nursery opening hours

[scottishgal09]

I need to go back to work so will soon be putting my 9 month old in nursery, only thing is that the earliest I can find any nursery open is 7 am to 7 pm. The 7 pm closing time is fine but I really find I need a opening time of 6 pm. I also work Saturday mornings so need something that is open 6 days. Start time should be at least 6:00 pm but I struggle to find this. Do these type of nursery’s exist? What are the opening and closing hours for your nursery’s? Why don’t nursery’s take into account that some parents need to work 6 days 🤨?

I know we would like to think this, but the truth is that many private nursery settings hire teenagers straight from school.
Many teenagers that do not have the grades to go onto further education go into ‘apprenticeships’ at private nurseries where they can gain a qualification in childcare and retake GCSEs.
I know of many instances of this and actually have a 16 year old niece working in the baby room of a private nursery as she did not get the GCSEs grades to go on to do the course (nothing to do with children) that she wanted to do in College.
I am not knocking private nurseries at all, I am sure there are lots of wonderful settings out there with very caring staff doing a wonderful job.
Nursery settings are required to have only a certain number of fully qualified staff and they will try to keep costs low by hiring younger/unqualified workers.
I am only pointing out that if this is your main reason for choosing a nursery over a child minder, it’s not the best informed decision.
There are many qualified and experienced child minders out there.
I know of child minders that are also qualified in other professions involving children (teachers and speech and language therapist for example) that turned to the job after having children of their own.
Maybe ask around for some good recommendations and speak to childminders to gauge their experience etc

First of all… caring and loving are two different things. I care about everyone I love but I do not love everyone I care about.
I’m a teacher and my class size is 58 kids, on top of that I teach approx 500 kids drama. I care about them all, and mourned a student when he passed away suddenly. However my grief was nothing compared to his family and friends. I’ve also celebrated students being off as it meant a slightly easier day at work.
On top of that I am a qualified HR person and worked in HR departments in different restaurants. I have also been a GM and was one when my son was born. So I consider myself fairly qualified to tell you that there are other solutions then to send your child off 5.5 days a week. And trust me doing that, even with the most qualified nursery staff, will lead to an attachment disorder when they are a grown up. And that isn’t something you will get over quickly, if ever. It’s a bleak life as a child and a bleak life as an adult.
as restaurant managers, GM salaries for Nando’s fx are up to 41k a year and if you live in Scotland as your username states then that’s £2743 a month for one of you (£2754 a month in England).
I did a quick calculation for some nursery in England and with the 15 free hours a week, stretched over the full year, FT hours your nursery cost would be £1174 a month (and you can apply for tax free child care). So are you absolutely sure you both have to work 4 jobs?
As a seasoned restaurant vet, with a husband who is still working as a restaurant GM, and we both worked as GMs when our son was born. You could ask to work alternating weekends, and one of you works the open and the other one the close in the week.
One family day every other week and using your holidays wisely.

I also can’t shout it loud enough, nursery workers will not love your child the way it needs to be loved.

A child isn’t ’working’ at nursery. They are engaging in curriculum led play, eating and sleeping. Ridiculous to equate it to an adult with a job.

Hello, all. This is a reminder that personal attacks break our Talk Guidelines and that Mumsnet is here to make parents' lives easier - please do remember that when posting.

No, a parent loves their child in the way it needs to be loved, and a working parent succeeds in that with quality morning, evening, weekend and holiday time.

Would you put a dog in doggy day care for 11 hours 5 days a week?

@Didimum when DS was at nursery we did think it was a bit like he was already on the 'working treadmill'. He had the commute and then same hours we did and also only had the holidays we did. So at weekends we used to have a large amount of downtime for him as nursery can be full on. I was made redundant just before he started school and it was like a holiday for him, more local than the nursery (nursery was by my workplace) so no long commute, shorter hours and he had school holidays.

If I needed my dog taken care of because I either wanted or needed to work then yes. Why wouldn’t I?

Why are you equating dogs to children?

I never said nurseries are the worst option. What's best and what's worse will be different for different people. But if you think nursery is best because the staff will love and care for your baby, you are being naive. You only need to read her comments about childminders to know that she hasn't done any proper research. She just thinks no one would work in a nursery if they didn't love children, and nurseries are focused on enrichment. Unlike childminders who, when they aren't dragging children around doing school pickups, do nothing all day.

That’s your emotions placed on your son’s routine. What does that have to do with how OP feels about nursery?

I don't understand this ridiculous suggestion that nurseries are the best place for children because they are trained in caring for children and parents or family members aren't. It's utter rubbish

and

I don’t want a childminder. Nursery has lots of toys and books and activities, and different food that a childminder doesn’t.

You clearly have no idea what you are talking about here.
These are really offensive statements - and I'm not a childminder. I'm just offended on their behalf.

You really are showing your ignorance here.

@Didimum it's not just me, many people on here are saying the hours are too long. Yes to an adult it looks like fun and an easy day for a young child at nursery. being surrounded by toys etc having naps, and so to us it doesn't look like work. But they are taking in new things all the time, developing and that is tiring. They need downtime, they need the comfort of their own home

Posters are most definitely presenting OP with the worst possible scenarios, which are irrelevant unless the setting is known. A daycare centre employing only teenagers who don’t give a hoot about children, who can’t comfort crying children. Added to this the child will barely sleep, will barely eat and will suffer increased infections conditions.

They are annoyed with OP for not immediately agreeing with them, they are attempting to gain moral high ground in having read 5-10 of a strangers responses over a matter of hours, and then the claws come out – it’s the standard Mumsnet playbook, again and again and again.

In my particular area, childminders and nannies largely don’t exist. There are instead many very high quality nurseries that retain more high quality staff for this reason. The area I was in before this was very childminder heavy and the nurseries were of worse quality. We have no idea of the set up in OP’s area.

I don’t get this at all.
You are saying that you each do two jobs but only one of the jobs you’re bothered about keeping?! Is that true? If so then drop the other one!

You don’t seem to have any worries at all about being separated from your baby for that long. It’s doesn’t make sense to me.
I went back to work when DS was 1 and he was in three days a week. I took Mondays with him and his dad took Fridays and neither of our careers suffered. And even then I was anxious with him being away from us for that long each week.
We eventually upped his hours to full time (well, half days on Mon/Fri) when he was old enough to seem to enjoy it and be around his friends and when 30 hours kicked in at aged 3.

This amount of time away from either primary caregiver for such a young baby would really worry me. I wouldn’t even do it for an older child!

OP putting aside if nursery full-time is good or bad for a child

I have just had a look at the nurseries near me (as many years since I needed one)

1 opens at 6:30am
The Hospital One opens at 6:45am
most open at 7
2 doesn't open until 8 am.
most are open until 6-7 pm

Not one of them is open on a Saturday or Sunday (including the Hospital one)
I live in a fairly large town in the SE. I checked 25 nurseries

You need to work out how you will go about this.

A nursery will not be the answer you need.

Could you get an aupair in whom can have your dd for 1 hour in the morning and take them to nursery then have them on Saturdays?

Or a uni student if you live near a university?

A weekend childminder?

You say family is a possibility will they support similar?

You can argue that this should happen and it is possible, however, unless you can find one that does this you need to find a solution for your current issue.
If you and your husband working split shifts/opposite weekends isn't a possibility you have to work out what is a possibility.

That’s cool for you and your child. OP isn’t asking your personal opinion on the benefits of X hours at nursery, she’s asking about nursery operating times. You have also presumably read the thread and heard from full time working parents with children in 10-11 hrs a day who have experienced no issues.

It’s baffling isn’t it. How can anyone think their child will be better off with nursery staff than parents or family because they are “qualified” in child development.

Hi op, it’s never nice getting a bashing online. You do seem firm on that this is your choice and best for your family. I would ask you to at least look at evidence regarding emotional attachment up to the age of two, building relationships and regulating emotions and how these impact children long term. If you do some reading and still feel that this is for the best of course, but you wouldn’t want to have regrets down the line wishing you had had more information now.

@Didimum I have also read the OP where she says nursery is best because they have toys etc. What is she doing with her baby now?

Most posters on here are not putting their babies into nursery full-time 11 hours a day, most posters have rejigged their working hours so babies aren't in nurseries for that length of time

OP, apart from whether long hours at nursery are good for your child or not, what about YOU? You are planning to work a 60-hour week in a demanding customer-facing role , then parent a 9-month old, run your life and home, eat and sleep and then still somehow have time for your relationship with your husband (who apparently works equally long hours including Saturday and Sunday) and somehow have some downtime to just "be"? Is that really sustainable either mentally or physically?

Is it rubbish, depending on what’s available to an individual? Nursery is a better option than many grandparents who may be elderly, lacking energy, mental or physical agolity or not up to speed on the latest care recommendations.

Loads of people have to find a different job

At DT’s nursery all the staff had specialist childcare qualifications. Two were qualified nurses and many had degrees in childcare. External staff visited for art and music and they even did baby yoga

How much 'quality' morning and evening time will Op have with her child if its in nursery 11 hours per day?