In home childcare

Ive made the decision to go back to work. Unfortunately i dont have any family members to watch my children. In fact i very rarely am apart from them. I have a 3 year old & 10 month old.

How did you find a good in home carer? How did you know you could trust them? What sorts of questions did you ask and what do you look for?

I have heard some horror stories so this really isnt easy for me but financially i need to go back to work now. Also for my sanity too

Any advice would be great. Thanks :)

We use in home care through Barnardos. My daughter is a a sensitive little soul and wouldn't have dealt with a daycare environment at the time. We have a carer i love who always checks with me when she needs to (pamol, unusual behaviour, sick etc) and makes decisions I am happy with if she can't get hold of me. Sadly I will have to find someone else for my son as she has no more spaces free.
People say 'you'll just know' . I'm not so sure about that but did reject one lady I recently interviewed just on the 'feel' of it.
Some ideas of things to consider;
Do they approach care the way you like to? Eg if you are a baby led person for sleeps etc will it matter if they work by a strict routine?
Who else is likely to regularly be there (assuming you're leaving the kids at their house, not yours)? Do you feel comfortable if other family members are around the kids? Although i'm pretty sure all family members have to have a police check but just because you like the carer doesn't mean you like their stay at home husband (for example).
Do they do any regular outings? There is a balance between too many and too few.
Visit at a time when the other kids are there so you can see the way the carer relates to them and how they interact with each other.
Find out where the children will be sleeping.
Check out the indoor and outdoor play areas.
What languages do they speak at home? You may love the fact that your child will be exposed to another language or you may hate it.
How much structured and unstructured play do they do? Eg crafts, music, reading etc versus just playing.

I'm sure there's tons more things but they are just a few to get you thinking.

I also decided to put my son into a centre when he was little, as I just couldnt trust someone in their home with no other adults around and him not talking, so I really wouldnt have known what what going on during the day. At least in a centre there are other teachers around and parents coming and going so I felt happier nothing dodgy / unpleasant / cruel was happening.

But I did look at home based carers when my kids (who are both in daycare two days a week) were older as my son was doing kindy and I wanted someone to have my daughter and pick him up from kindy for the rest of the day. I didn;t really find someone I was 100% sure of. there was one lady I really liked, but she wasn't with an agency so didn't do the "free hours" which is something to consider, especially for your older child. And one of them charged for the hours he was in kindy, so I would be paying twice for those hours, which annoyed me! The other ladies didn't, but I just didn't like them or their houses or the other kids they looked after enough to leave my children there (hubby ended up taking one day off a week instead). So definitely meet the other kids they look after and see if your kids like them, and alos their partner if he may be around. check out what sort of trips they go on. Are you happy that she can watch 4 kids at the zoo or park and not lose any etc? If they go to playcentre are you sure she will have time to spend with all the kids she takes? What are the charges vs a centre? Who looks after them if shes sick or her kids are? How much notice will you get if she decides not to do home based care anymore? Will they do a kindy drop off / pick up if required? Is their section secure (I looked at one on a main road where someone could reach over the fence and grab a kid if they really wanted to)? Do you agree on the types of food to send, or will her children be eating junk while you send healthy food? what age kids does she look after? (If its just her and a baby, will it be enough "socialisation" for your older child if she doesn't take them out much). Do you want them going to do chores with her or not? What sort of qualifications do you waat them to have? (Price goes up if they are ECE qualified).

Not sure if that helps - but just a few things to consider. Good luck finding someone!! I know some people love their homebased carers and it works really well, but I guess its just alot of interviewing to find someone you clique with.

Depending on what company you go with, an in home carer is great. I've both used in home care plus do inhome care myself.

Re days off, ie the carer is unavailable, we got to company run activities at least 3 times a week & the kids do get to know the other carers and their kids. It's like meeting up with the same group of "Mums & kids" 3 times a week. So if your chosen carer has to have a day off the person who is available as a back up will be known to your child.

The whole point to me with in home care is that your child is in a home environment, which means they go and do all the usual activities you'd do if you were able to stay home, ie go to the park, the supermarket, kindy etc.

I treat the kids as one of my own & love them as such as well. Most caregivers will feel this way as well, as I could imagine it would be very difficult to look after a child that you don't fall in love with.

Also bonus of in home care, your kids will be together, not in separate areas.

Questions to ask: where they sleep, eat, put their belongs for safety during the day, what discipline do they use, do they encourage independence in the child, ie putting shoes on. What activities do they go to during the week, also find out if you can ask to see another childs journal that they have done.

As in home carer's they should have fire/earthquake drills, smoke dectors, food and water for three days in case of emergency, a hygienic place to prepare food.

lots of good questions here. Most of what I'd say has already been covered.

We also wanted someone who was happy with using MCNs, and didn't just put the kids down in front of the TV on rainy days.

We chose an older carer - you're less likely to have problems with days off IMO. Her daughter is training in ECE, and is approved by the agency (Anglican childcare) as a carer also, so often she will provide backup if necessary. Otherwise, there are several other homecarers that she regularly goes on playdates too; many of the babies from our coffee group are also in homecare so they go on visits to each other's 'day' houses. So there are other carers that she is already used to in emergencies. TBH though, we've hardly had any emergencies - apart from when her carer's dad had a stroke and was about to die. And even then, she went to another carer's house for a few hours, and we picked her up after her sleep.

her carer used to work in a centre, and gave it up because she disliked some of the policies they have to use - some about being affectionate with the kids, some about toilet training, accommodating different needs, etc.

We are lucky though that we live in a small town where there are lots of homecarers and most of them know each other. And our carer absolutely adores our little girl and has already said that she will not be changing from home care to ECE (which is her longterm goal) until she has gone to school and doesn't need her anymore.

I never considered a centre TBH. I much prefer the idea that she has one person that she can rely on, connect and build a relationship with, who can keep track of her development with us and give suggestions on new games etc we can play with her. I know she's going to be a LOT of help when it comes to TT.

ETA: we had an in-home carer (nanny) from 5.5 months, and changed to homecare at around 10 months as we were on our 2nd nanny already, and the 2nd one proved to be really unreliable. I was hoping that a nanny would provide that continuity and relationship - but turned out not to be the case. homecare has done that for us though.

Edited by lisame

I have done in home caring and am nannying at the moment, but want to go back to in home caring,.
I take the children in my care to our church playgroup, and to music and movements, and other outings

Also SMS go with your gut feeling, I saw 3 home carer's before I met the one I had with Alia & just knew she was going to be great.

I find some people opinions on in-home carers quite saddening Our DD has been with an in-home carer since she was 5 months old and I would not have her anywhere else. Our lady has grown children and has been caring for kids for 20 years now so she is very experienced in what she does.

She will take DD when she has a snuffly cold, she is absolutely fine with us being late to pick her up, she is more than happy to take on extra hours if I get overtime, she takes her on wonderful trips around town which DD loves! She has her own cot, in a room with the other girls (they all have their own beds)...

I think for me, the more intimate nature of in-home care is what I really like. DD is part of the carers family, the relationship there is very secure. She has 4 "brothers and sisters" to grow up with, and play with.

Surely youll find "bad" carers in centers too - I guess there are other people there to catch their short-falls but get good in-home carer and there is a bond for life.

I'm really surprised that a (decent? good?) home carer would think it ok to 'drag' the kids out all day on errands. We have to be asked specifically if it's ok to go out to shops/errands, and have ok'ed certain ones on an ongoing basis, but it's only a supermarket, the PO and a school. The home carers I've met would do what they coudl to avoid having the kids out at shops too much bx handling 4 under 5s out and about is not easy!

What's m&m?

Just like there are centres that are not too flash, I guess there are home carers that are the same, and it's trying to pick the good ones.

Isabella wrote: Surely youll find "bad" carers in centers too - I guess there are other people there to catch their short-falls but get good in-home carer and there is a bond for life.

But the "bad" carers would be fired from a good centre, or trained to do things better. No one really knows if a home based carer is doing something bad - until the child is old enough to tell you.

For me if it was the ODD trip to the shops and it was used as a learning experience that would be OK -- but I would much prefer my kids to be interacting with other children and toys at a centre than spending a large part of their day in the car and buggy dropping other kids at kindy/school and picking them up again, and going to the shops in between. so it would be a matter of finding someone who has similar ideas of the type of care/education you are expecting from home based care.