is one full nursery day harder on dd than full time?

[bedraggledmumoftwo]

Have recently been made redundant, before that my two dds were full time at nursery and had settled well. Now I have taken them both down to the minimum (1 day) with a view to giving me time to do various things, keep the socialisation side going, and keep the places open in case I get a new job.

This week, though, dd1(3) was quite adamant she didn't want to go but was ok when we got there, whereas dd2 (20months) just screamed her head off to the point of nearly making herself sick and cried real tears. It was heartbreaking leaving her, and I felt really guilty knowing she didn't "need" to go, although I did do some diy I couldn't have done with them there.

Now I feel like the six days of intense mummy time is making the reaction to the one day much worse and dont want to put her through it. They are looking into availability for two half days instead, but at the moment I feel like pulling her out, especially as she is due to move rooms in September at the same time as dd1 starts pre-school.

Any advice? I felt like she was happy there five days a week, but one full day a week doesn't seem enough to settle?

Ask your key worker for advice. They will have seen how your dd behaved on full time and on just one day.
Express your concerns. They might say 'give it a few weeks,see how she settles' or something.

As you have been made redundant, have a chat with your job centre/sure start. 3 year olds and some 2 year olds are entitled to 15 hours free childcare. I think it depends on your circumstances, but its worth asking.

One day a week can be very hard for little ones, as there is such a long gap between sessions. Will your 3 year old be receiving funding soon? In which case you could just send them for the funded hours, over more days (usually 5). The 20 month old probably won't benefit much from the social side of nursery tbh, but if you want to send them in for some 'you' time I would look at 2 half days instead.

Our nursery has just changed their policy to insist on 4 sessions (that's two days or four half days).

It depends on the setting but I think it would be particularly hard of most of the children are doing more sessions.

Lots of nursery's I have experienced don't like children to only do 1 session for the reasons you describe. My dc of similar age 3 and 19 months do 2 full days which I think is the minimum I would do.
Could you split it so they do 2 or 3 mornings instead.

Have asked to change to two Hal days but don't know if they have availability yet. Dd1 is going to school nursery in September, so it is only dd2 I am worried about. She was fine when full time, but now reacting so badly, just like after a holiday or something. And she is developing toddler tantrums so is making her disagreement known.

Half days that was.

Not worried about the cost, just feeling guilty for sending her when I don't necessarily need to, I guess