VIDEO: Daycare- How To Choose The Right One

MILLPORT, Ala. (WCBI)- There are a little over 18-hundred daycares in the state of Alabama

A recent article states that about half of the state daycares are uninspected and do not meet or have to meet state regulation.

The days of the stay at home parent are fading fast. In fact nearly one out of every four kid under five stay in a day care.

The tricky part is finding out which day care is best.

Children are innocent and helpless.

Some parents have to leave their children with others so they can work.

“We run it off of love and we are state licensed, we do all of the hoops that you have to jump through to be state licensed, you know, we do the food program which is another set of regulations we have to follow, we have the ratio met per person, per worker, per child,” says Owner of “Nanny’s” Sheila Gilpin

That’s how Nanny’s in Millport runs its daycare and preschool center. They follow the multitude of regulations required to maintain its licensing.

“It is difficult because you know all the moneys, and all your employees that you have to pay, comes out of of what you make here and it is difficult but I will always want this to be the best for my babies you know because I always make sure they have what you need, when we need it and I want them to have the best of what we got so you know that’s why we do what we do,” says Gilpin.

Gilpin understands how stringent these standards can be but knows its for the best interest of the children.

A new in Alabama bill could force all daycare facilities, including faith based centers, to be state regulated.

Gilpin feels it should already be this way.

“It’s kind of sad because I feel like if we have to be finger printed and we have to go through physicals and we have to go through training and we’re all doing the same job, then we should all have to follow the same guidelines because they’re all somebody’s babies and we all oughta be on the same page,” says Gilpin.

She understands it can be expensive for parents but says you can’t put a dollar figure on safety and security of your children.

“Whatever the price is, whether it’s fifty dollars per child or whether it’s like me, with infants it’s a hundred and five and you know it’s gotta be what’s good in your heart for your kid and yourselves is the bottom line,” says Gilpin.

Gilpin says when looking for a daycare center, the top things to look at are that it’s clean and that the workers are nurturing.