Positive daycare experience/advice please!

Wow, you live in Pasadena and the prices are so much better than LA haha. We did a part-time nanny at 28 dollars per hour for a few months. At the time, I was using my vacations to work less hours. As I work full-time, I would need a full time nanny, which would be around 1000 a week. My baby is in a daycare, and I pay 1850 per month. It is much cheaper. My baby likes it. But she started when she was 8 months old. Babies between 9 and 24 months tend to have a harder time to adapt because of separation anxiety. So your baby may be upset during the first weeks. But a good daycare may be better than a nanny. Good nannies are very expensive.

I would do a nanny at that age. We picked a great nanny on care.com and she’s $30/hr but worth it. I only have her 2 days a week though

My son is almost 3 and absolutely thrives at daycare! He’s been going since he was 8 months. He has genuine friends he’s been with since that age. They have music teachers come in multiple times a week for classes, they do daily art projects, play outside multiple times a day. He has also learned a ton there, and he’s very extroverted so he genuinely loves being around the other kids. As a teacher myself I can tell that the teachers there genuinely care for him as well. Anytime there have been minor issues they’re quick to respond (talking about stuff like a kid biting in the classroom which is of course totally age appropriate, not anything like lack of supervision or more serious stuff). People will always share horror stories about daycare but I remind myself of how many millions of kids must go to daycare every day and the minuscule percentage that are likely to ever have issues. You should also be able to look up the daycare records for your county/area for violations.

We personally waited till my son was 2.5 to start him in “preschool”. It was a great time for him as he has crazy amounts of energy and his vocabulary, social skills and eating has really improved. New ways of doing things, we dont have many friends or family around so he doesnt get as much socialization so its really nice him knowing the educators and his classmates etc. The class he is in also goes for tons of trail walks and very outdoor focused which is great as he loves outside and sticks, rocks etc lool overall very positive experience! It was hard the first week for me and him but after that got alot better! :) yesterday I was wondering how he was doing as hes been a bit tired/sick/emotional and I knew they were at the park so I drove by and peeked on him happily playing on the slide lol I am in a small town so that does help with feeling more confident about safety etc.

Can you look at a family care centre instead so it's like 1 adult per 4 children it's normally run at someone's house and it's more family friendly

My four-year-old has been going to daycare since he was pretty small, and it’s honestly been such a positive experience for him. He’s really thriving there, and I think a big part of that is because I took time to find the right place. I looked into the daycares carefully, checking out what they teach, the activities they do, and even made visits to get a feel for the environment. I specifically went for a Montessori with smaller class sizes, so the staff can keep a close eye on each child. I love that they give the kids a good balance of play and early learning – now that he’s four, they’ve started introducing ABCs and some other basics. I feel it’s great for his development and confidence, especially before starting school. Daycare has been such a positive thing for him, helping him build social skills, independence, and a love for learning in a fun way. It really feels like it’s setting a solid foundation for him!