Pregnant - preschool or not?

[Sipperskipper]

Im pregnant, due early September. Following government advice, am now self isolating / social distancing. I have a nearly 3 year old DD who usually attends a lovely preschool 2 mornings a week.

I’m not sure what I should do over the coming weeks. I will still need to take her out and about (will only go to open spaces - country park and river walks etc where there is never anyone!) but am not sure what to do about preschool. Surely she can’t not mix with other children for 3 months? Would that be detrimental to her development? She is a very social, active little girl and loves other children. I’m worried keeping her off of preschool will make it much harder for her to settle when she goes back (especially as this is likely to tie in with when new baby is born!)

Happy to be told I’m being ridiculous and she will be fine kept off. Just want to make sure I’m doing the right thing by her.

I am in exactly the same position. My 3 year old absolutely loves preschool (and all the toddler groups etc that we attend). I've made the decision to take her out - she was upset and cried but I tried to explain in child friendly terms and she seems OK with it. I dont think it will be long before preschools are closed anyway.

3 months without social interaction will be tough for them, as it will be for all of us.

It's really difficult to decide. I am fairly early in my pregnancy and have decided to keep my DC off nursery. I am able to look after them at home so that's not an issue.
They are temperature checking the children at nursery before entry but that doesn't mean that some won't be asymptomatic and carrying the virus. As pregnant women we as supposed to stay at home however with our children potentially mixing with so many children from other households at nursery, it doesn't feel right to me.
At the end of the day, it's going to come down to how you feel. This is just my opinion.
Good luck

I am in the same position (plus with an autoimmune condition). My three year old loves nursery but he will be staying home. I do feel sad for him that he will be missing out (although I imagine it will be closed soon anyway). My friends and I are planning video call play dates, which is at least better than nothing. I am sure it will be tough on him and may take some resettling when he does go back.

@RhymingRabbit3 how did you explain it to her?

I'd send them while I could. Soon they won't be able to go as nursery's will close. I'd like to keep life as normal as possible for as long as possible.

@EleanorSaysFork
I told her preschool has to close because some people are poorly and we dont want to catch their germs.
She asked why dont the poorly people stay at home.
I said some people don't know they're poorly yet so they have closed the preschool just in case to make sure we dont catch any germs.
I didnt think i should go into too much detail. She was sad but seemed OK with it. I have yet to explain why we cant visit her grandparents but will go with a similar line.

The usborne book "What are Germs?" Was useful - it seems to be aimed at 2 to 4 year olds and she knows about germs, washing your hands to stop germs spreading etc.

Thanks for all your advice everyone, looks like the decision has been taken out of our hands now!

Hope the next few weeks / months aren’t too difficult for any of us.

@RhymingRabbit3 thanks very much. Your approach seems very sensible. Would you mind if I copied your post/tagged it in another thread about this topic?

@EleanorSaysFork
Go ahead ;)