April 20, 2018August 10, 2018
by Jessica Whitney

The Cons of In Home Day Care

Why you shouldn’t choose in home day care (from a mom who did). Say what?!

Okay. I want to be completely ~~honest~~ straight with you in today’s post (I’m always honest with you, duh!). I want to discuss why you shouldn’t choose in home day care (from a mom who did).

Previously I discussed the pros of in home day care and why we loved it. So you might be wondering why I would write this article? Well, I want you to be fully informed, remember? I want you to be an empowered, working mom and parent with all the facts and information to make the best decision for your family and make the day care the least stressful as possible.

That’s part of my passion. Empowering others with information to make the best decisions!

So I put together a list of cons we found with in home day cares. Since my 2 kids were primarily at in home day cares while I worked full time for 4 years, we have a lot of experience with choosing and using in home day cares. A little too much experience for our own good. But, I want to pass on what I know.

Choosing a daycare is probably one of the biggest decisions you’ll have to make if you decide to go back to work. And I want to equip you all as much as possible to minimize the stress because you shouldn’t live like that. It shouldn’t have to be stressful.

I want you to be able to answer the question, “What are the pros and cons of in home day car?” by the time this day care series is through!

The stress of finding the right day care and having consistent, reliable care was probably THE number one stressor when it came to working full time for me. This is why I’m so passionate about informing others and sharing what I’ve learned.

My son was in 8 different day cares by the time he was 4 years old for various reasons. Yes, it was stressful switching day cares that often, but my kids were always more resilient than I expected. If anything it was more stressful for my husband and I to find the day cares than it was for him to switch.

Needless to say we had a lot of experience in how to find the right in home day care.

Before you freak out because you’re thinking, wow, why would y’all switch that much??? We had some extenuating circumstances that came with our day care decisions. But they aren’t really THAT extenuating. They could happen to anyone. It was all just timing.

It’s not always an average of every 6 months that people change day cares. In fact, we used some of our providers for much LONGER than 6 months, but it just averaged out to every 6 months switching.

And oh by the way, I’ve had friends happily stay with the same in home day care provider for years. Unfortunately, due to circumstances it just didn’t happen that way for us. But, everything happens for a reason, right? Right?! Like now I can share my experiences with you all!

Anyway, just so you have some perspective on why we changed in home day cares so often, I thought I would let you have a peak into what drove some of our decisions to change.

Why we had 8 in home day care providers in 4 years

One day care provider moved because her husband was in the military.
We moved because I was in the military.
Little Two was born, and we wanted to keep the kids together at the same provider.
Our day care provider moved across the city, so it was too difficult to get to her house on the way to work.
We had a temporary provider for the summer due to the provider who moved across the city, but she didn’t have the space to keep my youngest full time after the summer.
I stopped working full time so I needed a day care option for only part time.

As you can tell from the list above, the biggest reasons for changing day care providers were people physically moving and job changes. But, you will most likely see this in any day care decision you make for your family. So, it could happen for you too. Again, this is why you should be armed with the best information possible.

I think the above list gives you a glimpse into some of the cons of in home day care (or any day care for that reason). So without further ado…

[The cons] we learned from 8 in home day cares

1. People Move

As I previously talked about, there are many options you might consider when selecting a day care provider and location is one of them. If you or your in home day care provider move, then it may no longer work for you to go to their house for pick up and drop off for the hours they will be open. This is verses an established building and facility like a child care development center that will most likely not change locations.

2. Less Checks and Balances

At an in home day care, the providers are subject to random inspection at any time. They are required to meet all state standards whenever the inspector shows up. But typically speaking this is still only an annual requirement for each of their inspections.

This means that at the home, there is only one adult there at any time. You must make sure you are very confident and trusting of your day care provider in their home because they will not have a second pair of eyes to help watch the littles.

3. Dealing with Sick Days

Unlike day care facilities, where if one of the employees is sick, they call someone in to fill their spot, at an in home day care, there is normally only one provider. If she gets sick, then she will most likely have to close her business, and you will have to find back up day care.

When you use an in home day care provider, I highly recommend having good back-up care available. I think one of the most important things about a day care provider is they should be reliable.

If you don’t have flexibility at work to take off when something like this happens this can cause a lot of stress!

4. Extra Holidays and Vacation

While most of our day care providers were closed for federal holidays or in line with the school system in the local area, some providers also closed additional days for vacation or family.

Most of the care providers that we went to gave plenty of notice about the holidays and vacations, but again, these are simply more days that you have to find alternate care for your kids and can be an added level of stress.

5. Preschool curriculum could be great or lackluster

Since we have seen a large amount of day care providers, I can tell you with certainty that the activities at each one varies greatly.

If the day care provider had a lot of little kids, normally the schedule was more fluid and relaxed and there was mostly a lot of free play time. In other words, there wasn’t much preschool curriculum.

If the in home day care had mostly older kids, then there were a lot more preschool activities and they did a lot more crafts. It really depends on your preference and what stage your kids are in.

Each individual day care provider does it differently so you might have to interview several until you find one with the right amount of activity for you and your children.

6. Price and cost change

With in home day care providers, it is more likely that the prices will vary across the city. But they might also vary with the day care provider. Because of inflation, cost of food, cost of day care in the area, you might find the prices going up at your current day care provider after you’ve been there only a few months. This can be a big concern since you might have selected that day care provider primarily because of price.

7. Limited space at a home you love

As I mentioned earlier in my article about Why We Love In Home Day Cares, in home day care providers have a limited number of spots for certain ages of kids. Normally they cannot have more than two kids under the age of two. This makes it especially difficult to find a day care option for an infant.

You need to look early and ask often to be on the wait list. Additionally, the day care provider might even be full for kids over the age of two. It’s important to start looking early to find a day care provider that meets all of your needs and wants.

I hope that the above list will help you make a more informed decision when deciding where or not in home day care is the right fit for your family.

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