To wish nursery opened earlier

[Alarice]

And before anyone says that we need to find a new nursery - they all open at 8.

It's a pain. I really need to be in work before 8, ideally, but as it is, I get in at 8:25 looking and feeling disorganised as hell.

Round here most nurseries are 7.30. The chain my dd went to trialled 7am opening and I think they kept it on in one particular nursery. I am in commuting distance to London.

Breakfast club is also 7.30 but the childminder I used on a couple of mornings is 7.45. - that 15 minutes translates a 30 minutes later at work minimum - more often as the later train always seems to be late.

Look at nurseries near hospitals. There are several in my area that open at 6.30 as shifts start at 7.

Another example
Of how the world or rather UK
Doesn’t always adapt for working parents

Hold your head up . 830 is still a decent start

Mine were in nursery in the nineties, I love in a small boring town up north. Ours was open 7:30 to 18:00 even then. We are 200 miles from London.

Ours is a Bright Horizons and we’re in Leeds. They open at 7:15am.

I ask the same all the time. Where I live it is similar and means I cannot use a nursery in my town. Instead I use one near where I teach and as it too only opens at 8, I’m rushing into the classroom. I live in a commuter town where most who work in London catch the 7:20 train so there would be the call for longer hours.

You should give feedback to the nursery. We shifted our opening time when a big local employer changed the shift patterns of their staff to accommodate their earlier start. It may be that other parents would also like a slightly earlier opening time. The nursery may consider it if they would have enough children needing this.

This is partly why I'm not returning to work. I'd need to leave DD at 6.30 in order to get to work.

I and others have asked if they’d consider early opening but the problem (for us) is they don’t need to. There are only three full time day nurseries in the whole town and they’re full without needing to accommodate those who need pre 8am drop offs.

Mine opens at 8 but you can ask for earlier drop offs. It's £3 per half hour per child so I pay £6 a week extra to drop my two off at 7:30 one day a week. It's worth asking them.

This is an issue all over. We found one nursery who opened at 7.30 and was ideal as it was close to work - have you thought about liking closer to work? This nursery closed earlier than others though which suited us as we also finished early.

When we needed to switch to a childminder we struggled to find one will to start at 7 (we did manage it but most wouldn't).

Is there a big problem with you starting work at 8.30? What does your contract stipulate?

Funny all these people saying Bright Horizons as my Bright Horizons (in London) opens at 8am!

My only suggestion would be if you have any local mums/ dads parenting Facebook groups? Ask on there?

Most nurseries in our ads are 0730-1830.

We only manage it cos DP works locally. I commute into London. If I had to do the pick ups and drop offs, I'd need to change my hours! On the rare occasions that I have had to do them, I've had to ask work if I can arrive late and leave early. So I completely get where you're coming from.

*area not ads lol

She is a teacher Laurie! No flexibility on start times and meetings, preparation etc before the onslaught of other people's children!
The only suggestion I can make op, is that you try and get everything as absolutely prepped as possible after school obvs you have never thought of this! so you are as prepared as possible for a flying start - although I know this won't always be possible as I guess you have a deadline to pick up your DC after school too.
I guessed you were a teacher when you said about how you felt about arriving at 8:25am. Do you have a friendly colleague who could have a coffee ready for you?

Look at nurseries near hospitals. There are several in my area that open at 6.30 as shifts start at 7

I came on to say this. DS is at his 2nd hospital nursery as this is where DH works. His first one was for NHS staff only so wouldn't have helped but his current one is public, just on the hospital site.

Both the ones he's attended have opened at 7.

My nursery at the moment is great and is open 0600-2000

That's some long opening hours, I really hope there aren't little ones in for that entire time.

The problem is (for me) that it turns an already long day in to an even longer day if I start earlier and then you have parents requesting late pick ups too. It’s really hard to get a good work/life for us childcarers too.

Mine opens from 7am, but is attached to a school so has a lot of children from teachers there. I would struggle if we didn't have one that was open before 8.

I work in a nursery and we now no longer do breakfast club as it wasn't financially viable. We had one child that required a 7.30 start. They pay £5.50 for the extra but it required 2 members of staff which cost at least £16 for the session depending on their qualification.

Nurseries here are all 8-6, both in our town and in city centre. That works ok for us but school breakfast club is 815 and after school 545. Those 15 minutes each side are a nightmare and will give us zero leeway. I'm hoping to start a new job after mat leave and already worried about how it will look running in at 850 and out bang on 5

@IceRebel if you work 12 hour shifts and have no other childcare there is no choice.

I'm really shocked by all these nurseries that open so late - I don't live in a 'bustling' area - quite a small village with 3 nurseries and the latest opening time is 7.30, one opens at 7. We decided on a nursery slightly out of the village and that opens at 7.15. All serve breakfast from opening until 9am and close between 6&6.30. We are commuting distance to Leeds & surrounding cities, so maybe that's why.

Isn't there a nursery that's close to your school? So you could do the commute with child and then drop off. Although I understand you may not want to change. I can imagine how stressful it must be to only arrive at 8.30 when you're a teacher, you need calm before the storm. Maybe look for a childminder that would do a nursery drop off?