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Junglist said:
Oh I suppose as a silver lining think what it would be like without those free 15 hours!

When our 30 hours kick in, it'll basically be free for us as she's only in for 25 hours as it is. We'll probably increase as she gets closer to reception.
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Yeah could definitely be worse, just another thing going up in price to get the same service. Just having a whinge, probably because she also decided a couple of hours screaming session rather than sleep was a good idea so I'm already cranky :D
 
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No, lets be honest though. It sucks. I know they have wages to pay to keep the business running and they don't want to spread germs around (any more than they already do!) but it drives me up the wall having to pay £75 a day when she's off sick.
 
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Junglist said:
No, lets be honest though. It sucks. I know they have wages to pay to keep the business running and they don't want to spread germs around (any more than they already do!) but it drives me up the wall having to pay £75 a day when she's off sick.
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£75/day! Ours has just gone up to ~£100 day. For two. Its OK though, 5% discount for twins.

At one point we probably had about 60% attendance/being sent home for illness. Has got a lot better lately though.
 
Yeah, we are lucky with our nursery as it's one of the cheaper ones yet has a Good ofsted rating and the staff are lovely. K absolutely adores the staff there
 
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Is this nurseries? Oh my that period about 1.5-2 years old when they seem to be off sick more than they're there! It pretty much broke me that did. Getting them well again, taking multiple days off work (repeatedly) and all the sleepless nights mopping up the vomit, then sending them back in (after the mandatory 48 hour exclusion periods) just for them to get something else and be back chundering the next weekend. We definitely felt we were paying for them to make our kid ill then tell us they couldn't come in for X days. I swear there was some parent there just sending their kid in irrespective of any vomiting/tummy bug symptoms and ignoring the 48 hour thing.
 
To go with the fee increase news it appears they've thrown in a free stomach bug that the little one and the wife now have.

Really looking forward to crapping through the eye of a needle by the end of the week :rolleyes:

The amount of time and money wasted and cancelled plans over the last 12 months is honestly just depressing.
 
Little man's first full day in the nursery today (if he makes it through the whole day). He didn't do too well on his trial days.

I know it's probably common for them not to settle in right away, but we're just hoping it doesn't become a thing where he never settles in.
 
Ayahuasca said:
Little man's first full day in the nursery today (if he makes it through the whole day). He didn't do too well on his trial days.

I know it's probably common for them not to settle in right away, but we're just hoping it doesn't become a thing where he never settles in.
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First days are always challenging, but he'll get there!

Our daughter struggled a lot when she started nursery and school. Her anxiety was so intense that she would make herself sick just to be sent home. She got into the habit of doing this because she knew it worked. After realizing this pattern, we worked with the care provider to agree that she wouldn't be sent home at the first sign of sickness. This approach quickly broke the cycle. Fast forward a year, and she now absolutely loves school, growing in confidence and doing really well.

Kids are incredibly clever, consistency is key. All the best.
 
Ayahuasca said:
Little man's first full day in the nursery today (if he makes it through the whole day). He didn't do too well on his trial days.

I know it's probably common for them not to settle in right away, but we're just hoping it doesn't become a thing where he never settles in.
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Good luck! We started K in Nursery at 10 months old (only 16 hours a week at first) which seems fairly early but in hindsight we are glad we did.

The first month to 6 weeks were the hardest and I'm not ashamed to say I didn't like doing the drop offs and always opted to do the pick ups. I found dropping her off with, at that point, strangers way harder than I'd like to admit and on a couple of occasions I'd leave with wet eyes because it hurt me hearing her scream the way she did.

But once she settled in? It was a joy to see her develop mentally and build friendships. She now has a little clique of friends that she speaks about all the time and is excited to go into nursery to see them. She's always bringing in cakes we've made at home or breadsticks and crackers for her little friends :cry: Though I sometimes question if they do like each other because whenever they have playdates outside of nursery it always kicks off after an hour lol.

I really can't stress how noticeable it is when you see children who haven't gone to nursery compared to those that have. The social skills are wildly different

I expect your nursery will use something like Tapestry and it's always a highlight seeing what they upload from her day. My favourite thing to do at pick up is to sneak into the room and quietly watch her for a minute or two just to see how she acts. Then when she see's me and shouts "DADDY!!" as she runs to me? Nothing compares, man. Nothing.

Also: A nice side bonus of nursery is that you'll have a good group of potential baby sitters that you know your child feels safe with and enjoys being around. Doubly helpful if you don't have any friends or family that can help out on those odd occasions.
 
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Junglist said:
I really can't stress how noticeable it is when you see children who haven't gone to nursery compared to those that have. The social skills are wildly different
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Yup, can only echo this. I really didn't expect it to have such a difference but it's pretty mad. Despite having friends/families who do looads with their kids (loads of clubs/playdates etc) but not being in nursery the social skills/ability to share and general way they seem to form bonds feels wildly different. I'm sure by the time they are settled into schools it has probably evened out but it's fantastic now going to the park at the weekends and their being a relatively high chance other kids from nursery are there for ours to hang out with. We're not any financially better off from our kids being in nursery (my wifes salary just about covers the nursery costs) but from a social/development cost it does seem worth it.
 
The social side of things is why we wanted him in early instead of having my wife quit her job to raise him, which would have been manageable for a few years.

I only did one year of nursery before I started school and I hated it and my parents didn't do much to socialise me and I think that had a knock on effect. Of course, with personality being heavily genetic, we wanted to try to get ahead of the curve in case he ended up being more like me than the wife :D
 
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Gepetto said:
Are you using Formula? If you are, have you changed it to Follow On Formula?
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IIRC there is little difference. I'm told, by someone who has worked for one of the brands, the reason companies launched follow-on formula is that there are very strict rules on how they market baby formula, and on what can go into it. Creating a new tier gives them more leniency to skirt those regs. There is no need to ditch baby formula if it's cheaper etc.
 
Yeah, I think we just stuck with C&G 'First Infant Milk' until she was eating solid food. She didn't like the change to the follow on milk and was told it was fine to stay on the same one.
 
Junglist said:
Good luck! We started K in Nursery at 10 months old (only 16 hours a week at first) which seems fairly early but in hindsight we are glad we did.
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There are some absolutely tiny ones at our nursery and it breaks my heart. Like 3-6 months old. Its so expensive that I can't understand it. At that age they should be with their parents 24/7 IMO.
 
fez said:
There are some absolutely tiny ones at our nursery and it breaks my heart. Like 3-6 months old. Its so expensive that I can't understand it. At that age they should be with their parents 24/7 IMO.
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I couldn't imagine letting them go in that early. 10 months felt too early but we had to start, really. At that point they're going to be see their careers as equal to their parents. My partner feels like if we were to do it again she'd like to try and make it to a year this time.

But it's the way of the world at the moment. I certainly don't make enough by myself to allow my partner to give up her career and focus on childcare (not that she would even want that) but it's hard out there for a lot of parents having to make that choice
 
Junglist said:
I couldn't imagine letting them go in that early. 10 months felt too early but we had to start, really. At that point they're going to be see their careers as equal to their parents. My partner feels like if we were to do it again she'd like to try and make it to a year this time.

But it's the way of the world at the moment. I certainly don't make enough by myself to allow my partner to give up her career and focus on childcare (not that she would even want that) but it's hard out there for a lot of parents having to make that choice
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I think my issue is that in general I imagine a lot of people are in one of two places. They either earn enough to make working more than pay for nursery or they don't earn enough to make nursery worth doing vs looking after them at home. Now I understand this is a gross oversimplification and ultimately, most of us send our kids to nursery for the socialising aspect as much as anything. Doing it at such a young age though. I couldn't imagine it. We sent our boys at perhaps 13 months which felt about right and coincided with my partner going back to work.

We're very lucky in our situation and finances that ours go in two days a week, a nanny does a third day and my partner does the other two. Sending them in full time though would cost an absolute fortune and ultimately the extra money my partner would earn would largely be sucked up by the fees. Its nice to have them at home for 2 days as well. Gives her a chance to get things done as well as kids are a right faff aren't they!

Was reading a post on a HENRY subreddit the other day asking how people have children and keep working 12+ hour days and at weekends. All I could think was "why on earth are you having kids if you don't want to change your lifestyle to accommodate them".

Its quite interesting though that I see almost as many dads picking up their kids and mums when I go to pick up our two. Certainly getting much more common.
 
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