Childcare

This checklist will help you ask the right questions when interviewing a potential in-home childcare provider. ...

Keep the babysitter fully informed. Record all emergency information and pertinent data on this printable page, and keep it handy. ...

You may think you've found the best daycare for your child, but are you sure? It's important to know what to look for in a quality daycare center, as well as signs that may indicate a potential problem. After all, if you can't be with your child ...

Child Care Outside the Home A full-time nanny or part-time sitter may not suit your particular needs or situation. You may not be able to afford in-home care. Or you may be unable to find anyone who meets your standards for in-home care. If, for...

In-Home Childcare No matter how much you decide to work, you'll almost definitely be in the market for childcare. Once upon a time, grandparents, aunts, or cousins handled childcare for working parents. But fewer and fewer new parents today live...

Finding a Safe Day Care Center Many parents assume that, because states license day care centers, these facilities are safe and don't need parental scrutiny. Wrong! Requirements vary from state to state. Some state codes are more stringent than ...

Depending upon your family situation, your child may have no trouble at all getting used to a new childcare situation. On the other hand—particularly if he or she is a certain age and has been home with you as the primary caregiver for the past...

Your Family's Need for Childcare Recent United States Census reports show that more than 8 million children under the age of five spend some part of their day in the care of someone other than their parents. Many of these parents had to make toug...

Using Relatives as Childcare GiversEven as recent as a couple of decades ago, members of extended families were likely to live in fairly close proximity to one another, making it easy to share the burden of caring for each other's children when n...

Resolving Problems with the CaregiverIf you do decide to secretly record, you need to check the laws of your state regarding the extent to which taping is legal. As a general rule, videotaping by hidden camera, without audio, is allowed in all st...

Terminating the Childcare RelationshipAny number of circumstances may cause a family to decide to end its relationship with the childcare provider. The decision may not be because of a problem with the relationship. The family may decide to reloc...

Maintaining a Good Relationship with Childcare ProvidersNo matter if you have outside or in-home childcare, one of the best things you can do for your child is to keep up a good association with the child­care provider. The most crucial element ...

Locating Nannies So, how does one begin a search for a nanny? There are generally two ways to go about it. You could go through a nanny agency or you could seek out nanny candidates on your own. The advantage to using an agency is that they do th...

In-Home Childcare Employment Issues A childcare provider who looks after your child in her home rather than yours is usually not considered to be your employee, but is instead known as an independent contractor. If you, rather than the nanny or t...

Protecting Your Child from Abuse in Daycare Watch Out! Never put your child in a day care facility or home that does not have an open-door policy for parents. You should not have to call first, and no areas that children have access to should be...

Hiring an In-Home Childcare ProviderBefore you leave your children with an in-home care provider, you first must go through the process of interviewing your applicant and checking her background. Once you find a provider you wish to hire, you wou...

Harmful or Abusive Childcare SituationsBecause you have done your homework before leaving your child with a caregiver for the first time, the chances of your child being placed in a dangerous childcare setting are minimal. At the same time, you d...

Family Day CareThose who choose family day care for their children are most likely to cite the homey atmosphere of the family day care setting as their main reason for doing so. With few others being supervised by the childcare provider, children...