Want to take our son out of childcare

[Kel1234]

I'm a full time student at university and my husband works full time. We had to put our son into childcare, so we went with a childminder. We thought she was lovely, however certain things have happened and we now really want to take him out (I'd rather not go into details).
Family are now in a position where they can look after him for free, as childcare is costing a fortune that I don't have (student finance have messed it all up).
My concern is, at the childminder he is around other children, if family have him he will not be. Is it such a big deal if he doesn't mix with other children at this age? As we are not happy with the childminder at all.

Take him away from the childminder if you're not happy with her. As far as your family's concerned, could they take him to play groups? Is he happy with your family?

How old is your son? Are family able to go to any baby/toddler sessions in the week? Doesn't necessarily have to be the groups, could be library story time / softplay / swimming.

IME, it's only when they get to playgroup age 2.5 or so that they really take an interest in actually playing and interacting with other children, until then they're happy to play alongside. I think as long as they're used to being around other children on occasion, not being at nursery etc is fine.

(I'm at home with dc3 as I work weekends. He goes to softplay / library story time a couple of times a week. I don't worry too much, he loves a trip to the supermarket, play at the park (whether other dcs are there or not), and takes it all in at the school run twice a day. )

You will all be much better off, both emotionally and financially if you take him out, presuming they are happy of course. Would they be able to take him to toddler groups? Could you look into pre school sessions for him if family would be around to do pick up and drop off? Ours are £10 a session and 15 hours are free over three years old.