What do you feel are pros and cons

I was asked the other day what I feel are the pros and cons between nanny/au pair care, center care, and dayhome care??

Amount of control the parent has over the care for the child is one thing - with a nanny they set the guidelines but have to provide the space, resources, etc to do it, a centre is the other extreme and they get little say in what happens, they THINK they have more say in a dayhome because of the more intimate nature of it.

Socialization: nanny must take the child out to be with others, in a centre there are lots - often too many others around constantly and in homecare there are only a few to deal with with enough room to get away when they need to.

Cost - nanny and daycare centre can be expensive compared to home care

Playfelt always has the right answers of course. Pros of home daycare vs. centre care: more one on one attention for learning to play, have good manners, imagination stimulation, less germs spread around, a small group of children become best friends which lays the groundwork for school.

Ya - think the only thing I would add to Playfelts are

The Reliability scale ... with both the nanny or home childcare provider if they are sick or on vacation there is a disruption in service that the client must deal with either taking time off themselves OR finding back up care however centre care offers the most reliable care as they are open longer hours, they are open generally 52 weeks a year except stats for cleints and this is a HUGE pro to many working parents .... however the downfall to that reliability is INCONSISTENT STAFF in centre care and that parents have NO CONTROL over whom is caring for their child - to cover all shifts children are exposed to multiple caregivers with multiple teaching styles and expectations which has pros and cons of its own PLUS children can and do arrive in the morning to complete strangers when regular staff are sick and parents are forced to hand over their uneasy child to that 'stranger' and having to have full trust in the administration of the centre that this was a good choice ... this is a HUGE CON for many children who cannot cope with that 'change' and therefore have increased behaviour due to the stress of inconsistency in their caregivers.

The attachment scale ... which is also another variation to consider depending on your views of 'healthy attachment in forming trusting relationships ' .... in both the nanny and home childcare model you have the pro of having that consistent caregiver for many years ideally where the child and parents can form that deeper level of attachment and trust in relationships as well as siblings being able to be together to offer social emotional support as needed - all indicators in developing 'healthy attachment' according to some studies verses centre care where in addition to the various caregivers on a daily basis you are dealing with high staff turnover and the separation of children by 'ages' which means children are not with their sibling during the day and will move through typically 4-6 classrooms ... infant, toddler, junior preschool and preschooler, junior kindergarten, senior kindergarten .... before getting to school full time all of which come with a new set of 'multiple caregivers' and often leaving by peer friends from the last group who do not graduation for several more months .... IMO this is a HUGE CON for many children as these transitions are often stressful and full of extreme anxiety and behavior for many children and IME in centre care many children seem to learn to treat relationships as 'disposable' over time and sort of close themselves off to getting 'close' to anyone and loose that emotional attachment to both adults and children ... and while they may seem to make friends 'easily' in that they learn to just play with 'anyone' ... they do truly MAKE FRIENDS with anyone where they truly attach and get to know each other on a deeper more meaningful level .... I worked in centres where after months of being together most kids did not know the other kids names cause they just stopped 'bothering' to learn them cause in a few months they would be in a new group anyway :(

Great info, thank you all!