Child in nursery today and tomorrow 8am til 6pm

[Motheroffive999]

Who's children are still in nursery today and tomorrow.

My daughter in law is working 8 til 6 pm today and tomorrow in the local nursery for babies from 6 weeks to 4 year old pre schoolers.

They have maybe 10 children in each room still, this close to Christmas.

Most have older siblings and they drop off saying they are not working but want a nice chilled day at home.

I know some parents have to work but most are at home.

These are years that they won't get back with their children , I know that they need to do last minute prep etc but leaving children at nursery until 6pm on Christmas Eve is such a shame for the children and the staff.
Am I being unreasonable?

I agree with you OP.

Does anyone in the uk really need to put a 6 week old in nursery? You get months of maternity pay. I had my first at 16 no maternity pay and didn’t live with my parents and still wasn’t hard up enough to warrant putting a 6 week old in nursery. No real reason forit

I don’t necessarily think it’s awful to use nursery so you can have a bit of time with older child or spend time getting everything ready so you can give your full attention to them when home. In a time when so few parents have grandparent or extended family around, paid nursery fills that gap.

You are really going to be disparaging towards me then. DH is off today with DS1 whilst I am working and DS2 is at nursery until 5. Tomorrow I am off as well but DS2 will still be going to nursery until 4 because it is so much easier to get stuff done and prepped for Christmas with just one of them at home. Plus DS2 loves nursery and will honestly have more fun there than at home with us rushing around tidying and sorting. Also yes we have paid for today tomorrow so we are going to use those days. He's also in 2 days next week when I am back at work. Thanks for the judgement!

Completely agree OP but you’ll get little agreement on here where sticking the kids in ‘wraparound’ is the norm.

This! Honestly, if this is the kind of thing people are concerning themselves with, no wonder so many people are so bloody miserable!

If I take a 3-5 year career break (realistically 5 years if I want 2 kids), I can no longer go back to my career. I don't know any professionals who can take 5 years off and go back to their jobs. Maybe if you're not senior or skilled and just some generic admin jobs, I don't know. But not any profesional jobs I know. Or anything that requires a skill.

And a decent nanny is basically part of the family. I have a nanny and yes, my DS is very bonded to her. Why is that a bad thing? My DS has an adult whose entire focus is on him 9-5 daily. She does a better job than most SAHMs I know.

But if they do, then they do. It couldn't be less of your business!

Yeah makes me feel sad. They are putting in more hours than I would want to work as an adult. Its a massive strain on their little nervous systems.

I worked in a full day nursery many years ago before I did my teacher training. I absolutely loved working Christmas eve and being with the children. It was always such a lovely relaxed day. We would read lots of Christmas stories, bake Christmas biscuits, have a dance, watch the snowman. I'm a SAHM now so I don't need to use full day care but for all those who do, don't feel guilty, your children are likely having a fabulous time!

Maternity pay is £180 per week. I usually earn £3k per month which we need to pay the bills.

Ridiculously out of touch comment.

Exactly. I am on mat leave so I could have my nearly 4 year old home but we are celebrating Christmas Eve (it is bigger celebration than Christmas day where I come from), so I either have her watch Paw Patrol for hours whilst I cook or I send her to the nursery where she has fun.

Honestly, I think five days at nursery for under threes is too much and personally for four year olds too.

I am not casting any judgement but I do.

But it’s very different to doing two or three days a week, one of them happens to fall today or tomorrow and you use that time for you, an older child or whatever. It’s not really a hugely special day until children understand the build up to Christmas and even then if you make a big thing of it or indeed celebrate Christmas at all.

Not everyone has the luxury of being off and even if they are off they have been working long hours up until that point and need time to get sorted. Also they probably have to pay anyway and it’s a lot of money to spend if your child not using the service. For a lot of children playing with other kids would probably be preferable to being dragged round the shops or supermarket.

I'm working today and tomorrow. As are many. Take your judgy pants off.

Shop workers, healthcare workers, fresh produce businesses supplying the supermarkets, hospitality. etc etc etc. We'd all moan if these people didn't work!

FFS, DS is too old for nursery and I have taken AL, but if a trusted adult offered to look after him until 4pm tomorrow, I would bite their hand off. He’s bouncing around like Tigger, off his tits on crisps and pop, and somehow I need to get shit done before guests arrive. If he wants to ring ChildLine, I’ll give him the bloody number myself. 🙄

if you plan to send your 6 weeks old to nursery, why do you even have a child in the first place?

Genuine question, why bother at all?

I’ll be putting my youngest in nursery for the morning tomorrow . I won’t be working per se, but you try make dessert and prep food with a 1 year old pulling at you

Because they aren’t six weeks forever and you don’t have a baby to have a baby but to have a family.

I don’t think many people do this, it is very very rare. But equally I can’t understand the view that if you don’t want to spend every waking moment with the child that you should not have had him or her.

Wow. So unreasonable. Lots of people don't celebrate Christmas, or are required to work, or are saving up leave to do something special another time with their children.

So many services do not stop over the holiday period and the parents working there need access to childcare.

They might also need childcare while they run ragged making it 'magical' for their children.

And it's absolutely none of our business what they choose to do!

There is a reason this nursery has its opening hours and is charging parents for the services delivered during these hours. This whole nursery workers gossiping about parents "just chilling" is quite vile.

P.S. my son's nursery used to send xmas questionnaires to check attendance plan and then they were either closed on Xmas eve or worked up to lunchtime.

that's normal life when you have a 1 year old? Why do people bother having children at all is a mystery.

I hope you don't get hurt over Christmas and expect help from a doctor or a nurse. Since they have better stuff to do like baking Christmas cookies than save your life.

And - why has Mumsnet gradually developed a tradwife vibe?

It lacks credibility.