The problem with choosing a child care centre for Convenience

When you started the process of looking for a child care solution for your family, what was the first thing you thought?

1. There's a centre across the road from my house it will be convenient, let's just enrol there?
2. I need to find a centre that has vacancies? or
3. Let's be organised and make list and visit multiple centres and make a decision about which service is best for our family?

There may be certain situations where you need to find care urgently.

In most cases, I applaud you and your family if you have adopted strategy 3.

Choosing the right care and educational solution for your family is one of the first most important decisions you will need to make for your child.

“Choosing a service purely out of convenience can have long term consequences for your child. Choose a service based on your families values, quality of the service, and the feeling you get when you walk in. It should feel natural, welcoming and like an extended part of the family”

~ Leeza Browne | Founder, Platinum Education

We know changing services can be a challenging decision to make and it seems that the easy decision is to just keep them where they are, but making the wrong decision now can have long term detrimental impacts on your child.

We have had numerous families be brave and take the first step by visiting other services to experience what else is out there.

In one case a family had been going to another service with their 3 year old child for over 12 months, every single day the child would scream at the door. When the family tried to talk to the educators about their child and their worries, the door was closed in their face and they were told, “they will be fine”. Rather than the service taking responsibility and working with the family to support the child, things proceeded with the service telling the parent that they recommended their child needed to see a psychologist. This happened Mum decided to start looking around to see what else was out there, as she felt that the centre wasn’t meeting her child’s needs. Since starting at our service, the child is now thriving. It has been a gradual process, to help the child settle in and build trust with the educators after her previous experience. But now, with the right setting and guidance her experience in early education will be formative for all the right reasons.

Another story that broke our hearts… A parent decided to enrol their child in a bigger, newer, brighter service. Their child would come home crying each day, and didn’t look forward to going the next day. It was a continual battle. The parent gave it some time, but when their child would come home and still did not know any of the teachers’ names and would say, “nobody hugged me today” she realised that it was time to reassess the choice of child care service for their child.

Another child was at a centre across the road from their house, it was close and convenient. The parent wouldn’t even get out of the door before the child was chasing them screaming at the door, “I want to go home”. A fairly normal experience you would say for a few months, but this continued for over 18 months. The family just like any other just thought this was a normal part of the experience of child care. It wasn’t until the family moved house, that even triggered them to look at the option of changing centres.

When asked why these families kept persisting, like it was a battle each day, they said, "Because it was convenient".

My question to you is this: Is convenience worth you and your child's happiness?

Every child care solution is different and you need to find the right child care solution for your family.

In all three of these examples above, the children have now thrived in our service. A child care centre where each child is valued, put first, and really cherished the connection both with the child and also with the family.

What if it could be different? What if your child could thrive instead of survive? What if your child was happy when you left in the morning rather than screaming down the house?

It’s possible.

It’d feel amazing to get to work and actually focus, rather than worry about your precious one having yet another bad day, right?

Maybe it’s time to make the switch:

The first stage of choosing a new service is a comprehensive tour, where you see the service, ask questions and get to know more about where your child is going to spend a lot of their time.

Quality services will ensure you participate in a series of orientations where they can get to know you and more about your family and child. They will have a plan to help your child settle in successfully. This should be the first stage to building a partnership.

A real village.

An extension of your family.

Here at Platinum Education, we encourage every family to be a part of the process of choosing the right child care centre for their child. You get to meet the team, know who is going to be educating your child and ensure that the service matches your family values.

 If you are in the process of looking for a child care solution for your family or thinking about changing services, because something doesn't quite feel right we've created a -child care planner for you to use for FREE to take you through this journey. Head to our website and Download it today and make sure your family is getting the most out of your time in these vital early years.

If you’d like to talk things through further, or even come for a tour of our top-class child care centre, get in touch! We’d love to hear from you.

- Leeza Browne

Founder and Director | Platinum Education