Nursery vs. Baby Sitting

[gracellp]

Wondering the pros and cons of sending a 18 months baby to nursery or a private baby sitter.

[evan1222]

well basically, nursery has a public environment whereas baby sitter is more of a private, situation and more attention paid to your kid.

I have 26 mths kid and had sent him to baby sitter before and then now my parents are taking care of him. Plan to send him to those nursery and day care center nx year.

:)

[p031642]

For me, i would choose nursery as it has the environment for your child to mix around with other kids and learning things from teachers. You will notice that your kid tends to learn thing faster. The only bad things i can foresee are they will get sick easily, start learnig some vulgar words, thought this is not always happen. Generally, the good things outweigh the bad one.

For private baby sitters, unless they are are somone that you can entrust for your baby needs then is not a bad things to consider too.

[birdy]

You have to bear in mind that not all nursery will take in a child younger than 24 mths or 2 years old being that 18 mths may be too young to be put to nursery since they may not know how to talk yet, and some may just start learn to walk, still not stable.

My 2 cents opinion would be to send to baby sitter until your child is slightly above 2 years .... :)

[gracellp]

It was my original plan to sen my son to baby sitter until above 2 years, send to nursery but my friends and i got bad experience with the baby sitters. It seems like very hard to find a good baby sitters now.

[LMei]

Before you send your kid to a babysitter, you need to visit the sitter for a few days and spend your time there. Observe how she takes care of the other kids and yours. Ask her questions and make sure her values are similar to yours. I am fortunate to find a good sitter, even though she takes care of 6 other kids. She is good and clean and knows how to handle them and discipline them in a right way. I'm quite happy with her.

[gracellp]

Before you send your kid to a babysitter, you need to visit the sitter for a few days and spend your time there. Observe how she takes care of the other kids and yours. Ask her questions and make sure her values are similar to yours. I am fortunate to find a good sitter, even though she takes care of 6 other kids. She is good and clean and knows how to handle them and discipline them in a right way. I'm quite happy with her.
Yeah, you are very fortunate. I got some friends have the same problem with their baby sitter too. I did observed the baby sitter from the beginning and found she was almost perfact as a baby sitter......but actually a lot of times she pretend. But i am sure there are good baby sitter out there.

[LMei]

You should also observe how the other kids relate to her... if they always like to be near her and hug her, etc... it shows that she is a very loving person and knows how to deal with them.

[evan1222]

Well basically, it's not easy to judge them when u are around. I hd tried 2 baby sitters before, both are very nice. The 1st one is perfect but she had 2 other kids to look after and mine was just temporarily. Another was coming and had booked her. Then the nx one, nice family, clean and nice house but my son is afraid of her. Probably very fierce. Took him back after 4 mths, do not want him to lose his confidence. Now with my parents but will take him back here nx year to send to nursery. He can communicate a bit now, problem is when the kid is unable to communicate and he is abused, we will not knw.

[gracellp]

I believe my 18 months old son was abused by the baby sitter. He always has screthes on his face. I was always told he fell down. He got whole patch of inner blooding (those red dots) on his left cheek last week. Due to my son is too young to communicate, i asked the baby sitter and the answer is "don't know, maybe he squeeze his face when sleeping". I managed to ask the other 3 years old boy that she is also taking care, and the answer is "Auntie bit him" (should be slapped). Well, i believe a 3 year old kid will not tell lie. The next day after the incident, my son's right cheek got black-blue and the baby sitter said he fell down. Without any further, i terminated her.

[p031642]

As a parent myself, I understand how you feel now. The answer is clear, the 3-year old had relayed such an important tip-off to you that your son was bullied or the "auntie" can't cope with her work, probably taking care of many kids at one time.
If i were you, will consider nursery at this juncuture.

[LMei]

I believe my 18 months old son was abused by the baby sitter. He always has screthes on his face. I was always told he fell down. He got whole patch of inner blooding (those red dots) on his left cheek last week. Due to my son is too young to communicate, i asked the baby sitter and the answer is "don't know, maybe he squeeze his face when sleeping". I managed to ask the other 3 years old boy that she is also taking care, and the answer is "Auntie bit him" (should be slapped). Well, i believe a 3 year old kid will not tell lie. The next day after the incident, my son's right cheek got black-blue and the baby sitter said he fell down. Without any further, i terminated her.
Oh dear, that is shocking. My sitter will always tell me if he does fall down or anything like that. And if she notice a bruise that is not caused under her care, she will call me immediately to find out if I know anything about it.

[belladonna]

i believe it is good to send your child to a babysitter/private home until he/she is abt 24mths. relatively speaking, a young child/baby needs constant attention which the staff at the nursery may not be able to give (as compared to a babysitter). however, it is not easy to find one who is not totally driven/motivated by money only.

i have had my share of "good" and "bad" bsitters.

bsitter no. 1 - lived in a very neat hse and was loving to my son (abt 2+ then). on hind sight, it could have been somewhat, a show. one day i brought him hm after work and noticed a patch of burnt mark (with skin peeled off) on his back (near the waist). he was too young to explain what had happened to him but said something abt "koko". spoke to bsitter who said "don't know" and denied knowing anything at all. i concluded that the bsitter's young son (std 1 then) could have accidentally spilt hot water on our boy's back (while he was sleeping? that was while he didn't know what happened).
thinking back, i wonder why i continued to send him son there - probably out of desperation.
another time, he feel off from the toilet seat and knocked his head blue black. this time, my son said she was on the phone. imagine putting a child on the (adult) toilet seat, without any support for his legs, while she was on the phone!

more encounter with bsitter no.1 coming up....

[gracellp]

Oh My God! It's very serious. You are right, you could terminate her immediately after the first case.

I was trying to search for nurseries for the past two weeks and found difficulties to send my son there simply these few reasons:

1) Not accept 2 years old and below
2) No extension time for sending and pick up time
3) No constant attention
4) No dinner provided

Due to my long working hour, seems like i got no choice and i have to send my son to baby sitter. Still desperately looking for it.......