To think my baby shouldn’t be in this nursery room?! Or am I being precious?

[Hippan]

DD is fifteen months (last week). She is quite big but can’t walk yet. I was told when joining the nursery that she would be in a room for 8-9 months to 16-18 month olds, depending on her physical development. Every day I have collected her in the last 2 weeks she has been in the room up which is 16-18 months to 24 months. AIBU to think this is wrong? She is still crawling around two years olds above her?

Lol I'm afraid I was in childcare since day dot and have always been a social outcast 🤣

My son didn't attend nursery till 3 and is a very sociable little chap.

Very small sample size there @Loonyloopylupin

I could weigh in with mine needing childcare from when each of my maternity leaves ended after 3 months, and all of them are wonderful sociable adults, but I kind of suspect there are all sorts of other factors at play.

OP, You've mentioned about "when you collect her" but I can't see if you have answered the question about where you drop her ?

As it is fairly normal for the rooms to be merged at the start and end of the day, when there are fewer children across the Nursery and therefore fewer staff. Have you asked them if she has permanently moved, or if this is an 'end of day' thing ?

Though, in most Nurseries it is fairly unusual to have more than one baby room anyway. Generally speaking, all U2s are likely to be in the same room.

Of course it is normal and natural to have concerns about things you haven't come across before as a newish parent, but the best thing to do is to ask the staff who are looking after her - we can all only speculate. They will know.

If she has moved up, it isn't a bad thing though - children often start to do things they see others around them doing, so she might see others walking and give it a go.

The baby room at my son’s nursery is 3months to 2 years. My eldest started when he was 15 months and walking. My youngest starts in a few weeks, he’ll be only just 12 months and currently not yet walking. He’ll be in a room with the nearly 2 year olds and despite not walking he’ll be absolutely fine 🤷‍♀️. There is no other option at my son’s nursery.

Our nursery usually moves the babies up when they are around 15/16 months and they sent a letter advising my DD would move up, she wasn’t walking either and I expressed my concern as the next room is from this age until 3 when they go to pre school so I was worried like you that she’d get bowled over or trampled on but she was fine, if anything it spurred her walking on and she was walking within a month of moving up! She now often spends time with the pre schoolers especially in the garden or the end of the day when they merge rooms. It’s nice for them I think but I do understand your concerns! I would speak to nursery and ask what they think, is there a reason she’s with them?

Looks like she's at an awkward in between stage. You might not want her around 2 year olds, but probably the parents of small 8 month olds don't want a big 15 month old sitting or falling on their baby either. Most likely they've done it to balance the numbers in both rooms a bit more fairly though.

Any nursery I have worked in has had a baby room, Tweenies room, a toddlers room and a preschool room. The baby room was until they were around 12/13 months, the Tweenies room was from 12/13 months to 2 years. The toddlers room was from 2 to 3 years and the preschool room was from 3 to 5 years. They went into the Tweenies room even if they were not cruising or walking and most were walking within a couple of months of being in the Tweenies room and no they didn’t get trampled on by the other children.

Just to check, is it only upon pick up? All the nurseries I've worked in had this towards the end of the day as staff are going home so they would merge rooms together as it got later. If she's in very late it may just be that?

If not I completely get where you're coming from. I'm a childminder so I have mixed ages but you have to be very vigilant around crawling/lying babies and much bigger, clumsier toddlers bathing around. There is such a vast difference in development stages at this age and the big ones are too big for the babies

Our nursery does this. It makes sense to be because it’s about age appropriate activities. There is no guarantee a baby will be walking by 18 months anyway. My Dc isn’t walking either and is about to move up into a similar room where she’ll be a crawler. I get that it’s daunting but your Dc could be bored if left in the other room.

Good point

If the bigger children are running around , then surely she’s more a danger for them tripping over her, than them falling onto her ? Maybe she’s like pp ds and crawling and sitting on the babies in the other room.

You won’t know until you ask

At the nursery my dd is at their is baby room and then toddler room.

They will not move them up until they are confidently walking for that very reason. So my first DD didn't move up until she was about 16 months as she was late walking. My youngest DD went in just after 1 as she was walking about 11 months and was very steady on her feet.

Occasionally when they were little they were put in big room because there wasn't a lot of kids in that day (or it was near the end of the day) so it was easier to merge the rooms but they obviously made sure the babies were safe.

You should just ask them it might be similar that she hasn't been in there all day but towards the end when there's less kids. They also may just be giving her time in that room to begin the transition and settle her in.