Home Based care

I have my boy in care 2 days a week through PORSE. I looked at every home care agency in Auckland and some were great and some were crap and I wouldn't trust an animal to them.

As a parent, I liked PORSE's professional approach - they spoke to me like I had brains and gave me lots of written material that was comprehensive. I really dislike their administration and have found their contracts quite misleading. **Deep breath, let it go**

One agency (I won't name) rang me and said they had a woman nearby - I asked more questions "Oh, she's doing it cos her kids thought she needed something to do during the day". Yeah right, like my kid is going there.

Others were real sticklers for the rules (the central branch of one agency) and made me feel really uncomfortable; their west and north agencies was brilliant and practical.

I would not do it privately. I want to know that there is supervision of the carer, that they have been well vetted beforehand, and that there is someone qualified overseeing my child's care. My carer is an ECE teacher with 20 years experience, and now that I know her and have seen her with DS for 2 months, I would go with her if she left PORSE, but in going to someone new, I wanted the system behind them.

if you dont mind what was misleading about PORSE's contracts? I wouldnt want to mislead anyone

Yep I personally wouldnt put my kids into care if the person wasnt backed by an organisation. In saying that I wouldnt put my kids into home care (thats my job)

I suppose that last statement is strange since DH is currently doing an ECE degree ... but I figure if I dont get to spend the day enjoying my child .. im not paying someone else for the pleasure

I would definitely go with an organisation, as unless you know someone, they're probably not likely to want to leave their child with a stranger full time (well I wouldn't anyway). Also for you, it's good to have support and some sort of direction. You will be an educator so you will need the guidance etc.

Personally unless I really had to I would never put my child in home-based care, but I think if I had someone like Flissty's son's carer, I would reconsider. There are just too many untrained people that are in it (sorry to offend anyone but I'm one of THOSE people that likes a trained carer lol) so they don't have to leave home rather than because they want to teach (still just my opinion, my MIL and a good friend are both educators so I see what they do all day etc).

I think the one thing my friend has found the hardest is you don't have the luxury of working outside the home or even being a full time SAHM- like ducking down to the supermarket with your child. So I think you need to have a good support network close by (library, coffee group, music, parks etc) which will get you through those 'bad' days (hey we all have them, but sometimes when they're someone else's kid you just want to send them away!)

Good luck anyway. I'd recommend PORSE too - haven't used them myself but that's who my friend is through and she had heaps of support when she was setting up and has a lot of content sent through to her for PD.

Edited by emz

Just been on a few of the websites and i notice that barnardos requires you be over 20?? why is this? im 19. Will anyone accept me? Now im stressed because i was getting all excited about the posibility of this.

Hi Angel4

I've just started with Porse and have found them to be quite good. I havent actually got any children in my care yet, but so far they have been really professional.

They do require you to be over 20 years old though.

I work as a home based educator too, im pretty sure the 'you must be over 20' has something to do with the parents being able to claim subsidy (sp?) if the carer is over 20 and they can't if their not...? (i worked as a Nanny for a few years when i was under 20 and it was the same you had to be 20+ but the family i worked for didnt mind that it meant they had to pay a bit more) I could be wrong , it might be a different reason now as that was a 2 years ago now.
Some places might not make a big deal if your close to 20 as what difference does a few months make (if its not a legal thing)? Would be different if you were 17!

Also some organisations let you train for your certificate while you work as long as youve had enough experience. There are definintly advantages to going with an organisation as they give you all the equipment you need and hold playgroups, gyms etc

Good luck!

From the POV of a parent who used home based care.

Initially I went with Barnados. I felt better paying my money to them & then they took care of paying the caregiver. This allowed us to become friends.

I was given three people to vett & luckly for me I found the most fabulous lady same age as me to look after DD. When she shifted companies we shifted with her. She had had training but I was not worried about that. I was given a profile on her before I went to see her.

My main reason for putting DD in homebased care was so that she had a semblence of the life she would have had with me but unfortunately I had to work so I did what I thought was the next best thing.