Would you use childcare at gym?

[voxana]

I'm trying to start exercising again. My dh suggests dropping 9mo ds in childcare at the gym (it's a very nice gym with high standards in all areas, including the childcare). Well, I've never left ds anywhere with anyone, except home with dh from time to time. I'm not excited about leaving ds with unfamiliar people in an unfamiliar place. Of course, I could stay with him for a while each time to help him get acclimated. The other worry is that since ds doesn't get a lot of exposure to germs, he might start getting sick if I leave him in there. What do y'all think? Am I overly-worried? Should I just try it and see how it goes? Would you leave your baby there?

[tracymom1]

I struggled with this one, too. I was an avid gym-rat so when DS was born I craved having that time back but couldn't figure out how to work it into my day.

The gym I go to is very nice - clean, friendly, community-based, etc... but I could never leave DS in their daycare. I thought about it all the time but never ended up doing it. I think for me what it really comes down to is that I just don't trust 'strangers' looking after my children, period. I have a friend who's little sister works at a gym daycare and she has told us some pretty unpleasant stories - nothing all that bad, just not the environment I want my children in.

I am sure, though, that some are great places.

[dislocator3972]

If you're confident that you can help him get acclimated and would enjoy a chance to exercise, I would expect it to be fine. Your LO will be exposed to germs sometime, maybe you could go during low-volume times to try and minimize the exposure (if possible).

If we had a gym with childcare for a reasonable price in my town I'd use it.

Maybe you could give it a try and see how it goes?

[girlygirls3]

I agree with the previous poster and couldn't do it either

[Abraisme]

It would depend on my child. If your child will be happy and comfortable there, I think it's fine. I have used a gym daycare for my DS when he was 2+ and he always had a good time. He loved the new environment and other kids for an hour a day. It's not like you can't rush back in if your baby needs you.

[MaterPrimaePuellae]

Personally, probably not. It would depend on the situation, but most of the gym/YMCA childcare situations I have seen have not been terribly sanitary (not great handwashing practices, for example) or professional, and I don't leave my DD in the care of strangers, period. It's just not worth it to me.

However, there are posts all the time from mothers who do it and think it's great. Totally depends on the gym/mom/child, I guess.

[Llyra]

It would depend completely on how I felt about the particular environment at the gym and the particular caregiver who would be there.

I don't think I'd do it with a young infant, but with an older baby or toddler, I might. I have left mine with the nursery caregiver at our church and it's worked out great. But if the caregiver was always somebody different, or the room wasn't clean, or there were too many kids in there for the number of caregivers, or I was uncomfortable with the caregiver for some other reason, then I wouldn't. I would want first of all to be sure they'd come GET ME if the baby was really unhappy.

As far as the germs, baby has to be exposed some time to colds and viruses. Unless the environment was really not clean, I wouldn't worry too much about that. Kids are going to get sick, as they get older and start exploring their world more. That's how they develop resistance to the common illnesses.

[odoole]

I've tried at my gym a handful of times with 6.5 mo DS and so far it is not working out, which is a real drag because my belly fat isn't getting any smaller.

I'm not worried about the stranger component because I can always just peek in to make sure everything is fine -- and I can actually see the daycare room from the gym floor. But so far, unless DS is sleeping, they have been totally unable to soothe him when he cries. And he's not a high-needs baby or anything -- he hardly ever cries for me. They just leave the TV blaring and park him in the baby swing and let him cry. Or if they do try to intervene, they just do all the wrong things. I guess it's not up to them to know my baby well enough to know what he wants when he cries. They are very nice and have the best of intentions, but I guess that their version of taking care of a baby is to change his diaper from time to time and make sure he doesn't get hurt.

The last time I was there, he was crying and they had to call me off the gym floor to pick him up (poor kid, I still feel terrible for not checking in frequently enough; I had thought he was sleeping). The daycare lady tried to make me feel better by taking me to a wall of photos of all the other gym daycare kids and saying things like "this one here used to come in here and cry until she vomited every single day. And this one here cried for three hours straight for a whole year ... etc" Nope, didn't make me feel any better.

Anyway, I'd be totally down for gym daycare once DS is old enough to tend to himself and communicate his needs, but I think I'm done with the baby daycare.

[lach]

I use it all the time. My kids have a blast. Sometimes they go through separation anxiety phases where I have to stop going, but usually they love it. The infant room is very cuddly and they're always holding or playing with the babies.

[Carhootel]

I drop ds off at the childwatch at the YMCA - I am very comfortable with it even though he's had a hard time with me leaving. The thing is that I talked to them very thoroughly - they come get me if he cries for more than a few minutes - they come get me often, I go up and nurse and then go back to my workout. They also don't change his diapers per my request since we use cloth and he's intact and not retracted I'm sort of paranoid about that. The woman are all moms up there and they never have more than 4-5 kids at a time to 2 adults. I go during the slowest times and hangout for a little bit at the beginning and end. DS isn't loving it yet (at least not all the time) because this is the first time I've ever left him anywhere besides grandma and dh (whom he both knows and loves) but we're working on it. I feel really good about it though. I try to have a really laid back attitude about it - if he fusses and nursing him doesn't make him happy then we leave and go back the next day. I try to be really sensitive to how ds is feeling and if he cries then we just say 'oh well, we'll do some other kind of workout today'

[Masel]

I use my Y's childwatch. We started when she was 2 months old. The first two months we went baby adjusted well but the last two weeks she has cried so much they came to get me or I heard her through the wall. Monday was particularly bad and I've not been back this week. (I was thinking of bringing some expressed BM even though it is only for an hour.)

I don't want my baby in a position that makes her cry buy I really need this. Not in a "me time " sense but I think the exercise is fending off PPD. Also I got a late start on parenting and need to keep myself healthy long term. I'm a geeky type who never had much use for exercise until now.

I was anxious the first time but this Y does seem to be clean. You can ask to see their policies and what sort of training requirements they have. My older DD is in preschool so we already have all the germs.

[xixstar]

I did with dd once she was about 6 months I think, maybe earlier. I stayed there most of the first time just to see what she thought about it. But they had things like the exausaucer and such that we didn't have at home but she really liked being somewhere new. She would go a couple days a week and we didn't find that she got sick more from it either. It was a very nice break for me and we'll rejoin the gym after this little one is born.

[Mom2M]

I started using mine when my DD was 3 years old and it was great. The lady who does it is so nice to all the kids and gets on the floor with them and helps the ones who are shy like my DD.

She's 4.5 now and loves going to Miss Cheryl's whenever she can on days she doesn't have school. My 3 month old will be going as soon as she is 6 months old, lol(minimum age there).

I think it depends on your gym. I got to know Cheryl very well and stop in to talk every day even if I don't have DD with me.

[misstorri]

I think I would let my 4 yo go but not my baby. Too many germs and he can't tell me if something goes wrong.

[emmaegbert]

my son always hated the YMCA playcare and I never ended up using it much. He had lots of separation issues anyway but I was never a big fan of it either... I remember hearing one of the caregivers calling a toddler "bad" for repeatedly trying to open the book cabinet. I wanted to like it but I just couldn't. And, I never got to do more than 15-20 minutes before they'd come tell me he was crying too much.

so, my dd (10mo), she's very easygoing and social but I am not sure I can handle a second go-around with it!

I'm not a big germ-o-phobe personally, after the first 3 months or so. We're bf-ing and I think a little germ exposure is probably a good thing, hopefully they are reasonably clean (like, no sharing of food or sippy cups... clean diapering areas) so that wouldn't bother me a ton.

[mamadelbosque]

I did on occasion when DS1 was 3-9 months old. Honestly, I think exposing them to germs at that age is a *GOOD* thing. Yes, they might get sick a bit more initially, but being exposed to germs is how we build our immune system! I've never stopped going to playgroup since having DS2, even when he was itty bitty.

[noobmom]

Personally, I would not--not because of the germs, but because I'm not comfortable with strangers taking care of my children before they can speak for themselves.

[~Sarah~]

I think our opinions matter much less than a thorough vetting process (inquiring about licenses, background checks, policies, standards, history, philosophy of discipline, etc) and your own gut instinct about the people themselves.

If you really want to be comfortable with any kind of childcare situation, there's a lot of great information on how to choose babysitters in the book Protecting The Gift by Gavin de Becker. It's a must-read for every parent; do it early, because there's a lot of great info about issues that come up even with infants (like choosing childcare).

[Sweetiemommy]

That depends on the staff. If they are outgoing, good with children, attentive and kind, I use them. In fact, it can be a great way to connect with people around you and get to know others, as well as a much needed break so mom can get some exercise. However, if the staff is grumpy, doesn't seem like they want to be there, or are disrespectful of your children, I would not use them, for obvious reasons. We switched gyms to find one that had a friendly childcare staff and have been very happy with them, but our old gym was terrible.

[Violet2]

I have no issue with short term onsite child care in the sense that I'm okay with leaving my baby/toddler for a while BUT will offer the following...

1.Does the care separate older kids from younger? There is nothing worse than a 3yo aggressive biter gnawing on a baby. The best gym set ups I've seen have a baby room. That being said, babies are usually pretty safe even in mixed age groups because they often end up in the play pen or swing which offers them some protection. IME when things go south is when you have really young, mobile babies who can't be contained and they get mixed in with older kids who can't/won't watch out for the youngest.

2. Do the caregivers seem attentive? Or are they chatting and not paying attention? You want really attentive care givers who are aware that there is NO screening for children other than simple membership. This means you can get some real terrors in there and they need to be monitored. Sometimes I wonder if these gyms attract parents of really unruly kids desperate for any kind of break. I know I started out with the gym because I really wanted a break from high needs DD (who luckily always loved going into care because she loves watching everyone.).

3.Do they have ratio standards for # of caregivers per # of kids? I found this was NOT common. My understanding was because they didn't change diapers, they didn't have to be licensed and so they weren't and didn't have care ratios. Meaning one person might have 7 kids of different ages.

The lack of 1 2 and 3 at our local Y resulted in a (thankfully) minor eye injury for DD when she was about 1yo (and mobile and bearing the brunt of some aggressive behavior from older kids). The caregivers did not even notice and had no idea how it happened. I walked in to find her crying. And I had to pressure them to fill out an incident report. I complained to the director and they agreed to review the training of their staff but I had lost confidence in their care.

So I left that gym and just work out at home now.