Yesterday, I found myself in the position of revisiting my opinion on the daycare versus nanny issue. When I made the decision to choose daycare over a nanny, some of my considerations were
- It's safer to leave 2 babies with a group of adults rather than 1 adult
- I was planning on moving and wasn't in a position to offer anyone a long-term nanny contract
- The babies were young infants and required more attentive care
Even though the head teachers in my babies' room has been with the center for 5 to 13 years, there are still a few temps working in the infant room. This creates an unstable environment; and I'm sad to say that from the babies' mood in the evenings when I pick them up, I can tell if there's been a major change that affected their routine.
The first time I noticed this was when the infant room got two new babies on the same day. The other two times was when there was a new caregiver in the room. In all those occasions, I picked the girls up and their mood was a mix of unhappy, upset and even angry. It made me feel really bad. I didn't realise that even with a few stable people in their lives, babies can still be so sensitive to changes that mean they don't get the care they're used to receiving daily.
If I can get over my paranoia of leaving my kids home alone with a perfect stranger, I think I'll like to go the nanny route and give the girls the environmental stability they so obviously need..
