Would you send your baby to nursery if you were a stay at home mum ?

[Senseibility]

If you were a stay at home mum and could afford to happily send your baby to nursery one or two days a week would you? I do because we can afford to im chronically ill my husband is self employed working long unpredictable hours and we have no family help unless it was an emergency as they work. I just feel guilty about sending him even though he loves it. It’s helped cure my PPD and my home life is so much better because of it. I just feel like a bad mum and I desperately wanted to be a stay at home mum

I agree with you completely that it's good for some children.
However in normal non covid times when there's plenty of stay and play groups, rhyme time, tumble tots etc for a SAHP to take their child too then it's not really needed.

covids definitely coloured my opinion on this, he was 2 and it was just me and him in a gardenless studio apartment going on a long walk every day stopped being enough after the first few months. Nursery was great for him, I still remember hearing about all the anxious kids with issues after Covid and I think nursery definitely helped prevent any of that for him.

Yes I would. You have a lot going on, don’t feel guilty in the slightest. You don’t have to justify your decisions to others, they aren’t walking in your shoes.

If the option is lockdown in a studio flat or nursery, then at age two, nursery is definitely the best option.

If the choice is between nursery and an enriching home-based upbringing, being at home full-time is best until around three.

I suppose maybe if I had a chronic illness.
Otherwise definitely not.

Yes, we had no childcare from family as my Mum had passed away and Dh’s family lived a 6 hour drive away. I know what it’s like to have no one to help from the first week onwards and your H has to go back to work. Of course it’s fine xx

Nursery is good for preparing them for school. It’s why people that don’t work and are on benefits get free nursery places! First day of school and you can tell the children that have never been apart from their parents

A year of pre school (aka "nursery") from the age of 3 is the preparation for school.
The OP seemed to be referring to daycare nursery for babies - which is different.

Why not?

Why is a day of nursery for a 1 year old bad, but 3,4,5 days a week 8am to 6pm a-ok?

1-2 days a week is useless for everyone including you. It’s infrequent enough that young babies will forget they need to go each time and so if they dislike it will become even clingier to you. And if you’re having to spend an hour at nursery to calm them down would it really help you? You need to send them 3 x a week at least to build a routine that will actually help you & them.

2 days is absolutely fine. It's also a matter of costs too!

Total rubbish.

Waiting until your child starts pre-school at 3 before they are exposed to this kind of environment makes it much harder for them to adapt. A day or two in nursery can make a huge difference, the primary school reception teachers I know say you can tell which children only went to pre-school and which went to nursery because the non-nursery ones take so much longer to settle.

Oh good grief.
Pre-pre school for pre-school.
No children don't need it.
Nursery Year (age 3 - 4) and Reception Year (age 4 - 5) IS the preparation for school.
For her first 3 years my daughter had a busy life of Stay and Play groups, "One O'clock Club", Rhyme and Story Time at the local library, spending time at the park playing with other children, doing life activities like going to the supermarket or catching a bus.
She didn't need to go to daycare nursery at all.

This is not true.

A year to settle is plenty.

Obviously.