Childminder or nursery?

I think it depends on your financial and work/life situation. Most people can't afford a nanny, but if you work really long hours then daycare may not make sense. Mine will be going to daycare at 18 months because we can't afford a nanny but I also believe there are huge social and developmental benefits to daycare instead of a nanny.

I went with a nursery even though childminders tend to be cheaper as then I didn’t have to worry about what I’d do for childcare when the childminder is on holiday. I also felt more reassured knowing there would be a team of people responsible for caring for my little one rather than it being dependent on one person. X

I went with a childminder because they are cheaper, have less children so more time to spend with the ones they do have, home from home environment, and they are constantly taken out to various different places.

I went with a childminder as I don’t have family close to help if childminder ill etc

I went for a nursery for several reasons... the nursery is open all year round, meaning I didn't have to work around their schedule, there's a team of people caring for my child, there's a chef that cooks proper nutrious meals, i don't need to provide anything other than a change of clothes, there a huge variety and age of children that my little one can socialise and learn with, there's more structure, there's various levels of experience, they have everything the need in one place (for example, they don't go to toddle groups like a lot of child minders do), and their flexible in drop off and pick up times. The nursery my little one is at actually had a really small number of babies in the room that some days she was the only one so would get full attention from staff. I definitely think childminders do have their own benefits but they just weren't for me

We chose a nursery due to not having to worry about staff sickness, open all year around except a few days at Christmas and daughter gets used to multiple people taking care of her.