TTMA Daycare Tours and Questions

[lola]

For those mamas that currently use daycare or are planning to use daycare, what are some things to look for on the tour? What makes you happy about your daycare? What drives you nuts? Any warning signs?

My mom used to be a daycare center director, so she's an expert, but I certainly am not. I'm bringing her with me on the tours, but it's been a while since she stopped working and I thought y'all might have some good insight.

[mrsp121308]

DD1's sitter wouldn't listen to me when I told her to only feed DD every 2 1/2-3hrs, so she was constantly thawing Breastmilk and then dumping it because DD refused to drink it. So I'd ask what the policy is on infant feeding.

[mrsp121308]

In my experience, I just got certain vibes at each center and went with my gut.

[babycowbell]

I'm a FTM so not an expert at all. I've done three tours. Things I learned that were interesting to me were the diaper situation, all three do something different, what holidays they close for, what their pickup and drop off hours are, how "open door" are they, how much do they do for social events for the families throughout the year, discounts for potential second children, and is there a place to leave the car seat during the day so we can have flexibility about who picks up and not need to keep a full car seat in each car.

One place had cool amenities like being a farm CSA pick up place, if you're into that, and they're a dry cleaning drop off place. I also really liked that one does "date night" once a month where you can pay a little extra and bring your kid for 3 hours on a Friday night. We have no family near by so that appeals to me to increase our odds of some regular date nights.

[fikafairy67]

Ask about sick policies, pick up and drop off times, how they handle when other people pick up (like grandparents, etc.).

Also good things to ask are the staffing ratios and how they accommodate babies' schedules. If you are planning on keeping LO there through when they will attend kindergarten, ask to see schedules from the next class up. I wanted a center that had structured days and not just free for all for the little ones.

You should meet the teachers that are in the first year classroom, and ask how long teachers typically stay on.

Besides the basics, sometimes you just get a vibe about the place, and you will know. I toured two places, and loved the one without any extra "perks". The one I didn't like had video cameras you could log into any time, provided breakfast and wipes, and was in a fancy building. The teachers were a bit preachy and snooty, and the director didn't bother asking me any questions. They had a great security system where you could only get in once buzzed in, but they didn't have someone up there between 9am-3pm unless they were expecting you.

DS has been going to his center (privately owned and state licensed) center since he was about 6-7 months. They are small, have no extra perks, but they are really reasonably priced and have a wonderfully structured program. A bonus for me was that they kept the school year and summer as separate programs, so if I was working in a school district I could pull him for all or part of the summer without losing his school year spot.

Another big thing is feeding policies. My daycare asks for feeding and napping schedules for babies, and tries to follow that in addition to following the baby's lead. You should get some kind of notification about how much baby eats, how many diapers, plus any other notes from the day.

[fikafairy67]

Holy crap sorry for the novel!

tl;dr -- ask lots of questions (and they should ask you questions!), go with your gut, sometimes the extra perks at centers aren't worth it.

[lola]

Jul 15, 2016 19:11:29 GMT -5 fikafairy67 said:

Holy crap sorry for the novel!

tl;dr -- ask lots of questions (and they should ask you questions!), go with your gut, sometimes the extra perks at centers aren't worth it.

This is awesome! We're actually touring two next week, and it's the same situation. One is more expensive, but the perks almost feel over the top. The other is standard, which seems more reasonable to me.

I think the vibe will be a huge deal. Also, maybe this is horrible, but the only hangup I have about the standard one is that the owner is a man. It's a national chain, and the director is a woman, but the male owner is throwing me off. I think meeting him will be a good indicator, but I do have questions about how involved he is at the daycare. I've been around great male daycare workers and teachers, but typically they were with the older kids.

[WineNChocolate]

So I toured both with DD, in-home, daycares and we have had nannies.

1. I would ask what is the max number for children in the infant room? In the event that there are more do they bring in help or turn away?(more relevant for bigger daycares)

2. Sleeping rooms, Is there a separate room for sleeping? Is there enough cribs that babies are not always sleeping in a bouncer or swing? I am okay with every now and then but that should not be the normal sleeping arrangement.

3. As others said the sick thing, WHAT is the rules for if someone brings in their sick child? Is the parents contacted right away and told to get them or do they stay the whole day and cause more chance for others to catch it? I say this cause bigger daycares are like this sometimes and it doesn't help cause it just spreads, our in-home, The lady would call the parents to come and get the child or refuse that they could stay due to the other kids. I am complete proponent for this. Its not fair to other parents to bring your sick child and possibly spread it to others.

4. IF there is a case of Hand Foot and Mouth or other big things in the school, are you made aware the day its seen or the child is diagnosed.

5. How long do they have to be symptom free before they can return AND when are they going to tell you. I had an issue with a daycare telling us to late and the pediatricians office was already closed which undoubtedly meant I would have to wait to call the next morning and not be able to see the Dr till the next two days...which in turn is me out for 2 days. Instead of if you see the symptoms at 12 please call me and I can try and get in asap with pediatrician while office is open.

6. AH and as others said what is the vibe from the caregiver. I love old caregivers, lol, like someones grandmother. Our in-home daycare lady loved DD like she was her own, very grandmother. Our daycare had a older lady running the infant room and same vibe very grandmother instincts. It made me very comfortable and actually made me feel more reassured when we would discuss DDs health and what not. I have had younger care givers and that was always a lil weird provided some had no children or lil experience and came off as trying to tell me something. THAT might just be a personality trait lol.

7. I hated the places I walked in and smelled of cleaning products. Those I would just walk away.

8. HOW clean is the facility, how organized. Was stuff in its place when I came to visit. Or was it mass hysteria.

9. Food prep and storage, where is it kept? How do they normally thaw out BM if I leave it and its somewhat still frozen. If I say feed her 4oz don't give her anymore..feed her what I say please.

[lola]

Thanks so much for all of the great advice. We're taking two tours on Thursday, so I'll let y'all know how it goes!