Hunting for Day Care Centre/ What to Bring to Day Care Centres

Alot of parents cringe at the mention of day care centres these days, not just because they are sceptical on letting strangers take care of their children; but also because of the kind of news we are constantly bombarded with these day- UNPLEASANT news (like children being abused to death, or baby being sexually assaulted by caregiver's spouse, etc.)

If it were up to me, I wouldn't even dream of sending Ibby to any day care centre, I would take good care of him, mollycoddle him until he turns 18 and get sick of me, yes.

But mama has got to work and earn some dough for the family, no?

With my maternity leave ending soon, it's time for me and my husband to start hunting for a good, or at least decent day care centres for him.

En route hunting for day care centre

Initially, we wanted to enrol him into a preschool which we have heard so much about in our neighbourhood. My husband's sister in law sent her children there before she moved to Putrajaya, and she has been singing praises about the place, and naturally we wanted the best for Ibby too.

Luck is not on our side though, as the place was fully booked. We met with the preschool manager a few days ago, and she suggested that we send Ibby to their branch in Ampang instead. We err at this, if you are well verse with the location, you will know that it's a traffic death trap, really. Frankly, we were tempted, because the one near our home was so meticulosly managed, with well lit play areas (inside and outside), sufficient space for nap time, well maintained facilities and friendly caregivers, we were immediately sold! But like I said, it was fully booked, and if we were to enrol Ibby, we can only enrol him at the Ampang branch.

Me and my husband decided to sleep on it, and hunt for other options nearby before making any decision.

You see, when you look for a day care centres, its not just the centre alone that you need to consider, you also need to put in perspective other essential points like distance from house/work, affordability, and so on.

We spent half of our sunday driving around the neighbourhood, jotting down phone numbers and taking pictures of the facilities like some crazed paparazzis, and we realized that most of the day care centres caters to kids 4 years old and above, no joke. Well, Ibby is huge for his age, but he can't pass for a 4 years old tot!

He's only 2 months old, not 4 yo.

Alas, we found a few that accept newborns and proceeded to make appointments.

We were both quite inexperienced as parents, and we didnt know what to ask, but we do know that we want:

1. the caregivers to be friendly, matronly, motherly lots

2. the place to be comfortable and safe for our baby 

3. sufficient human resources

3. have a system in place

4. near our house with little traffic

Although it's heartwrenching for me to leave Ibby in the hands of complete strangers, we were relieved to be able to find a day care centre that we are comfortable enough with to send him to (it ticked all our boxes). 

👶👶👶👶👶👶👶👶👶👶👶👶👶👶👶👶👶👶👶

On a separate note, I have also prepared a list of things to bring to Ibby's Day Care center:

1. 2 sets of clothings, mitts and booties

2. Towels

3. Milk bottles and pacifiers

4. Formula/ expressed breastmilk

5. Pillows and mattress 

6. Diapers 

7. Wet wipes

8. Toiletries:

Cotton buds, Baby oil, Ointments, Head to toe bathgel, nappy rash cream, combs. 

I also made it a point to label all his items, so that theres no mistaking on the milk bottles etc.