Common Mistakes Parents Make When It Comes To Child Care
When you enroll your child in a Childcare program, you do so with the best intentions. However, before you entrust your impressionable young ones to the care of a child care service provider, you need to do your due diligence. Besides researching them, you’ll need to put in regular efforts to see how your child is progressing and if the child care provider is living up to their standards.
As a busy parent, it’s easy to forget these requirements and blindly trust a recommended child care provider. Unfortunately, if you do so, you could face several challenges that impair your child’s development academically, emotionally, and physically. It can even hamper their health. To avoid these misfortunes, Rainbow Academy Learning & Child Care Center has explained a few common mistakes parents make when it comes to child care. Keep reading to see what they are and how to avoid them.
1. Setting unclear expectations
The first time you meet with a new child care provider, you will discuss primary responsibilities, such as timings, fees and payments, and meals and snacks. You should also discuss your day-to-day expectations, including discipline style, what the staff will do in case of an emergency, any allergies from food, medicine, pets, or environments that your child has, emergency contact persons, family parenting styles, etc.
2. Not respecting your child care staff
To ensure that you and your child care provider stay on the same page, you should treat them and their time with respect and insist that your children do, too. Your child care provider should have some privacy, and you should respect their time as well. If they have set clear standards for the time that they work, then you shouldn’t be late to pick your child up or drop them off. With mutual respect, quality child care for your child is better guaranteed.
3. Not paying attention to your child
If your child mentions anything that they don’t like about the child care they are receiving, it should be addressed and not ignored. If you ignore this, your child can begin acting out, which can be stressful for both the child care provider and yourself. You should also take note of your child’s behavior. If they are quiet after you pick them up, this is something to be concerned about. Consider sitting in for a day with the child care provider just to better understand this behavior, or ask to have a meeting with your provider to discuss this.
4. Not having communication with your child care staff
In your rush to get to work, it’s easy to run out the door and assume that all is going well with your child’s care unless you hear otherwise. But, this is not a good approach. Make an effort by having a conversation with your Childcare staff. You could do it by phone call, sending an email, writing a note, or meeting them in person. Be sure to meet with your child care provider for regular check-ins, at least a couple of times per year, to discuss your child’s behaviors, interests, needs, and developments. To keep the conversation honest and candid, make sure your child is not around to overhear or distract you.
5. Not thinking of the future
Children tend to be more successful and feel more confident in themselves and their lifestyle if they have a consistent child care provider they can rely on. Choosing a child care provider you are unsure of is not a good idea because you don’t want to constantly be pulling your child in and out of different child care services.
To avoid these and other mistakes when it comes to child care services, reach out to the experts at Rainbow Academy Learning & Child Care Center. We are a licensed Childcare in Bolton, ON. We are dedicated to the development and well-being of our kids and are happy to work with their parents. Our child care center offers a great mix of fun, play, and education for toddlers and young children. We are continuously looking for new ways to improve our teaching techniques and enhance the growth of the children we care for. That way, they have a strong foundation to progress positively and become valuable members of the community.
For a complete list of our services, please click here. If you have any questions about child care, we’d love to hear from you. Please contact us here.