Day Care

Can anyone suggest good day care centres in auckland? Or ones to avoid?

Also, is there a minimum age at which a child can go into day care or does it depend on the centre?

I remember hearing something about daycare being subsidised by the govt to some degree, is this right?

Thanks!

Minimum age differs from centre to centre i believe. Also check out Porse if you're thinking of a young one as that is care in someones home with only a few other children so your baby would have more care there.

A lot of places start at 6 weeks - our kids are both in an ABC (franchises all over NZ) and our one has really low numbers in the nursery (there's 6 kids there and 2 carers atm). It was hard at first having Ava in that young (she started at 5 weeks) but you get used to it and they form wicked bonds with their carers.

Personally I would go for a centre over in home care, but that's just from personal experience and the fact that in home carers don't have to be as qualified.

id look into both options and see which is best for you. in home only have four children, only 2 of which can be under 2, but then theres the cons aswel.

if you are looking for care in a centre for such a young age i would look for one with a baby room, as some only have two areas, under two's and over twos. i would also look for somewhere which does primary caregiving (where one or two carers look after all your babys needs) and for low ratios.

Emz seems to have a good deal, two teachers for 6 babies thats a 1:3 ratio. normal is about 1:4 and government regulation is 1:5

i am in hamilton so i cant really reccommend any in auckland but you should go and visit a few, usually close to work is good, and see how it makes you feel. im not a parent myself, im in ece, but parents always talk about the feel of the place. it has to feel right to you, you need to be comfortable with the staff and know that yours and your babies needs are going to be fulfilled

good luck

There's also nannies that you might want to look into, if you have the moolar, they can also do cooking/cleaning as well as childcare which might come in very handy if you are both full time.

For under 3's there is a childcare subsidy you can get and it is based on number of children you have and your income, there are 3 subsidy levels, so three income thresholds. Here's the page with the thresholds

http://www.workandincome.govt.nz/manuals-and-procedures/deskfile/extra_help_information/childcare_assistance_tables/childcare_assistance_income_abatement_and_rates-01.htm#P16_527

You may also be eligible for working for families, again depending on income, there are calculators for that on the IRD website.

Can't help with any centres to recommend, but I'm another who recommends considering in home care, we use barnados for ours but porse is the same idea. I love our carer and the boys really love her to, and it's always the same person so they get that bond and are still in a home environment.
The nursery type care that Emz has sounds really good as well though.

Whereabouts in Auckland are you? I think you said west in a previous thread?

Bear Park has an excellent reputation and a friend of mine thinks ABC are great.

I use in home care and can't rate it highly enough. I will continue to do so until my daughter is 2 as I like the "just like home" feeling at her carers.

Mum2Mac wrote: I'd recommend an "in-home" childcare of sme sort for a young baby as they get more one on one care as they can only have up to 4 (I think) children in their care. PORSE have carers all over the country. They'd be a good place to start.

The ratio in my daycare is 1:3, so they actually get more *attention* per child in daycare. I also like the idea that if something were to happen to one of the adults, there are other adults there to notice and sort things out. Likewise, if one of the children is more *needy*, other carers can step in and give extra attention to the other babies assigned to that carer rather than them missing out while she cares for the needy child. There are 12 babies and 4 carers in a section so I think the babies still get pretty good continuity of care. JMO anyway - but there are good daycares out there.

Also, the daycare is a few minutes walk from my office (I'd have to go a lot further afield to find a house, let alone one with a good carer in it) so I like that I can pop in to visit and BF a couple of times a day.

I booked DD into care when I was 7 weeks pregnant, to start at 7 months (so about 15 months in advance), and they only recently confirmed that I'd get a place, so the good centres do have pretty full waiting lists. Good on you for looking into it now

Oh, don't know if anyone else has mentioned this.

firsttimedad - remember your wife is entitled to 14 weeks paid parental leave once baby is born, and you're entitled to 2 weeks (which you will probably need to take to help your wife around the house if she's having a c-section).
So by the time her 14 weeks is up, if she chooses to take it that is, baby will be 3 or so months old before needing to go into daycare.

Just another thought for you to consider

Kindercare have an excellent reputation, but you'd need to enroll now to have a chance of getting a space by the end of the year/next year. We put our unborn baby down on their waiting list when I was about 6 weeks pregnant and this was for daycare when baby was going to be 6 months old and we were able to choose our days/hours - if we'd left it later we might not have been able to choose what days we wanted.

Edited by Febgirl