How to tell nursery staff we're leaving because of management, not them?

[marenmj]

DD has been going to nursery one afternoon per week for five months now, running up to my return to work in Jan. The staff are very nice and DD loves the nursery.

We've had the opportunity to go visit her grandparents in America for a couple of months over the holidays and we talked to the nursery manager about it as soon as we found out. They told us it wouldn't be a problem but to put in notice, let them keep the registration fee and deposit, and she would start up full time in Jan when we return. We were expressly told that we wouldn't have to pay nursery costs during this time.

The nursery (owner? head?) top person in charge has just informed us that unless we continue paying over our holiday they just won't be able to keep her spot open if someone else comes along.

We're quite sad because I'm now in the unpaid portion of my maternity leave, and money is tight. We didn't budget the nursery costs because the manager told us we wouldn't need to pay them.

There is another nursery closer to our house with nicer facilities/more staff qualifications/same costs/bigger garden/etc. They have told us they can accomodate us in Jan, even going so far as to say they can bring in extra staff to cover if needed (they have another location nearby).

We simply can't justify paying the nursery costs for 2 1/2 months that we will be gone, and we can't afford the uncertainty and chance that we won't have childcare in place when I go back to work (we started 5 months ago to AVOID this kind of uncertainty FFS).

I want to let the staff know that THEY aren't the reason we are going to switch nurseries. They are very nice, but we're soured on the owner-person. She's always put us slightly on edge and this was just the kicker.

Of course, I don't want to tell the staff the whole, sordid story. Just let them know that they have been lovely...

Should I lie?

[louii]

I doubt the staff will care really, just give them a box of chocs and say thanks very much.

[marenmj]

good idea.

thanks.

[BratleyEatsBrainsForBreakfast]

Same here, I used to work in a nursery, we were sad to see the kids leave but people move on.
Just the way it goes.
Doubt they need to know really.

Could cause animosity with the staff later on, and thats not fair on other families that use the nursery.

[roadha]

I don't agree.

I would like to know how happy you have been with us and that is it the costing and managements behaviour that has led you to your decision.

We (my team in our room) love our jobs and strive to make sure everyone is happy and adapt to each parents requests/needs, so if someone leaves we would like to know the reason; especially in this (your reason) circumstance.

how can louii or bratleyeatsbrainsforbreak be so cold? You obviously don't work with children and if you do then I feel very sorry for your children/parents/employer!

[atworknotworking]

If I looked after your child I would like to know why you had decided to leave as if it was caused by a problem with anything I or someone in my room had done I would want the opportunity to put it right.

To be fair though having worked in nurseries the staff tend to find out these things anyway How about dropping a card in for the girls and just saying something like "we will miss you all, but because of the situation I feel that we can't continue here" or some such, no doubt the nosey very caring staff will ask why.