Currently many parents who are looking to place their children in daycare forget they need to ask two rather probing questions.

1. Do you smoke?

2. Do you have pets?

These questions are more important when looking at home based daycares but should be asked on any facility you are thinking about.

Do You Smoke or does anyone in the house, center smoke? The health issues for smoking especially with regard to children are well documented and could easily take an entire book to show, but smoking around kids is not good for their health.

This is the first reason why you should ask about smoking, and not just from the caretaker. At a home based daycare the caretaker may not smoke but her husband or adult kids might. This is good to know if there is smoking in any way at the daycare.

Even if there is no smoking in center, children learn by example and by watching. Just because a teacher leaves the kids’ room and smokes outside does not mean the kids are not aware of what is happening, on some level.

There is also mounting evidence of the harmful nature of smoke residue on clothes after a smoker is finished smoking. For developing kids this residue can potentially be harmful.

When asking about smoking ask general and specific question about smoking and not just the teachers, also ask about:

• Support staff

• Cooks

• Janitors

• Maintenance workers

• Outside contract-workers such as maintenance and cleaning crews allowed into the building. Do the rules specifically keep them from smoking at the daycare or center?

Do you have pets or animals at the daycare? This is a question you need to know the answer to but there is no clear cut right answer.

First, this is important because of possible allergies your child may have. Asking about dogs and cats will help you know if they are around. Just because you do not see them does not mean they are not in the rooms. Animals will leave dander even if they only come into the room at night when the kids are gone.

Asking about pet is important too if your child has a fear of certain animals, such as dogs. If your child has had a bad experience before having, the same type of animal around could cause extra tension and anxiety.

The answer to the pet question can also give you some great insight into the school because the other site of the pet issue is many studies have shown kids learn many things from being around animals. Therefore, there can be benefits to a child care having pets.

There are many questions you should ask before picking a child care for you and your child. Often once you pick a location it is hard to change, so it is better to spend some extra time in the beginning and find the right place rather than rush and find yourself at a daycare you do not like.