Child Care from a Licensed Center or a Babysitter - Essay Example

Child Care from a Licensed Center or a Babysitter Many parents of young children, whether new parents of an infant or parents of pre-school aged children, struggle over the decision of whether they should enroll their child in a licensed child care facility or hire a private babysitter of some type. The advantages of a private babysitter are usually given as being able to provide a natural home environment, whether that environment happens to be the home of the child with the babysitter coming in or the home of the babysitter, at which the child is dropped off on the parents’ way to work. It is often thought that the type of one-on-one interaction between babysitter and child is best for the child’s emotional, spiritual and physical well-being. However, this natural home environment is not always the best scenario for a young child’s development. Private babysitters are not held to the same standards, laws and restrictions as licensed child care centers. In addition, licensed child care centers can provide a child with a wide variety of activities and stimulation for growth within a safe and loving environment that equals and often surpasses that offered in the private home. There are several other advantages to the licensed child care center over the individual babysitter, including the strict standards to which they are held accountable by the government, the ability to provide continued growth opportunities for the child through training and equipment and the ability to provide the child with a number of socializing opportunities with other children of similar age and interest. Licensed child care centers, by their very nature, are continuously held accountable to the latest standards and ideals deemed best for the healthy development of young children. This is not always true in the case of the babysitter, who may be very young and inexperienced or significantly older and established in old traditions. The licensed child care center must prove on a regular basis, the duration of which varies depending upon state and standard, that they meet current health and safety requirements for the children in their care and must maintain adequate background records on all staff employed within the facility. Any standard not meeting the state’s requirements must be rectified within a specified period of time. These standards include not only the equipment used, such as cribs, playground toys, classroom equipment and changing facilities, but also less measurable things such as providing balanced lunch menus and cleanliness standards within the kitchens, classrooms, restrooms and even storage areas. Other safety measures are also commonly put in place such as fire and other alarms, security features and protected play areas to ensure children are kept safe at all times. These features are rarely in place within the home of the babysitter and even less often in the home of the individual family. Gaining access to background checks on an individual babysitter may not even be among the individual family’s considerations when seeking a private babysitter and few, if any, standards for security or health are taken into account. In addition, the individual home, whether that of the babysitter or the family, is much more difficult to customize to the specific needs of the child through such measures as smaller toilets and sinks, safety catches on doors and protected play areas indoors and out. The licensed child care facility also typically offers a wide range of activities for developing children that can grow with the growth of the child, including the skill levels of the teachers involved. One of the standards often regulated by states is the continuous training of staff members to ensure appropriate care and teaching of young children according to developmental levels and the latest research outcomes. These training sessions result in the yearly acquisition of materials and equipment designed to facilitate the learning outcomes deemed most appropriate for children based upon their age and developmental levels. Instructional materials are typically introduced as early as age three, although some child care centers also begin such instructional activities as music participation at age two and sign language within the infant classroom based upon current research outcomes. As a child gains in developmental skills, they can be moved into other classrooms that more closely match the skills they are working on, providing them with a means of developing according to their own inner schedules while still providing them with the tools and teachers they need to maximize their learning. Much of these types of advantages are not available to the individual babysitter either because of a lack of time, as they cannot attend daytime training classes when they must be at home babysitting, or because of a lack of money to pay for such training, or a lack of interest since the state does not require or regulate how much training they receive or don’t receive. In addition, the babysitter does not often have the ability to purchase new or updated equipment and materials to suit the changing needs of the individual child in his/her care but instead requires the child to adapt to the equipment, materials and knowledge already on hand. Finally, it has often been shown that children require the ability to socialize with other children of their own age set in order to fully develop the skills they need for future assimilation within society. If they do not learn certain skills when they are young, it becomes very difficult for them to learn these skills when they are older. By providing a learning environment where there are several children of the same age group, children are provided with a means of not only interacting with other children of their age, but to discern the difference between friends and acquaintances which further helps them to define their own personality in comparison with the rest of the world. By moving through the various classrooms and developmental levels within the licensed child care center, children are able to map out their own progress and gain a sense of identity and accomplishment frequently unavailable in the private babysitter setting. They are provided with examples of older students to whom they may look up to as examples as well as a set of younger students to whom they may provide inspiration. This instills in them both a continuing desire to achieve as well as a sense of importance and worth that would be difficult to duplicate in the smaller setting of the babysitter’s household. While it may be tempting to consider private babysitters as the best form of child care for a young child, there remain too many advantages to the child attending a licensed child care center to be ignored. Children experiencing this type of setting not only gain the advantage of the latest techniques and approaches to education and development, but they are provided with a more secure and safe environment that still enables them to interact with children of their own age set, making them better socialized and ready to tackle the unique challenges of the outside world. There remain several other advantages to the licensed child care center that are focused more upon parent security, convenience and the adult issues of teacher/child ratio as well; the arguments presented here are focused primarily on the best interests of the child. Read More