Nanny vs Preschool

When parents are looking for childcare options, they often discover that they have two main choices: hire a nanny or enroll their child in a preschool. While hiring a nanny may seem like a compelling idea, once one has had the chance to compare the benefits against the negatives, enrolling your child in an established and certified daycare center clearly becomes the better option. There are several reasons as to why parents should prefer preschools over nannies.

One of the major problems with hiring a nanny is that they can be incredibly expensive and offer less benefits to the development of the child than a daycare center would. Most nannies do not teach using a standardized curriculum, meaning that children are not taught the problem solving and social skills that they would in an established daycare center. For instance, Montessori Kids Universe employs the time-tested Reggio Emilia inspired and Montessori curriculum which focuses on the individual child in order to build their social and developmental skills. A nanny is also only one person, whereas the certified team of staff at daycare locations are trained to guide the learning process of the child. None of this is able to happen with a nanny.

With a nanny, the child is never exposed to other children, and therefore never has the chance to develop social skills and become curious and independent learner. By enrolling your child into a daycare center, you are giving your child the unique opportunity to make friends, learn problem-solving skills, learn teamwork techniques, as well as conflict resolution skills. In fact, an article entitled “Conflict Resolution in Preschool Social Interactions, Early Education and Development” found that preschools play a critical role in teaching young children skills needed to successfully resolve conflict and interpersonal disputes.

None of this can happen when only a nanny is present. Learning social skills early on, in a preschool environment, has the potential to put your child leagues ahead of other children when the time comes to enroll in school. This is why, for example, at Montessori Kids Universe special care is taken to implement lessons on building social development skills into curriculum. Children are taught how to be courteous and kind to each other, as well as how to improve interpersonal communication skills.

Another major benefit of using a daycare rather than a nanny is consistency and reliability. If a nanny is sick or late to take care of your child, your entire schedule could be thrown into disruption. This is not a problem with a daycare, as daycares make all effort to maintain high levels of consistency and operate the entire week without disruption. Childcare is always available.

To put it simply, a daycare education offers many advantages that are not found with a traditional nanny. Daycares use standardized curriculums to ensure that what the child is being taught is meaningful and beneficial. Daycares are also consistent, avoiding the problem of a late or sick nanny. Lastly, daycare centers are a heaven for social interaction, allowing children to develop social skills that they simply would not be able to develop at home with a nanny.