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Advice Needed: Switching to In-home Daycare
I'm having a really hard time making this decision. I know you guys can't make it for me, but maybe you can get me asking myself some different questions, etc.
C is currently in a center, I'm looking to leave due to convienience, and I'm not convinced her new teachers care that much (I know this is vague, but trying to keep this as short as possible).
We interviewed an in-home one yesterday. There is such a difference between in-home and center, so I don't know what realistic expectations are. There was nothing throwing up red flags, I got references that I can call, but my gut isn't telling me "yes take her here!" but it also isn't telling me "NO WAY." This place is a LOT cheaper, will shave 20-30 min off my time in the car, the lady is defnitely qualified to take care of children, it was clean, and appeared safe.
I think what is holding me back is maybe the visitors - like potentially her kids friends, her parents, etc. I have no background checks on anyone besides her. It is not only a business, but her home, so I think some periodic visitors are inevitable. I don't know what to do 
My "gut feeling" isn't working. Maybe this is my answer, but I also don't deal with change very well.
Has anyone went from a center to in-home? What have they done in terms of personal visitors or other people who live in the house?
DD: 6-24-11
EDD: 9-20-14
Re: Advice Needed: Switching to In-home Daycare
I obviously have no experience with this and some of you may disagree here, but the whole visitor aspect would definetly bother me. You are right- you have no idea who those other people are.
Is there another at-home facility close by you could interview to do a comparison on the visitor policy?
I have a friend that uses in-home and she said her place is very similar with the visitors (mom, friends, etc). None of them are around regularly, and she meets them when they are there (she didn't meet them ahead of time). So, from the one other person that I know who uses in home, her experience was similar to what I described. It is only one person however.
DD: 6-24-11
EDD: 9-20-14
I'm not going to be able to offer too much help but I can provide some perspective:
We had Z in a center-based daycare. My gut did tell me it wasn't working - for a lot of reasons. I needed to make a change, though he would have likely adjusted if we kept him there. We didn't consider in-home daycare (ie group setting) because for my/our needs, I wanted someone to care for him individually in our home.
There are always trade-offs and unknowns and aside from staying home/quitting your job, something is going to have to give somewhere. You just have to decide what you can live with. For example, a week in to our new arrangement, the "Nanny" had a death in the family and we had no childcare for 2 days. A few weeks later, she needed to take another day off. This doesn't happen in daycare. DH and I have to scramble a bit when this happened.
If you can live with the visitors, maybe it's a good change. If it's going to drive you crazy at work, wondering, maybe not. For me, there was too much I couldn't control in our daycare setting.
HTH - good luck!
Hi
I am in & out of daycares all day long (I work in ei). I interviewed an inhome with a very very similar situation and I was wondering of you felt comfortable pm-ing me the city/town...I had a middle of the road feeling but when I rethought about I I realized some red flags.... My son went from an inhome (my h cousin runs it) to a center when I switched jobs... I like the security,number of peers his age, and the activities they offered at the daycare. He stays busy pretty much all day...
Those concerns were actually the reason why we preferred a center. I really like the idea of centers, that they are secure, and have a lot of different people around at all times. I guess it really comes down to trust, you will have to trust her judgement and that she wouldn't allow anyone who shouldn't be around children in her home. However, if you are considering it, I can definitely help you out with the background checks, just email their names.
Also, what about checking out other centers? Ava goes to a private center daycare which is in a church and found them to be much more reasonably priced than other centers. Actually, her daycare was almost the same price as in-homes so that could be an option especially if you are not sold on an in-home. If you questioning it, I would keep looking.
You have PM.
DD: 6-24-11
EDD: 9-20-14
We started out in an in home that came highly recommended. I only had her there for 6 weeks and pulled her. I was not comfortable with the relationship between the dcp and her husband.
You are right to be concerned about people coming over. Who else will be with your kid? Will she have anyone else over? Is she married or does she have a bf? Will her kid be there? What other age kids will be there? How will she protect the babies from the older kids? Where will your kid sleep? Will she be taking the kids places?
I'm all for in homes as they save $ and can be really good. Perhaps I just had a really bad experience but I was so glad when we went with the center. My daughter really flourished at the center.
Good luck, I know it's a tough call. The thing is that even if your gut isn't screaming "NOOOO" if you're questioning or just not right at the place then maybe you're not really comfortable after all.
Thanks for the replies. I've decided against it. There is another center that I really want her to go to and when I toured again yesterday and they told me it might not be until next May (seriously, I got on the wait list April/May 2011 - two year wait list!!?), I got really upset. Like tears upset - I realized I wouldn't be this upset if I was comfortable with the in-home.
DD: 6-24-11
EDD: 9-20-14
Kids come/go all the time in daycares. I cried when I found out we'd be waiting almost a year to get DS into this daycare we loved...but luckily a spot opened up after 2 months b/c another kid moved away. You never know! It can't hurt to get on the waiting list!