To send DD to nursery when I'm pretty sure I'm removing her by Christmas?

[curiousgeorgie]

I live on the same road as an amazing primary, absolutely love it and it was the sole reason we moved here.

They have a nursery attached and I've applied to send her there in January and should hear back about that in due course.

In the meantime my 2nd choice nursery is around the corner and they've offered her a place starting this week...

I don't want her to not get a place at the first nursery and be left with nothing so DH thinks I should send her to the around the corner nursery and if / when she gets into our preferred one, just take her out and send her there, no harm done.

I am worried about how she'll cope with having to start two different places potentially, and being settled in one then moving... But DH says basically that kids are resilient and she'll be fine.

WWYD? Am I being unreasonable to do this? She's almost 3 and has only ever been without me to be with my mum. No babysitters, no childcare, no previous nursery.

Just to add, the nursery catchment for my preferred is 500m and we live 350m away, on the same street, so I'm hoping she'll be offered a place but obviously it could go the other way and she could be left with nothing.

Hello OP.

Speaking as somebody who has moved a lot with our 3 dc over the past 22 years, I agree with your dh for the majority.
There may be some like my ds2 who needed a lot of tlc and support during these times, more than others.
They all seemed to settle in eventually.
This is only my experience though.

I had the opposite experience with DD. She had a couple of childcare changes and her behaviour plummeted. I have tried since to keep everything as consistent as possible. It has worked, she is much happier.

Forget about the rest of the primary (unless its a rare one where nursery counts towards admissions): how do the nurseries compare? If there's not much in it then go for the place you are being offered now.

If the primary school nursery really is that much better then you might want to hold out if you don't need the childcare, because if its bad enough to risk disruption to change for the sake of it, its too bad to use.

Depends on the child really. Some will roll with the change, others struggle. Is DD a social butterfly who'll enjoy meeting new people or will she feel wrenched from hard won friends?

At 3, I'd hold off till Jan unless you need the childcare.