Single Parenting Pro And Cons » Parent Plaza

Being a single parent has many challenges and many pros and cons. It does not matter whether you chose to become a single or whether you became one by trauma such as the death of your partner. The question still remains, who will give proper care for my child or children?

A variety of options are available and each has its pros and cons. Do your homework and based on your work routine, budget and the temperament of your child, choose a child care option that works with single parenting, not against it.

In-Home Nanny

Pros: Your child does not have to get up at 6AM, be bundled into the car to be left at day care. He does not need to catch the viral flu from other kids at day care and he can play in familiar locale and not have his bath or nap time disturbed.

Cons: There is very little you can do, but the damage can be great, if you are unaware that your nanny is a rotten apple in the basket of loving child care providers. Unless your child is old enough to express any signs of abuse or neglect, you may require to completely check references or invest in a spy cam or web cam whereby you can monitor the person monitoring your child.

Day Care Center

Day care centers are usually, correctly or incorrectly, known as places where children pick up diseases from other children. Many day care centers have meticulous rules of keeping sick children home. Regardless of whether you are a single parent or not, you have to be thorough about checking cleanness, protection precautions and the atmosphere of day care centers because older premises can have problems of their own.

The fact that a day care center has several caregivers should give you a level of comfort as opposed to having a single nanny at home who could neglect a child. Yet, high turnover at day care centers may make it difficult for your child to adjust to a new person every now and then.

Home Day Care

One often see single people swap child care duties, coordinating their schedules and looking after each other's children. Of course there are advantages with leaving your child with a familiar fiend or neighbor, but if she is running a home day care, and there are other kids in the picture, it is important she be licensed in your state, meet safety standards and have CPR certification.

Kindred

If you are so fortunate as to have grandma or some other close relative care for your child, on the condition that the caregiver is in good health and knows basic emergency protocol.

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