To ask for help choosing between these childcare options?

[floplidocus]

LO will be just under 2 when starting.

Option A:
• Nursery
• 15 min drive from home
• Ofsted good, great feeling about the place, manager has owned it for a decade, low staff turnover and glowing parent reviews
• Small to medium sized nursery
• Has availability 2 days a week all year round
• Would have to add 15 min each way onto my commute

Option B:
• Childminder pair
• Outstanding
• 5 minute drive
• Under 5s only setting, low ratios and bespoke built childminding space in the home, exceptional childcare with long waiting list
• We’re at the top of the list but they only have 1 day available and it’s term time only. They think they will get more space at some point over the academic year which we will have first refusal for but it could be September 2027.
• Probably adds 10 mins each way onto my commute

Have grandparents willing and able to help to cover the other 2 days a week (I work 3 days), as well as auntie on an ad hoc basis when they aren’t working. However, I feel like two days a week is a huge demand on them, and would surely impact how willing they are to cover at other times i.e for emergencies or weekend babysitting. Not to mention the fact school holidays wouldn’t be covered so they’d potentially need to help 3 days then and I’d book ideally a day of leave each week, so maybe it would still be two days.

However, LO will be under 2 still, and I do feel that the smaller setting will be better until maybe aged 2.5 to 3. They might get more space, they just can’t say when.

Also throw in a potential house move early next year, which could be anywhere nearby depending on the house we find, which might change the travel time to both.

I worry that option B would create more pressure than I can imagine right now.

There isn’t a third option as I have looked round many and the other ones I’d be happy to send little one to have no space for ages.

AIBU to pick B?

I’d go for A. But if you want B, first have a deep conversation with gp about how much they want to do. Would you pay them? What if someone got ill?

Option A for reliable year round childcare

As above, option A for reliability all year round

Option A

If you work year round then I wouldn’t even be entertaining anything which is not open all year. Grandparents age, the reality of having to cover it week in week out can become draining and to then need to add holidays on top could well become impossible. You will want your leave for proper holidays rather than squandering it a day a week.
15 minutes each way into a day’s commute is manageable and everything else about it sounds lovely. It may not have been your first pick, but there’s always a compromise and it’s hard enough being a working mum as it is. Not on your Nelly would I book term time only.

Option A

Option A.

Just out of interest, why are you considering option B? Only ask as I get the sense that you also think option 1 is best on paper and in your heart so im genuinely interested in helping you unearth why you're finding it hard to decide?

Option A. I would say there is no reason you can't do both, but young children really struggle to settle only going somewhere for one day (and a lot of nurseries don't allow it for this reason). It worked well for me when DS was little but I was working full time.

Option A

o think option B will be almost impossible for her to settle

Honestly I would go for A and did go for A. Worth considering if you can get in the list early for when they start school, if the childminder could do a pick up for you, unless you have that covered.

You work around 140 days a year.
The childminder works 38 days a year....

Can you use BOTH settings to cover the vast majority of your working days. Use the grandparents to cover childminder holidays and illnesses.