Peter and Jane are expecting their first child and while they are excitedly sharing their news to family and friends, there are a lot more challenges they will have to ponder about and overcome as they prepare for the arrival of their infant.
With the increase in dual-income families in Singapore, parents who are going back to work be it part-time or full-time after their maternity or paternity leaves will sooner or later need to start contemplating about their infant care and child care options.
Are you a soon-to-be parent, or a new parent, who has come to the stage where you’ll have to wonder about who will take care of your infant? You may also feel slightly worried and panicky as your days of maternity and paternity are drawing to a close.
Before you start to feel the separation-anxiety about leaving your precious tots in someone else’s care, know that you are not alone! In fact, studies have shown that leaving your baby with quality caregivers can benefit them positively – cognitively, socially, and emotionally.
Which Infant Care or Child Care Option Should I Choose?
With a variety of options available for child care help in Singapore such as asking for the help of their babies’ grandparents, hiring a live-in domestic helper, a day-time nanny, or even sending them to an infant care, which option should you choose? To help parents, especially first-time parents make an informed decision, let’s lay down some of the advantages, disadvantages, and costs of each option!
Many Singaporean couples would often consider this safe and logical option, especially when their own parents have retired and wouldn’t mind looking after their grandchild. More importantly, parents and in-laws are people who they can trust.
However, in reality, there are many other considerations when choosing this option such as their whether their parents live in close-proximity of their homes or do their parents already have other young nieces or nephews whom they are taking care of.
For instance, if Peter and Jane live in Punggol, while their parents live in Jurong East and they go to work at Shenton Way, it simply doesn’t make sense to ferry their child to-and-fro across Singapore during peak hour traffic.
Grandparents may also feel burdened if they have to care for an additional child, no matter how much they say that they are okay with it. If you think that maternity and paternity is tough, having to wake up at odd hours in the day and at night, grandparents who are aging each day, may find it even more challenging to do so.
Foreign Domestic Helpers are great help in managing our household chores, doing an excellent job in maintaining the cleanliness in our homes, and many of them are also great cooks! Quite a number of Singaporeans are also not unfamiliar with living with a domestic helper and some may have been brought up by one as their parents had to go to work.
Nannies are usually older women who have a vast experience with looking after infants and young children. Some nannies would travel to your home every day and will help to babysit your infant for about 8 to 12 hours as you head out to work. Some nannies work from their own homes and you will then have to drop your baby off before you go to work.
Preschools which offer Infant Care services provide full day and half day options for children aged 2 months to 17 months. Unlike all the other options, infant care centres have a more professional context in which they usually have an educational curriculum which would help develop your child cognitively, socially, and emotionally apart from just looking after them.
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Infant Care At Mulberry Learning
At Mulberry Learning, our infant care programme focuses on the use of Experiential Learning as the main approach for infants and toddlers, enabling them to develop and learn through their own reflections and experiences. Your child is encouraged to be mini-explorers as they navigate their way through our beautifully-crafted learning spaces, discover how to play with classic toys, musical instruments, and textural materials.
Besides our carefully-crafted curriculum, our infant care area is furnished with comfortable cots for your little ones to take their naps, indoor play area with baby gym equipment, and several centres also feature an infant spa where your babies get the privilege of spa sessions with bubbles, whirlpool jets, and soothing lights in specially imported spa pods!
Teacher-to-child ratios are kept at 1:3 and our dedicated educators undergo over 250 hours of training, thereby ensuring that children are nurtured and guided by passionate and well-qualified professionals.
Read also:
- Enrolling Your Child In Preschool: 10 Typical Costs to Pay
- Ways to Manage Costs of Raising a Child in Singapore: 8 Subsidies and Schemes to Consider
- Is It Compulsory for My Child to Attend a Preschool?
- The Power of Talking with Infants: Why is it Important?
All in all, parents need to carefully consider each option and weigh the benefits and cons before they decide on this important step for their precious infants.
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About Mulberry Learning
Established in 2006, Mulberry Learning is an award-winning Reggio-inspired preschool with 11 locations around Singapore. Mulberry Learning is the world’s first and only preschool network certified by the USA for the Habits of MindTM framework, and its curriculum has been voted as “Singapore’s Best Holistic Learning Programme” for 3 years running by leading parenting publications.
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If you are still unsure, take this chance to explore Mulberry Learning’s beautifully crafted Reggio-inspired learning spaces from the comfort your home with our Virtual School Tours. Find out more about our award-winning curriculum and speak to our principals in real-time!
