gerald, shirley and berrypie,
since i've got the time to type an ultra long post, i might as well share my two cents worth abt babysitters and infant care services. i work full time and i've tried both. my boy was cared for by a sitter between 2 months and 1 year old. subsequently we sent him to an infant care centre when he was between 1 year 1 month old and 1 year 6 months old. he's on full day childcare now. okay, here goes the ultra long post ...
what i liked about my babysitter:
1. flexibility: before my boy turned 1, i worked mondays to thursdays only, and frequently took half days to bring my boy out for PD appointments, meet friends etc. sitter allowed me to pay her less on days that i didn't require her services.
2. helpful: she volunteered to cook dinner for my boy daily, so that we could feed the porridge to him after we've brought him home. extra service that came in real handy, because if you're working full day, you won't want to have to rush home to prepare dinner for the kid. didn't pay her extra for the dinner, but she provided anyway.
3. proximity to my mum's place: stayed a block away, so whenever we ran out of breastmilk, my dad could just deliver a frozen pack to her place in a jiffy.
4. convenience: she does laundry for us and washes the miscellaneous things (cutlery, milk bottles) that we leave over at her place.
5. two for the price of one: she had a twin sister who's not working, and who visits her daily. helps to babysit my boy too at no extra cost!
what i didn't like about my babysitter:
1. watches a lot of TV: a lot of children who are cared for by home sitters and grandparents inevitably spend a large chunk of their daytime glued to the TV
2. speaks chinese: i had to use an online eng-chinese distionary whenever i needed to pass written instructions to her (on my boy's diet, breastmilk instructions etc). my chinese is atrocious.
3. far away from my own home: we stayed at my mum's place on weekdays so that i could sleep with my boy every night. we missed our own home, even though my mum's place was a much bigger and cleaner home
what i liked about infant care services:
1. environment: love the full length windows at my centre - i like it that my boy can walk over to the windows and oversee a road/stretch of trees whenever he's in the play area.
2. social skills: he gets to interact a lot with a whole host of people at the centre - infants, parents, toddlers, teachers, cleaner, cook, principal. infants and teachers at the centre come from all over the world, speak different languages, have different ethnicity etc.
3. age-appropriate activities: infants who can't walk yet are on rockers, and can observe the older infants flip, crawl and walk. infants who are able to walk have age-appropriate toys that allow them to play-pretend, and age-appropriate activities like reading. as they are nearing 1 year 6 months old, school will encourage them to drink from a straw/cup and self-feed.
4. meticulous: the centre that we go to jots down every single thing about the child, right down to how many diapers he changes in a day, at what time, how much milk he took, at what time etc. this is actually for the teachers' benefit, since one teacher cares for 3-4 infants at a time, so jotting down ensures that the teacher will not forget to change/feed anyone. but lists/information is useful for parents like me, who need to supply an exact amt of breastmilk for consumption.
5. hygiene: definitely tons cleaner than the sitter's house, my mum's place and my own house.
what i didn't like about infant care services:
1. a lot of barang barang: bathing towels have to be changed daily, 6-7 sets of clothes have to be readied daily. mattress covers and blankets have to be changed weekly. milk bottles have to be changed daily ... etc etc list goes on. day in and day out, i'm lugging a big bundle of things to the infant care centre, and back home.
2. inflexibility: once the child has the slightest fever/cold, you've gotta leave the workplace immediately to bring him home, even if it's right smack in the middle of your workday. no ifs and no buts. sitters will gladly care for sick children, but infant care centres won't.
3. falling sick often: infant/toddlers who start school for the first time get sick very often. my boy's sick period lasted for 2-3 months. he wasn't sick for the entire duration, but would get a fever/cold etc etc every other week.
4. price: when i placed my boy at the infant care centre, the $600 subsidy hasn't kicked in yet. i think i paid abt $1K a month thereabouts. $300 more expensive than my sitter
5. food is salty: i've tasted it before, and it's too salty for my standards.
6. nearer to workplace/home: i used to pop by the centre at lunch times (abt 15 min walk from my office) just to look at him nap, refill his supply of breastmilk, or just chat with the teachers. i also got to move home when we stopped going to the babysitter's!
haha.. 