Old nursery v brand new nursery - any words of wisdom gratefully received.

[ceebeegeebies]

DS is 15 months old and has been at nursery 3 days a week since he was 7 months old.

The nursery he goes to is 5 minutes from our house, he has settled in really well, I have no complaints about his care - he is always happy to go and seems to be well looked after. The nusery itself is quite old with a small garden and lots of small rooms.

However, there is a new nursery opening (also 5 minutes from us) It is a brand new purpose-built nursery with huge gardens, lots of outdoor play areas etc. They are having an open day tomorrow so we are going to go and look round - but I know that I will be seduced by it's 'newness' as I love new things!

I am stressing now about what to do as I know the new nursery will be lovely and have all mod-cons etc - but obviously the care it offers is an unknown quantity whereas where DS now is proven and he is settled there.

Any thoughts - if we are going to move DS to a new nursery I would rather do it now whilst he is still young but not sure if it is the right thing to do bearing in mind how settled he is at his current nursery.

[fingerwoman]

I wouldn't change. If he is happy where he is and you are pleased with the level of care he is receiving then that's about as good as it gets surely?
what if you moved him and then found you weren't really happy with it, or that the staff weren't great or he just didn't settle in there?
having all mod-cons and being purpose built would be low on my list of priorities when looking for a nursery I think. I reckon what you've got is perfect

[mumofhelen]

I would concentrate on the quality of care and teaching. A brand-new state of the art nursery means nothing to a child if the staff are awful and inexperienced.

[RubyShivers]

don;t change!
if DS is happy, you are confident with the care, and he is settled then don't change things
FWIW i would rather have less fancy surroundings but know the are given was top notch

[bossybritches]

I second everyone else's opinion. Often big shiny nursreries spend loads on equipment/surroungdings which is lovely but less on staff wages so the turnover of staff would be high which, to me, leads to lack of continuity of care.

[beautifulgirls]

We have just moved DD#1 (3yrs) from a lovely shiney nursery with great space and toys etc etc.....but the staff there left a lot to be desired. She has moved to a nursery (after a LOT of searching) where the facilites seem far more crowded and not so nice and shiney - yet the staff are just perfect with her. We are soooooo much happier with the staff and for us the shiney and nice was not worth it. DD#2 is on the waiting list to get into this smaller nursery now and we can not wait to get her moved too.

I agree with everyone else - stick with what you know if you know the staff are good. It took us a very long time to find a nursery we were happy with once we had decided we were not comfortable with the one they were at.

[ceebeegeebies]

Thanks for all the advice.

The nursery did look lovely - all new and modern with great facilities but we have decided it is not worth upsetting DS and moving him when we are perfectly happy with the nursery he is at.

As Fingerwoman said, we should be thankful that we are happy with our childcare and not change just for the sake of new shiny stuff!