Daycare location

[Judy Trickett]

How far would be too far if it was a good childcare provider?

It's never too far. These are your kids we are talking about. Quality care (and I mean real, QUALITY care) is hard to find. I don't have a single family in my care from my neighbourhood. Every family I have travels past literally a hundred providers to come to me. And they do that because they realize the importance of quality care for their child.

[Marie999]

If quality daycare was available, I would always choose to place my child near my home. Having care near home makes more sense to me for several reasons:

1) Other people, like your spouse, can easily do pick-up and drop-off.
2) Your child will spend less time in the car which lessens the risk of your child being involed in a car accident (especially in poor weather).
3) If your child is sick it's true that you may get to them quicker if they are near your work, but then you're going home once you pick them up, so do you really want a vomiting child in the car for 30-45 minutes?
4) Having your child near your home makes it easier to drop off and pick-up on those days when you might not be going to work but still have your child in daycare. For example, I had a major dental surgery recently and needed the day off work but couldn't care for my son. In another instance I needed the day off work to help my grandmother in the hospital and didn't want my son spending time in a hosital with diseases and germs everywhere, so he went to daycare that day.
5) Unless you plan to move soon your work location may be more temporary. Or if you have another child and you are on mat leave you might want to keep your first child in daycare a couple days a week for socailization and learing purposes. This isn't something I plan to do but I know alot of people that do it.
6) Choosing care near your home helps to foster a sense of community and helps your child to meet neighbourhood children and have friends. My two best friends growing up were both from the same daycare home, we all started within three months of eachother and "met" when we were 6-12 months old. We went to the same schools, took lessons together and played on the same sports teams. I am still in touch with both of them.
If there were limited options near my home, work would be the next best location and then I would be willing to drive up to 15 minutes out of my way otherwise.

[Spixie33]

I used to commute 30-40 minutes to work when I was working outside the home. I did not want to take my child with me on the 400 series of highways through Toronto because I thought the risk would be too much especially in the winter months. I chose to find daycares that were close to my home but not in my subdivision.

Now that I do daycare I have 2 parents who live in my subdivision and 2 that do not.