To put 1 year old in nursery for a break

[findingherfeet]

DD (3) goes to nursery one full day and one morning a week.

DS is ten months. After his first birthday i would like him to do one morning (4 hours) to basically give me a break - do paperwork without a baby crying or DD demanding my pen etc

I'm tired, he doesn't sleep well.

I'm not returning to work for probably another year... My DH thinks he's a bit young and as I'm at home....

We have very little family support and are not wealthy but could manage this as DD has just got her 11 hours entitlement.

Am I being a demanding WAG style monster?....

soddingcupcakes are you a martyr about everything or just babies nurseries is not institutional childcare don't be so dramatic the baby will not be harmed by having a teained professional is actually your attitude is paranoid and a bit frightening tbh.

Trained* and it is 4 hours

I think whether it's in a child's best interests to be in nursery is a matter of opinion not fact, as some posters seem to think. Where I live (Sweden) almost all children go from when they turn 1. It's really frowned upon to not send them because that's seen as not acting in their best interests. As they are consistently shown to be the best country for children I guess they know what they're doing.

Sodding the op is talking about 1 morning a week (isn't she?). That's not going to damage her child. If you're school of thought is that under 3s shouldn't be in nursery because of heightened stress hormones when outside of the home environment, then the OPs DC will have plenty of time for his stress levels to rebalance throughout the rest of the week. And he might even have fun!!!

Stress and daycare for the under 3s

Effects ion attachment
^^ this negates your 'its only for a morning every week' argument.

mumsnet hq could we please have a 'whatever' emoticon?

That proves nothing it only instills hysteria in parents they didnt test any babies at home it isn'ta balanced study but you judt keep thinking all parents who use nursery care for their babies is harming them will bolster ypur ego you are doing the right thing babies stress levels rise and fall when they are tired hungry a little lonely because they are human

And ypur second link is a crock of shit full of likelys and maybes it has no proof attached

How on earth did they measure the cortisol sodding?! Put the child through some extra stress to do so? Bonkers.

It just depends on the child. 4 hours a week is not much and provided the child is happy and playing then it's a good introduction to other children and adults.

I wouldn't leave a baby in a nursery setting but that's my choice. Others feel differently and that's their choice.

YANBU in the slightest. And ignore the martyr-mum. My DS was in full time nursery 4 days a week from 8 months because I'm a single parent and someone had to pay the mortgage and put food on the table. And for my own sanity. If you can afford it, go for it. Oh and the cortisol thing is a crock of shit - they're extrapolating from cortisol levels measured among children in Romanian orphanages at the height of Ceauscesu's regime and pretending that applies to children in 1:3 care ratio, properly run nurseries who go home to loving parents every night and spend all weekend with the parents.

(BTW, I use the phrase "martyr-mum" because someone of that ilk once told me in all seriousness on one of these threads that I should have defaulted on the mortage, had the house repossessed, so the council would have given me a council house - like they do that in the real world - and scrape by on benefits, rather than put my son in nursery. Am I still cross about this? Damn right!)

That was probably me Lurcio, before I stayed at home for 5 years with DD and DS!

(only joking - probably wasn't me )

The trouble with posting research is that you need to have the skills to understand and interpret research. Blindly posting links makes you look silly.

Yeah I know what a meta-analysis is, thanks crumble

Are you saying institutionalised childcare is beneficial to the under 3s? Especially 'just 4 hours a week' where the child cannot even form an attachment with any of the secondary caregivers?

Dd2 was at a childminder 45 hours a week from 8 months old.

She loves it, calls the childminder Granny and is close friends with the other children there.

Make whatever decision is best for you and your family.

If someone feels the need to denigrate you and your choices, it says more about them and their own insecurities and hang ups than it says about you.

I am a SAHP . My dd is 2 and goes 2 x per week for 4 hours. I use the time to clean my house properly. It has really helped my sanity.
We tried once per week with the other children but this didn't work as it was too long between sessions.