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Choosing the Right Child Care for My Family

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By Summer Blackhurst February 5, 2016
I loved the kids at the daycare I used to work at and I cried when the time came for me to move on to another job. The babies had finally learned to pronounce my name and I had the task of getting 10 toddlers to sleep all in one room at the same time down to an art. Even though working at a daycare was a good experience for me, I would chose an au pair for my own child care needs. Here are the five reasons why:
  1. Consistent, loving child care. Daycares can experience a lot of turnover for reasons such as uncompetitive pay.  The kids have to get used to a new childcare provider with each change. Au pairs participate in your family life and activities creating a consistent, safe and loving environment.
  2. Calm, comfortable environment. At daycares, you may find kids doing their own thing in every corner, and often times it can get very loud. An au pair provides safe, reliable live-in child care and supervision of your children in the comfort of your own home.
  3. Lots of adventure. With daycare, opportunities for adventure can be limited due to expenses and resources. An au pair offers a valuable cultural experience for your entire family.
  4. Personal wellness. While there is plenty of time for socialization, at daycare, there is often a lot of conflict and sharing of germs because of the sheer number of kids all in one space. The au pair cares for your family within your own home and provides personalized care for your children.
  5. Lots of one-on-one time. There is often not a lot of one-on-one time with daycare providers. An au pair has the ability to provide loads of one-on-one time and are passionate about their caregiving.
I would choose an au pair because I want my kids to have that one special someone always near that they can trust.  I want the childcare provider to love my children, more like a live in nanny might. I want one-on-one care, especially during my children’s pre-kindergarten ages and to have more attention from an adult then they might receive from a daycare experience.

I like that with Go Au Pair I can interview and match up my values with the caregiver. I want to be able to have the caregiver in my home, while I am around so I can see how they live, what their priorities are and witness their relationship with my children.
 
An international nanny program seems to be a perfect fit for so many of these prerequisites. An au pair is someone I can watch and come to trust to build a solid relationship with my children and myself. Having an au pair under the same roof would also help me feel secure in knowing there is always another set of hands to help even after childcare hours. What is really surprising, often the cost of having an au pair is comparable to having two or more children in daycare. The biggest reason I would choose an au pair over daycare, is that my children would have a more stable environment than what I had seen at the daycare I worked at. 

Summer Blackhurst used her daycare job and afterschool programs to get her through school to become a writer, photographer, and a parenting and childcare researcher for Go Au Pair, where she has also interviewed some families about daycare versus au pairs. Summer took a crash course in parenting five years ago. She had her first boy, followed two years later by another boy, and then 18 months later by her bouncing baby girl.