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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]DCUM tends to lean toward nanny in these discussions, but I've done all possible arrangements and have found daycare center to be the best of all worlds.

With daycare, you have multiple levels of accountability, multiple sets of eyes on your kid--not just the staff, but also all the parents coming and going.

Yes, daycares have a 3:1 ratio, whereas a nanny would be 1:1, but the daycare maintains that ratio at all times; when one teacher takes a break, goes to the bathroom, starts laundry, another steps in.  So there is always someone watching your kid, and they all get adequate breaks through the day.  (And I'm not just romanticizing daycare.  I worked in a daycare in my early 20s, and now I have a daycare kid who gets pull-out PT at her daycare, so I meet her there weekly during the day, so have ample opportunity to observe what's going on.)

Your kid and nanny aren't in your house all day.  I know a lot of people like the convenience of not having to get the kid ready, pack lunches, etc., but I like the freedom of not having my kids in my house all day.  It means that when I'm home with them, our toys are new and exciting.  I never come home to any mess other than the one I left.  And on random telework days, or a day when I come home a couple hours early after an off-site meeting, I'm not having to negotiate around nanny and kid.

Finally, in our various stints with nannies, I have **hated** being a personnel manager.  They leave with two weeks notice--or not--and suddenly you have to find a new nanny (when it's a busy season at work, you're sick, whatever).  You don't like how they're interacting with your kid or not cleaning up after themselves or not scheduling enough outings--suddenly you have to conduct de facto performance reviews with this person who is already doing this really intimate work on your behalf.  I have found those conversations really awkward.  (My husband, who is a manager in his professional life, didn't mind this part about having a nanny, and he actually took on some of this labor, so YMMV.)

Anyway, if you actually have a spot in a daycare that you like, I would absolutely take that because it's easier to revert to a nanny if necessary than the other way around.[/quote]

I just want to chime in to say that I agree with all of this.  There are a lot of great things about having a nanny, but there are definitely challenges.

I also found the being the personnel manager to be very difficult at times.  And I didn’t love that my home was someone else’s workplace.  [/quote]

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