I have a friend who also has 2 boys except hers are younger than mine, 7 and 4, the 4 year old due to start school in September. We got talking about the cost of childcare and I asked her if the funded hours were helpful. She said financially it was better but she noticed a real difference in the children accessing the nurseries her kids have used. She basically said the funding opened up places that lower income families couldn’t afford and that all the nursery staff were always busy with the badly behaved kids and no time for her child. She said that her 4yo started coming home saying things her 7yo never did at that age and she was (I quote) “fed up of all the shit kids taking up places where before they’d never be able to afford to go”. Basically she wants her kids to only mix with other kids like them. i didn’t think much of it at the time cos we were in a car in a hurry to get home but now i can’t stop thinking about it, im quite shocked by her attitude. but maybe i am overreacting and it was just a silly off the cuff comment?