part time care in a day care. And I don't think it's much cheaper than the child going full time. So for your situation, a babysitter would probably be much more affordable.

Re: day care vs. baby sitter

We had a similar situation.
DH worked nights and had rotating days off.
Some weeks we needed 2 days, some weeks 3, some weeks 5
And the days differed too
It was never really set days each week
Our Tutor Time accomodated us amazingly
It was NEVER an issue
If she went 2 days we paid for 2, 3 days we paid for 3 etc
And they had no issue at all with it being different each week and different days each week either

I like a center because of the structure, I feel they are stricter with rules, and I dont' have to worry about the sitter getting sick, flaking out on me, quitting etc

Re: day care vs. baby sitter

Message edited 8/23/2012 4:06:30 PM.

Re: day care vs. baby sitter

I can only speak from experience. I had an awesome nanny from 3 months on. Took wonderful care of my son and she is still like part of our family. At 15 months, I just knew that my DS needed to be with other kids more. I enrolled him in DC and he started at 20 months. He is now almost 3 and LOVES daycare. It depends on your child's personality, how social/active they are....but for anything over a year, I would HIGHLY recommend daycare. I've had nothing but great experiences with it. They get something different every day, make friends, have constant activities, eat new foods, try new things that a sitter may not be able to provide. For example, today my son had "critter day" at school....they brought in a guy who brings in snakes, lizards, etc. Twice a week they have water play day, with sprinklers, water tables, etc. They have classes on "manners," get read to, have a real structure. This would never happen with a sitter......good luck whatever you do!

Re: day care vs. baby sitter

i just searched high and low for childcare and found a good fit with an in-home licensed family daycare that was advertising on facebook. imo that may be your best bet - someone willing to work hourly and be a little flexible with the times.

Where do you live?

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Message edited 8/25/2012 2:42:36 PM.

Re: day care vs. baby sitter

Kiddie Academy also allows part time care. My boys are going 2 days a week. As far as my opinion I think it honestly depends on the age of the child and what exactly you are expecting in terms of child care.

What I mean is, my boys are 2 and as much as it would have been way more convenient and prob a bit cheaper to have a babysitter come to the house, I chose daycare because I liked the structure, socialization, and educational aspect of it. In "school" they are learning all sorts of things like letters and numbers. Last week they learned how to "Stop, drop, and roll" in case of a fire. They are in a class of ten and are learning how to share and take turns with things...all of which are important to me. These are the things that you don't get with most babysitters IMO.

However, everyones needs and expectations are different. You will have an infant, whereas you may rather have someone watch them in house so you don't have to go out in the cold or worry about germs at such a young age.

Good luck with whatever you decide.