AIBU new full time nursery, unsure!

[13MAPARTHELL]

so ive moved my child to a new nursery next to my childs primary school he just started.

the new nursery is a big chain, they do more things and have more resources etc and likely are just better with things like development etc, days out, outside area and learning.

the old nursery run by two older ladies, very free for all in terms of play, not that much structure or special activities, no stay and plays or days out, its real no frills.

BUT at pick up, the new nursery is so flat, the staff are very awkward & quiet odd? Never a smile at pick up, or anything about his day and hes usually sat in a dark room watching the iPad at pick up, and theres just no chat or personality or atmosphere, hes been there a month hasnt mentioned a friend or adult hes connected to (this usually happens day 1 with him, hes been to 3 different nurseries)

the old nursery, is only a 10 minute walk, new one is like 2 minutes away. But the old one, the staff were full of personality and love and laughs and playfulness etc.

everyone raves about the new nursery, but I just have a feeling like im not sure im comfortable with leaving him there full time kind of feels, there is space to go back to the old one but they dont have many kids there his own age

what to doooo

How old is DS? I don't think my kids nursery would ever leave them to entertain themselves with an iPad. TV time would be active time- like a yoga video or dancing but even that was very rare.

Send him back to the place full of love and fun and personally. Good people are worth 10x good ‘stuff’ any day.

Then go back to the other nursery.

And if you aren’t clear on what kind of structured learning they have - ask. They may give more feedback if asked.

My favourite thing about my nursery is that the staff are so consistent - I assume this means they are happy there and it’s a good place to work. And for the kids - it’s consistency.

Iv never heard of a nursery just giving a kid an ipad or having a dark room for kids to go in. Are you sure you haven't got the wrong end of the stick.

I mean like all the lights are off, and on ipads its only him and one other child at 3pm everyone must be doing half days or something, maybe its you know ‘down time’ but thats all I have to go off, the woman doesn’t smile or anything its just weird 😂

Hes 3, yeah hes been to a few nurseries and not seen it before!

In your situation I would send him to the old nursery. "But the old one, the staff were full of personality and love and laughs and playfulness etc." This is far more important than fancy trips and resources imo.

I think I know exactly what you mean. We moved our 2 year old nurseries because of the weird staff and handovers. They always just felt quite stilted and awkward. As you say, no real information given, no warmth, quite an odd feeling overall really. It's hard to explain. But we moved her after about 2 months. She seemed to hate it too really. We had moved away (too far to keep her there) from an absolutely lovely nursery with really nice chatty friendly staff and it felt so homely and just...lovely 😂 So it was quite the shock as you can imagine.