Day care can be loosely defined as any care offered for children while the parents are at work. This means that most of the day your child will be in the hands of another person while you go about your activities elsewhere. This job is performed by people who are not members of the immediate family. Local day care centers are often located at creches or nurseries.

Your child is very important to you and obviously you will want what's best for him or her. Knowing the right type of day care for your child can prove to be a daunting task. The search can be narrowed down to three types of local day care: in-home care, child care centre, and family child care. Knowing and understanding each of them will help you know which one is the best for your child.

Child Care Centers

These are usually buildings or rooms that offer child care services to a large number of parents. Nurseries and preschools fall into this category. This is probably the most popular type of child care and is the easiest to find. These centers are available in most communities, but can often be the most expensive option.

In-Home Care

This can be considered the best type of local day care you can offer your child. In this case, the person who'll be attending to your child will come to your home. The person may also be able to perform other housework chores while, at the same time, also looking after your child. There are a number of advantages that make this the best solution for your child. One is that your child still gets to grow and play in the comfort of his or her home. This is because the child will not need to go anywhere as he/she will be looked after from within the house. There are some parents who are busy to the extent that taking care of their child's needs like preparing food and getting them dressed often proves to be a task that is too time-consuming. With in-home child care, your child will not require this from the parent, as the child care provider will see to his or her every need.

With local day care centers, many children of different backgrounds can come together to play and learn from each other. It is not always guaranteed that the children coming to these day care centers are from good backgrounds and some may have habits or character traits that you wouldn't want your child to pick up. For this reason, in-home child care will ensure that you monitor what your child is learning and from where.

Family Care

This refers to a group of people, usually from one family, who offer child care for one or more children. In this setting, the caregivers also care for their children at the same time. This type of child care will often be the least expensive because it is not only you who contribute to the care giver's salary, but a group of parents. Also, this type of day care will ensure that your child learns from within a family setting and also that he or she will have playmates to play with.