Childminder or nursery?

Although I love the idea of a childminder (more 1:1/home from home etc.), we’ve always used a nursery mainly for reliability, as if a childminder is unwell or on holiday you’re then left to take time off yourself or find alternative childcare.

Ive gone with nursery because of the above. But also the one we chose includes swimming lessons in the fees from 18 months and I want him to have as much exposure to swimming as possible. We did go with a Montessori setting which I also liked. We didn't even look at childminder ngl I really like the nursery hes at and so does he

We’ve gone with nursery mainly because I just struggle with the thought of bringing my child to someone’s house with no security cameras. As someone mentioned as well nursery will be more reliable and won’t shut because of one sick staff member. Also probably depends on your babies temperament as my girl loves to be around a lot of children or people. Child minders usually cannot take more than 3 kids if I understand the concept properly

I went with a nursery purely for the fact there is more reliability but also they are in rooms with children their age rather than mixed age groups at a childminders x

We had a nursery for a short while and didn’t have a great experience, I’d say this was our nursery specific not nurseries overall, and decided to move him to a really wonderful childminder we found in our area. We decided we’d need one in the future for before/after school as we both work full time anyway. I found he was overlooked a little at nursery as he was always pretty easy going, he’d be upset about going in, was always dirty and upset at pick up, I think the main issue was our nursery was understaffed. With his childminder his confidence has come on massively and he has a great relationship with her and the few other children that he will carry on through primary school. I don’t really think one is better than the other I think you just have to weigh up what fits your family and child better and this setting works better for our son. She does have 2 weeks off a year but lets us know about those in January so we have had months to prepare.

I went with a childminder as I didn't get a great vibe from the nurseries I viewed, whereas I really liked the vibe of the CM. The childminder also is closer to the tube station I'd have to use to get to work, and she worked out cheaper, so for me it was a no brainer.

My work is quite flexible with wfh if the baby is sick etc so even if my childminder was unwell, that wouldn't pose a huge problem for me.