If I had a kiddo poop in his diaper right before his parents picked him up, I would change him while the parents waited. That was just one of those things that was unacceptable to my director. She did not want the kids in poopy diapers longer than a few minutes.

You could look for a place that is NAEYC accredited, it accreditation is very hard to get, so if a center has it, they tend to charge a lot more, and there are almost always horribly long waiting lists. There are quality centers that are not NAEYC approved.

I would also look into a child development program at your local community college or university. At the center I interned with, the deans of the child development program were on site, and visited and supervised the classes multiple times throughout the day.

I am an early childhood educator, and what I would encourage you to do is to stay for an hour or so and check out how the room runs. My room might look chaotic upon first glance (and to parents who just drop-off/pick-up without hanging out long enough to know what’s really going on) but actually runs really smoothly.

(Also, to those parents who’ve commented about the cost of daycare should keep in mind that the “gobs of money” they spend on daycare is generally not going to the staff; the average daycare worker makes about $8-$9 an hour for a job that is worth much, much more. I work for an amazing center where families actually organized last year to raise money to increase the staff salaries.)

Valuing the people that choose to work in such an underappreciated field is step one to increasing the quality of the care that’s available to you. Daycares and preschools are often only viable if they max out their room ratios; 1:7 for Riley’s age, for example.)

Would you have Riley and 6 of his friends at your house for a 9-hour playdate every day? What if you were being paid $8 an hour? How would you feel at the end of a week of those? It’s a really hard job with really high expectations, but the pay is poor.

On the upside, this means that people that are doing it usually really believe in what they’re doing; on the downside, it means that even those people who love their jobs sometimes can’t afford (literally) to stay in the field. Tturnover is crazy high as a result, which means staff changes are frequent.

Of course, there are situations that aren’t ideal. I would choose a center that’s NAEYC-accredited and has satisfied staff members (ask questions! how long have they been there? why do they choose to work in childcare? what’s the diaper-changing schedule?) and by all means, hang out and see how Riley’s day is.

Drop-offs and pick-up time are inevitably the most chaotic times of the day in any center, too, so keep that in mind when making a judgment about the room–those are the flux times, and likely not the norm for the whole day.

Sorry for all the rambling, but this is my field (I’m doing my Master’s degree in ECE) and I feel pretty strongly about it!

My 18 month old has been in a home childcare setting since he was 4 months old and it has been ideal for us. We are expecting numero-2 in April/May and things may change though…new babies bring lots of change!

Good luck! It’s never an easy decision when it comes to the welfare of your little one…