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 🤨?

OP please rethink your plan. Your baby needs you. Not toys, money, stimulation. It just needs you. Even if you just sat on a chair and held it and did nothing, that would be better than sending it to nursery. Your baby will yearn for you all day, please don’t send it to nursery for such long days. You have other options, there are always other options.

Some of these comments, honestly. My middle child was in nursery 5 days a week, he’s at university now, one of the smartest and most driven people I know (not just my opinion, but opinion of everyone who meets him). My daughter went 4 days a week, by then I dropped a day as I had 3 children to care for and it was tough going commuting into London 45 mins each way, picking up from 2 places, and a teenager to cope with.

I asked my youngest two recently after seeing a news article about the effects of childcare if they felt they were disadvantaged by going to nursery full time from a baby, both said they don’t even remember being there, apart from vague recollections of some of the kids they were friends with. I’m glad I didn’t give up my career then, as they wouldn’t have remembered all the baby groups I’d have taken them too etc. It made me realise that as mums a hell of a lot of guilt is placed upon us, their dad went to work overseas for 7yr out of their childhood and no-one judged him, imagine if a mum had done that. Even that I feel hasn’t impacted their relationship with their dad and I really do feel that the drive to succeed my youngest two have is because they’ve seen their parents work so hard at their career. I still spent evening and weekends with my kids and am very close to them. Women comment all the time about the damaging effects of nursery and yet I have never seen anyone come on here saying going to nursery ruined their life.

One thing I will say and seen it mentioned already, kids catch everything when they start nursery and I got phone call after phone call to pick them up, then 48hrs off due to infection control. They even caught E-coli from a local farm and had 5wks off nursery on public health grounds. You need a back up plan or you need to accept work will get fed up. It’s not easy, a childminder might be slightly better with a young baby in that aspect. Good luck, don’t listen to the posters saying you’re a terrible parent for wanting to continue your career. You’re not.

That’s just so not true. A young child needs stimulation and care. Most young kids are perfectly happy in nursery and don’t yearn for their parent all day at all.

OP came for advice on nurseries that are open longer - did she say I’m here for opinions on whether I work these hours or not? No, so she doesn’t need to take any of the opinionated responses about her hours into account at all. It’s not a matter of being right or wrong. OP needs childcare, she doesn’t want to give up her job, and it’s actually pretty disgusting reading these comments from one mother to another berating her choice to return to work. People should be ashamed of themselves. This forum really is going to the gutter and I’m glad Mumsnet HQ have commented and made that clear too.

Good luck, don’t listen to the posters saying you’re a terrible parent for wanting to continue your career. You’re not.

No one has said that
They've suggested that putting a 9 month old baby in nursery at 6am in the morning, 6 days a week, for approaching 60 hours a week, is not great for the child. And have pointed out that with being a parent comes some sacrifice, that both parents continuing working two jobs & no one making any time for the child, is not going to be sustainable.

Loads of us on here work full time with kids. We know its important to maintain your career etc but you can't put the babies needs at the bottom of the list after everything else in your life.

This.

and everyone is free to make the choices they want for their family, but it’s ignorant to think it doesn’t have a consequence somewhere.

I asked my youngest two recently after seeing a news article about the effects of childcare if they felt they were disadvantaged by going to nursery full time from a baby.

Did you ask what brand of nappy cream they preferred too?

I definitely think you will struggle
with a 6am opening time outside of a specialist workplace nursery in something like a hospital.
We open from 7am and are one of the earliest opening times locally. We don’t open weekends either.

You have misunderstood.

She said that attachment disorder can be misdiagnosed as mild autistic traits.

Most kids aren't in nursery or childcare 6 days a week for circa 60 hours a week.

Full-time circa 40 hours is a lot, 60 hours is a tad wild. And yes a baby away from their parents that much will yearn for them or if they don't there's an issue.

Even school is only 30-32.5 hours. And schools have far more holidays than nurseries do.

Even if Op could find a nursery offering those sorts of hours the bill will be wild. She needs to do the sums income vs cost (tax, NI & childcare)

Mine likes Sudocrem. It's yummy, apparently. 🤦🏻‍♀️

Yeah shifts are 6:00-14:00 or 7:00-15:00 for early shifts, normal office hours is 8:00-16:00 and then there's late shifts (so some children will go to nursery in the afternoon and have their dinner and supper there and sleep for a while before being picked up and taken home to bed). I live in a factory town, a lot of parents do shift work here.

@Natsku I can see an advantage to, early start, early finish. You whole day will be early, early dinner, early bed. And might mean people see daylight in the afternoon.

That's a different scenario to early start & late finish.

It definitely suits some people really well. But with shifts you usually do one week earlies one week lates so half the time you'll be working 14:00-22:00 unless you're lucky to work somewhere that'll let you pick which shifts you do so you can stick to the same all the time.

Picking up a 9 month old baby from nursery at 5pm isn’t early when they’ve been there since 6am 😫

OP you will also need to consider that nursery fees are not costed for when you pick them up. I’d find a nursery for example that is 6-6 you will likely be required to pay for 12 hours as opposed to saying you will pick up at 5. My sons nursery is open 8-530 and although he very rarely goes the full 9.5 hours I still have to pay for all hours he is entitled to attend.

Most nurseries charge per day, not per hour

Oh please, you’re not funny. So many on here are adamant childcare will affect kids negatively, I guess as they want to try and say their SAHM decision is superior. Does this generation of nursery kids feel hard done by as they didn’t go to mum and toddler groups and spend all day with mum? I doubt many do.

Just chiming in to say that while, yes, many children are in nursery for 5 days per week, those days are rarely 11 hours long each (plus an additional weekend morning). Having worked in nurseries, the children who did 5 days per week typically did <8 hours per day and had one parent drop off and another pick up. That works out to 40 hours per week - OP is wanting 60 hours for her baby. It's not comparable, and is certainly not in the best interests of the child.

@Didimum lots of working mothers have posted good advice on this thread for Op. Why have you taken it upon yourself to step in and argue, it's plain that 60+ hours in a nursery setting with 6am starts is not going to be best for a 9 month old baby. Couldn't be plainer. Yes there has been a few over the top comments but generally not so perhaps think about the point you're trying to argue here.

We'll have to agree to disagree on the vile tone of the thread and the abuse that has been thrown OP's way. Irrespective of what you personally think is 'good' advice and what isn't, the OP didn't ask for opinion on pros and cons of X number of hours in nursery. She asked about nursery opening times and that's really all there is to it.

Who said 'early'? No one. It says 'earlier', eg earlier than 7pm.

A 2017 study by SEED (the largest ever conducted) concluded that mixed childcare (eg, some days with nursery, others with relatives) was associated with poorer outcomes than one consistent nursery setting.

There's a difference between being skint and being homeless!

And nobody tells a man not to work because it's not good for the child.

We REALLY need to move on from the 1950s SAHM model in this country.