In today's episode of the Lounge, we asked the parents present: What are the qualities of the ideal daycare? And so I ask this community: What are the features you look for? What are the most desirable characteristics of the facilities, staff, and philosophy of a child care center? What do you most want for your young child?

We are looking into day cares now actually, any input would be really fantastic!

Take lots of time to tour the entire facility. Check out, not only the staff, but the kids! If you can, ask to chat with a few of the older kids, or their parents. If the kids are happy at day care, the staff is likely top notch. Don't go when you'll be rushed through the tour. You want to be able to get a good feel for it. I compare it to buying a house... or how women talk about a wedding dress... when you find the right one, you just know, almost immediately.<br><br>Ask about the turnaround of staff, hopefully those who are there have been there a long time. Ask about their training and accreditations. What is the child-to-teacher ratio? Vacations, special closed dates, early/late pick ups, even building security. No detail is too small to question. You are entrusting strangers to care for your child. It's not easy to do, so if you're not comfortable with the facility, the staff, or simply the vibe, then that's not the place to leave your child. I don't want to scare you, and it seems overwhelming if you think about it too much. I say go with your gut, but check out the details anyway.<br><br>Good day cares are used to dealing with new parents and understand your anxieties and concerns. How well they do at calming those nerves BEFORE the first day of caring for your child is the key. Good luck!

Thanks a ton man! I'm totally writing this down like a nerd

Obviously, caring staff. A staff that is in doing this job because they love kids. You can tell someone who does it just to have a job. So can the kids. A CLEAN environment is also important to me. As an infant, structured/educational play is not essential. Take care of his food and diaper, and play/hold/snuggle/play some more, and the kid will be fine. As Indy gets older, we may move him to a facility that is more like a school, because we'd like him to get more educational play from others.

I'd look for a couple of things, on the serious side. Look for a clean place, that can go far in levels of dedication. Is the playground equipment maintained or are there nuts and bolts falling off of everything? Call around to agencies and see if they have any hits with either the building or the staff. If they've been on the news, it's probaby not a good thing.<br><br>Since the reaction can differ so widely from facility to facility, talk to parents and get good solid references. The three words licensed, bonded, insured don't hurt much either.<br><br>To top it all, paramount to all other considerations, if they do not have large containers of frosty fermented pilsner beverages, or a visually pleasing staff to enlighten me to their selection of pilsner beverages, my kid will be dwelling elsewhere.<br><br>Bri-

One of the things that really impressed me about the Swedish daycare was the quality of the outside space, and the emphasis they put on getting the kids outside. I love that, and really appreciate that about the place we keep Coop cooped.

Dude, you're supposed to be on vacation.<br><br>Buh...bye....now.....

In Virginia, all child care centers are subject to both scheduled and random inspections from the state. The state posts the results of these inspections on the Internet for all to see. Some of the violations are stupid things like a milk bottle that was not labelled with the child's name. Other things are truly horrifying such as a kid who was left in the bus out back for 1.5 hours!!<br><br>So, if you live in a state like Virginia, I think research should start with the state inspections. But that obviously does not tell the entire story, it's just a first order filter.<br><br>In my opinion, staff turnover is the most important indicator of quality. If there is a lot of turnover, then the employess are not happy or they don't agree with the way the place is run. On the other hand, if the employees stick around for a while then they're probably happy and will be in a better and more understanding mood, which has a direct impact on the kids.<br><br>I guess I feel pretty strongly that the rate of staff turnover is the number 1 thing to check out at any childcare center...I think it gives insight into what REALLY happens behind closed doors, after the parents leave for the day. On the other hand, you might not really get a good feel for turnover until you have tried out a facility for a while and can count the new faces yourself.

How do you feel about discipline in a daycare? I just toured a facility that was so baby proof that my son would be able to go basically anywhere without worrying about non-childproofness. On the one hand i like that he'd have that freedom; on the other hand I worry that he'd get too used to it and have trouble learning about boundries.<br><br>This isn't about wanting the facility to have less childproofing. My point is that I wonder when he should start learning boundries. What do you think?

Boundaries can be learned at home, if that's your only concern.<br><br>The place that Abby goes to is incredibly child-proofed, so the children learn new ways to test boundaries!

To tag onto Nik -<br>Child to staff ratio is a great question to ask. One that we had not thought of but because a real issue this year was coverage in the case of caregiver absence. One of the teachers had to leave because of a job change for her husband. (Ours is part of a system of centers) They pulled one of the teachers from our facility to cover at that one, but they had people at the ready to step in. You can check on your states regulations on the ratio.<br><br>Another question I would ask is about background checks. I worked at a summer camp and we had checks done on every staff member once a year. Overkill? Maybe. Safety of your child first? Definately. You can not legally ask to see the reports, but as long as they're being done you should be good.<br><br>As for philosophy...Hmm. I think that a variety of activities is great, and I enjoy seeing the creativity of the staff. It's not an essential, but certainly makes it more interesting as the year goes along. Our place actually has monthly themes and weekly themes that fit with each other.<br><br>As for facilities - they must be clean when you tour, and cleaned when you're there. Ask them about their cleaning schedule. Ours gets a wipe down daily, but gets bleach cleaned on a schedule and the floors get mopped every Friday afternoon.<br><br>Just a personal thing - I can't stand the church nursery's that we have been to because of one thing: the toys. They are all the toys that I played with 30 years ago. Almost literally the.same.toys. I know that the quality of toys, and I'm confident that the reguations on them, has gotten better over the years.<br><br>I'm sure there is more, but I have to get ready to go play with outdated toys at the church nursery...