to think this nursery is the very embodiment of gentrification in London?

[roundaboutsroundabouts]

I won't name the group of nurseries as I don't know if that's allowed (is it?) but I've just seen them referenced on instagram by a scandi toy brand. They are all in vair gentrified hipster parts of London and the fees are fcking EXTORTIONATE - £90 a day for the under-threes. I know that isn't unusual in London (although in my much cheaper part of London I only pay £55 a day). It holds a "curated" "programme" of monthly "events" (including pilates). The children get a daily smoothie - tomorrow's is beetroot, banana, ginger, berry, lemon and hemp. It describes itself as "design-led" and it's all vair tasteful scandi wooden toys in neutral colours. Design led?! Why does a NURSERY need to be "design-led"?!

You just know that everyone who sends their child there is going to have an ombre "lob", wear clothes from Arket, carry a fjallraven kanken backpack, own a bugaboo or a babyzen yoyo, dress said children in varying sludge colours from Mini Rodini, and have linen bedding in their Victorian Terraced house with white painted floorboards and scandi style planters.

I am BVU I know. But it is so irritating. I grew up in London, the child of an immigrant, and I feel like it's just an endless line of artisan coffee shops and overpriced farmers' markets these days.

My kids used a organic nursery with wooden toys. Probably they do yoga. We live in Wales. Gentrification has escaped London.

Christ. I have an ombre lob. Mainly because I'm shit at going to the hairdressers and my bob has grown too long and taken my highlights down with it...

Are the initials for the chain SK? If so, I just googled it and it is hilariously pretentious. It definitely caters to the ideals of the parents rather than the kids! YANBU.

How the hell is a nursery ORGANIC? Are the bricks it's built with organic? Do the people that work there have a Soil Association stamp on their arse?

They might serve organic food, or have an outdoorsy attitude to activities, but an Organic Nursery?

Jeeez, I'm glad I live in a rural backwater and don't have to witness any of this shite.

I kinda get where you're coming from; in a way what parents are paying for isn't just childcare, but access to the 'right' kind of friends and other parents, who'll be similar to them financially. It's the same economic selection that happens when children start school in London: if you can afford to buy in a good catchment then your child will go to school with other well-off children, and you both benefit socially from it. The same as sending your children to private school: it's about networks and access as much as education, and if you can afford it, you have access to privilege that less well off people don't.

That's less surprising in, say, Hampstead or Richmond, which have been wealthy areas for a long time, but places like Hackney and Brixton were, once, genuinely socially mixed. Kids went to school with children from different backgrounds, and being a bit crunchy, a bit home-made, a bit alternative wasn't just an estate agent's marketing spiel, it was what people liked about the area. The thing people dislike about gentrification is the feeling that people have bought into an area on the basis of the existing community, only to then avoid or exclude that community, and create exclusive spaces.

I mean, I'd love to live in a tasteful Victorian villa and have what sounds like a very lovely life, but that isn't realistic for me. I'm a little bit envious, but mostly I'm just concerned that in building spaces for like-minded and wealthy families, genuinely mixed communities get displaced, children are less likely to be exposed to people who are less well off than them, and the divide between haves and have-nots is widened.

Do children care about things being design led? I would worry this nursery is pandering to parents’s taste rather than the needs of children
I don’t think the two are mutually exclusive. My DC has a ball pit that he loves to play with- it’s also monochrome to match my living room furniture. He has a lovely ceiling mobile in his bedroom and a nightlight - they just happen to also be designer pieces. I don’t see why toys etc can’t also be attractive quality items that look nice in my home.

@JacquesHammer
Not much farming in central London - they have petting zoo's but they are just nonsense, not a patch on the real thing.
We have actual crop rotation and seasons, pheasant shoots etc for children to experience where food comes from.
Not some artisan vegan pretentious nonsense. I wouldn't move back if they quadrupled my salary, it is a horrible place to bring up children.

I don’t see why toys etc can’t also be attractive quality items that look nice in my home.

That's fine when they are very young but when they get older they tend to want paw patrol (or whatever) themed shite.

I think the OP is annoyed because the nusery is very deliberately targeting a specific set of people ie a certain class of people, even though situated in a multi-class demographic area. Therefore the nursery is really encouraging or at least exploiting class division by proxy.

Megan2018

I know....DD's prep - the one I discussed up thread was in rural Yorkshire.

CatherineOfAragonsPrayerBook

You have nailed it. Thank you.

Ha ha OP, it is definitely a load of wank and I chuckled at your description of the demographic. Full disclosure- I live in Zone 3 North London in a Victorian house and I own a Bugaboo. Boards are not painted but they are sanded, though my pet hate is kids’ bedrooms with boards in them so cosy carpet all the way there. And our Bugaboo was free from a poncey design led colleague of DH and I fucking HATE the expensive linen bedding that Mumsnet convinced me to buy. How bad do your roots need to get before your hair is officially ombré? .

DS (2.5) goes to preschool and we pay £62 a day. The toys are a mixture of plastic and wood, they have cool home made stuff like a wooden board with locks and bells screwed on to it and a massive garden with a fort and mud kitchen. Most importantly the staff are beyond lovely and he has been cared for consistently well since he was a year old. They would not know “design led” or “curating” if it bit them on the arse but they can potty train like ninjas.

I’m really surprised to read from a poster above that they were constantly asked by other parents about their salaries- to me that is the height of rudeness and I have never been asked. In fact I only know what one other nursery Mum or Dad does for work, even though I see a lot of them getting on and off the same trains to and from the City that we do. Nobody gives a shit.

As for gentrification of London, as another poster said, yes there are vegan cafes and artisan bakers and Scandinavian toy shops in my area, but they sit right beside Turkish grocers and non-hipster barbers and greasy spoons, with the pound shops and market stalls only 10 mins away on the bus. I have friends/family who still shudder at how “urban” N London feels compared to their chi chi towns in Surrey and Yorkshire. And a lot of the Victorian houses were in real disrepair before the middle classes moved in; now most streets have a combination of renovated ones next to HMOs and the overall vibe is a bit safer for everyone. Long way to go before gentrification takes over completely.

I live in a v crappy not particularly gentrified yet was paying £80 a day 10 years ago for DC nursery. We go on caravan holidays (yes including Sun ones) and their first solid food was a McDonalds chip (helpfully feed to them by a sibling!). What does that make me?!

Just another snotty post having a go at other people’s lifestyle choices and inviting a pile on. You clearly disdain all things ‘gentrified’ and those who adhere to them, OP. Go you.

Well, here’s the good news, you don’t have to subscribe to any of them, nope, no one can make you buy mini Rodini or Scandi-decor or pay more than you need to for your childcare. The bad news is that looking down your nose at those who do, you know spending their money how they want to spend it, and recruiting the mumsnet massif to sneer along with you doesn’t make you any better than they are.

I like the idea of smoothies, especially if they get vegetables in there as well as fruit.
Wooden toys seem like a great idea until a toddler lobs a wooden block at your head, then plastic seems do much more appealing!
£90 per day prices out anyone on min wage and children don't give a shit about design. Kids just want someone to play with them and read stories and take them to the park. Parents should be more concerned about whether staff will cuddle their baby if it cries and change their nappies regularly to be getting their knickers in a twist about the furniture.

As someone from a deprived area of the West Midlands, I don't have the foggiest idea what these brands and trends are, but you'd expect to get something a bit exclusive if you were shelling out £90 a day for daycare, wouldn't you?

I think the OP is annoyed because the nusery is very deliberately targeting a specific set of people ie a certain class of people, even though situated in a multi-class demographic area. Therefore the nursery is really encouraging or at least exploiting class division by proxy.

Isn’t this problem also magnified by so many private nurseries not offering the free 30 hours? As I understand it that is a government problem as it’s economically unviable for many to do it. However I think that the ones that can charge high fees and capture the families who don’t need the hours are happier just to say that they won’t bother with free hours, and that then deepens the class divisions.

Smoothies are just sugar without the fibre. A basic array of fruit cut up into small chewable pieces is better but doesn't sound as convincing a reason for you to part with £90 a day.

At my middle child's nursery they shear sheep, raise chickens, climb trees and makes bonfires. You can keep your smoothies and design-led bollocks thank you, my child is having a bloody brilliant education at half the price.

Megan2018

I wouldn't move back if they quadrupled my salary, it is a horrible place to bring up children.

Thanks. I am glad that you mentioned that, as I had no idea that living in London was a child welfare issue. My husband will be appalled when I tell him this evening. Have just put the house on the market. When does pheasant shooting season begin?

@Adoptthisdogornot

At my middle child's nursery they shear sheep, raise chickens, climb trees and makes bonfires. You can keep your smoothies and design-led bollocks thank you, my child is having a bloody brilliant education at half the price

@Megan2018

We have actual crop rotation and seasons, pheasant shoots etc for children to experience where food comes from.

Is this standard countryside pre-school education? Cause it sounds bloody brilliant.

I live in a very different area of the UK to you OP, but I feel very strongly about a similar nursery.
I believe the nursery itself is fine, a bit 'aspirational' for my tastes but each to their own I’m sure the kids love it.

My problem is that they’ve also bought a cafe in the town, to provide a mother and baby/toddler space. BUT they CHARGE something like £30 a year 'membership' that you are to have to use it!

As with everywhere there are affluent families and areas of deprivation here, and it just smacks of keeping 'a certain type' of mother out of their wooden toy/Scandi design space to me

Megan2018

I wouldn't move back if they quadrupled my salary, it is a horrible place to bring up children.

GraceSlicksRabbit:
Thanks. I am glad that you mentioned that, as I had no idea that living in London was a child welfare issue. My husband will be appalled when I tell him this evening. Have just put the house on the market. When does pheasant shooting season begin?

London is huge and diverse. What is the norm in one area is quite different in another. I certainly like where I live and wouldn't want to live anywhere else. There are plenty of green spaces in and around London but some urban areas where there's nothing. You pick what you like and what you can afford.

I have two railway stations nearby and can get into central London in 26 minutes. It's great, was excellent when I went to work plus I live in pleasant surroundings with good schools and, most importantly, where I feel quite safe.

What is design-led?! Is it somehow to do with the furniture?! Smoothies a massive waste of the money, give them a beetroot ball and an apple instead, much better. But but but.... I have an ombre lob