Nanny or nursery? so Mama goes back to work #2

When Mom plans to return to work (you could read about my planning in my first post in this series, Fr. here) we think about the 3 most popular care options for our baby: Grandma, Nanny or Nursery. My maternity is over in a month and a half and I return to my part-time job. The most important decision related to this is ahead of us – what is the best care to provide the child?

We have made a subjective assessment of all 3 options.

Option No. 1 Grandma

Unfortunately, this is not our option. None of Santa’s Grandmothers has such a possibility because either he is professionally active or distance is an obstacle.

Option No. 2 and 3 or Nursery or Nanny

Trust,

We, personally, trust a nursery institution much more than the institution of a nanny or “stranger” in our home. Why?

There are other children in the nursery, older ones, who are already talking and can tell their parents about possible neglect (wet diapers, bad food, unpleasant atmosphere, not to mention broadly understood violence)

The nanny stays in our house alone with the child, the one-year-old child cannot complain, we can only closely observe them, but human manipulative abilities know no limits, and the children are so trusting … The nanny also has access to our personal life, not everyone he will be comfortable with it.

Fun and learning

I guess no one doubts that nothing can replace joyful fun and contact with peers? If the child has no problems with shyness, he will certainly appreciate those few hours a day spent in the nursery with peers.

When it comes to learning, we also believe that in a nursery, a child will learn more than with a nanny at home. And I do not mean English, but for example group work, tolerance, mutual acceptance. Many games in a group are impossible to recreate at home. And these emotions … we think that, unfortunately, even the most devoted and committed Nanny will not provide them.

Food

In the nursery there is one menu for all children (slight modifications are possible), so if the child is allergic or severely allergic, you will probably find that you could use 0-40% of the food they offer. You would have to provide the rest yourself.

So, both in the nursery version and employment of Nanny, we would still have to cook for the child, with the difference that in the case of a nursery we would have to prepare breakfast and dinner at home the day before. In Nanny’s case that would be her responsibility.

Security

If your child is allergic, it is especially important for you to follow the diet and the rules for introducing new products. You must not allow any mistakes and you must keep your eyes around your head, especially since the Child began to want to eat what everyone else is eating. Especially dangerous are situations in which an allergic child sees other children eating and, of course, according to the rule: the neighbor’s grass is always greener, and is used by others to eat.

At home, Nanny would be responsible for preparing meals for one and only child, it is much more difficult to make a mistake.

snooze

There is only one nap in the nursery and it starts at 12 o’clock. Mikołaj gets up every day around 5:30 – 7:30 a.m., and the first nap is between 8 and 10 a.m. and lasts about 2 hours, which is completely different from the nursery rhythm of the day and we would have to force it to a new rhythm. A plus seen by some is that after returning home, Santa would take a nap and I would have a chance to cook dinner or take care of a blog. Only after work, I had a vision of carefree play in the grass, and not a fallen child … but okay, I could postpone the game a little later.

Choosing a nanny who will come to us at home, we will not have to change anything in the natural rhythm of our child.

choirs

Probably every parent dreams of a healthy child, we dream that after joining the nursery group, Mikołaj would always be healthy and smiling. But quite the opposite information is pouring out to us everywhere. Apparently, every child who joins a peer group must “grow up”, that is, acquire immunity through contact with foreign bacteria and viruses. So, if a Child joins a nursery school, he will start to fall ill at the age of 1-2 years, if he joins a kindergarten or school institution, this age will be shifted accordingly. Undoubtedly, the older the Child, the more mature his immune system and the better he goes through diseases, which are therefore less of a threat to him. Supposedly, a huge increase in immunity in all children is related to the maturity of the immune system after the age of 3.

If we leave the child at home with Nanny, this problem will almost not occur.

Price

Santa needs 5 hours a day care. The cost of a private nursery is PLN 600, the cost of a Nanny in our neighborhood, i.e. in a large city, is PLN 1100-1320 per month (PLN 10-12 per hour). Here, everyone has to answer the question of whether they have a choice at all … whether the Nanny option is even within their reach.

“Are you putting your child in a nursery?”

We spread the word about our dilemmas to the right and left. The very structure of this question asked us proves the negative perception of the institution of a nursery by a large part of our society. We value the opinions of others very much, but we also like to check various possibilities ourselves and form an opinion about them.

To have a full comparison, we decided to visit local care centers for babies. In the next post in this series I will give you an account! and maybe we will answer the question of a nanny or a nursery?

Do you have any tips for us on what to look for during such a visit to the nursery? What would be important to you?