Single parents: How to choose a daycare center

Choosing a daycare center for your child is daunting to any parent. It takes research and time to find a daycare that any parent will deem acceptable for your child. Acceptable because there isn’t anyone who can look after your child in the same manner you do. There are a few basic items or warnings you can look out for to help you determine is a daycare is a safe place for your child to spend the day. Even if your child will only be going to daycare after school, you will want to follow a few simple guidelines.

Video Cameras
Unless you are in a personal home, most daycare centers will have video cameras in the rooms for not only the children’s safety but the teachers’ safety also. Having video cameras in the room will not ensure your child’s safety and shouldn’t be an automatic check in the yes column for a day care center. Here are a few questions you need to find out about the video cameras:
1. Is someone monitoring the cameras? If they are stuck in a back room, what is stopping the teachers from abusing the children?
2. Are the video cameras recording the activity in the room? If there is an incident in your child’s classroom, you will want to be able to see what happened for yourself.
3. Can you view the video cameras upon request? If the management of the day care will not let you watch your child then it should raise a red flag.

Visiting
Whether you are in a personal home or in a day care center, at any time you should be able to visit your child. You should be able to sit in the room and play with them and interact with the other children to see how they respond to adults. This will help you determine if the other children are intimidated by having an adult around or are comfortable. If they are quiet and reserved, then it could just be there nature, but it could also be a sign of abuse. It is recommended that you visit a couple of different times before placing your child at a day care center. You would want to very the different times of day you visit also, to see the interaction between different teachers and children. Once again, if the management or day care provider does not want you to visit, then it should raise a red flag to not place your child there.

Schedule
A schedule doesn’t have as high of importance as the two subjects previously mentioned, but it is still important. If a child is on a schedule not only will it show how your child spent there day, but it will help you with them when they go home. They will already be used to having things done at a certain time, i.e. naps, eating and playing. If you stick with a schedule at home and continue the same type of schedule on the weekends, it will help you maintain a calmer household. A few things you will want to look at for a schedule, is what they will be doing and when nap and feeding times are at.
1. Make sure they are getting both inside and outside activities. This way they will be getting exercise and the provider isn’t just sitting them in front of a television.
2. If you know what time they generally take a nap, it will be easier to have they take a nap at the same time on the weekends.
3. By watching what time they ate a snack, it will help you better determine what time to have dinner. They will fuss less then and be more likely to enjoy the meal, in which case, so will you.

As a single parent, you will want to look closely at the hours of the day care center to determine if it will match up with your hours. Just because you have a contingency plan doesn’t mean they always work. You will also want to watch the other children for bruising, i.e. around the upper arms. Most children get bruised at one time or another, but there are certain areas to watch for to make sure that it isn’t abuse. Letting someone else watch your child for any length of time is a scary proposition, but unfortunately, it is a needed commodity. As with all commodities, there are way to reduce the risk to your child, not necessarily prevent it, but you can reduce.

As a side note, there is an agency that accredits day care centers. They observe for months at a time to determine if a day care is eligible. They also list day care that they have approved. It is the National Association for the Education of Young Children. There website http://www.naeyc.org/ has a wealth of information that will help you in your search.