Struggling to send toddler to nursery

[LionRichie]

Wondering if anyone else has this problem! I’m really struggling with sending my DD (18 months) to nursery for a few mornings a week. I have some work I should be doing but I keep finding excuses to keep DD home with me (luckily I am self-employed).

I can’t bear it when she screams and cries when I drop her off her, but not taking her in seems to make her worse next time we go. Each time she gets a cold, I want to look after her myself rather than leave her to be unhappy with strangers. I can’t get my head round doing something that makes her miserable when she’d be happy with me. So she ends up missing about 1/3 of her sessions and I feel like the nursery staff think I am nuts!

Does anyone else feel like this and if so, do you have any tips for how I can make it a bit better? Part of me wants to just pull her from nursery until she’s older instead of putting myself through this! But then plenty of other mums manage without all this drama! It's getting worse and not better as we go on, as she now throws huge tantrums when I try to get her in the car and I end up feeling like the worst person in the world.

[FannyFifer]

Does she need to go to nursery, if not, then as it's obviously making you both unhappy why bother..

[Euripidesralph]

I'm really sorry you are struggling with this... It's tough sending them to nursery but if you believe it's right for you then I would suggests that the inconsistency is almost definitely making it worse.... By keeping her home you can't get into a routine so it becomes a bigger deal.... May be worth powering through for a while, routine is a godsend for those situations

Ds1 went through stages... One minute he loved it and one minute he didn't want to go but staff always reported a few minutes after I'd gone the tears disappeared and he was as happy as Larry

[ChessieFL]

Yes, just take her out if she doesn't have to go, try again when she's a bit older.