Nannyshare or Nursery for toddler and baby- how to decide

[mildew]

I have DS (2.4) and DD (8 months) and am trying to decide between nursery or nannyshare for childcare ( 3 days a week). I feel my DS and DD have different needs at the moment. DS has previously been in daycare but I feel that DD as a baby would benefit from care from one person rather than in daycare setting however DS is probably at age where he will benefit from being with other children. Any thoughts? Do some people use nannies and playgroups/pre-schools?

Yes, we do a share, have done since DD (3 yrs 6mths) was 9mths old. She also goes to nursery school for 3 afternoons a week. She started n/s when our previous share ended, to ensure she spent time with her agegroup (the other child in the share was exactly her age: his replacement is now 18 mths). So she has the social aspect and structure of nursery school, plus a fantastic nanny. Who also takes the two of them out to a few playgroups/music groups etc.
If we weren't sharing the nanny, if she was ours exclusively, I'm not sure if I could justify forking out extra for n/s and loads of entertainment, but this way it's bearable

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With my old charges The oldest (4) used to go to private nursery to mingle with the other children and prepare for school, and baby boy (2) stayed home with me because thats just what he enjoyed. He seemed to prefer the one-to-one attention I gave him, and in nurseries they dont get the constant attention as the nursery nurses have to share themselves with up to 3 other babies. Im sure your baby will love a nanny and with a nanny she will be able to take your dd out, but with nurseries they're often couped up all day.

Also, in the next year presumably your toddler's nursery place will come up - so you only have 8-12 months gap as it were and you can ask nanny to do toddler groups in that period. This worked well for us - and then if you go the state pre-school route nanny is a flexible option for pickups/drops offs etc.