Nursery location - advice needed

[beetle73]

I'm moving back to London in Nov and will be working 3/4 days a week in an office over an hour's drive from home.

DD will be 15 months.

Should I try for a nursery closer to home or closer to work? I obviously want to be within easy reach of her if there's a problem, but then again, is it fair to put her through all that travelling time?

Would really appreciate advice from anyone who has had similar problem.

Had similar dilemma with ds. Ended up with nursery nearer our home - travelling to work was on public transport so much less suitable than driving.
Think you are right about travelling time, could be a real drag on the end of a busy, long day for a toddler. She'd probably fall asleep in the car on the way back so you'd have to wake her up to get her in the house.

Plus, if you are ill and off work, you won't have the option of dropping her off at nursery so you can lie on the sofa (and if you are ill, you really don't want to be looking after a toddler - had to do this once when I had gastro-enteritis and was a nightmare).

and what if you change jobs at some point?

I would probably go for one closer to home for all the reasons that Edam says, plus if you have a dh or dp then he would be unlikely to be able to do pick-up or drop-offs if the nursery was close to your work.

On the other hand you would be able to work longer hours if the nursery was close to work, are your hours fixed or do you need to be flexible?

Also if there is something wrong, if little ones get sick, the nursery know it'll take you a while to get there. Once you get there, it won't take long to get a poorly toddler home and tucked up, rather than having a long car journey.

Thanks for all those thoughts. It's true, I hadn't considered having to drive a sick baby all the way home. Time to start my search, I think.

definitely agree with previous mnetters - i take my dd into a nursery close to work because it stays open til 6.30pm, but it's a real pain if I am ill. also, she makes no real friends at the central London nursery cos everyone's parents live all over London. We are just about to switch to a local nursery. It does mean she will be further apart from me geographically if she gets ill (tho I will dash home) , but she will also spend less time in the pouring rain/cold commuting to London with me.

Mommie has referred to an issue that gets much more important the older your dd gets - socialising with children who live close-ish to home. And this does kick in once they are two or so, it comes quicker than you think IME.
We live about an hour's public transport commute door to door from our workplaces and initially, ds, now six, came into the City to a childminder with me. Even though we switched before he was one for logistical reasons I was already concerned about the social thing. He went to a local nursery instead and so does dd now.
Also, beetle73, if your commute is in to central London then you will find nurseries less expensive in the suburbs. If you are "reverse" commuting out of town to your new job, then I guess the opposite applies though...
Finally, both our children, easygoing in general, have loathed long car journeys between the ages of 18 months and three years. Ds whinged and vomited, dd is an escapologist with added whingeing...
Best of luck with the move and the choice of daycare. If you want to say roughly whereabouts, hardened within M25 daycare veterans might be able to warn you where to choose and some to avoid...

If I'd had the choice, I'd have gone with a nursery close to home for the reasons listed by the others.

As it was, I didn't finish work till 5.30pm & couldn't guarantee to be back in home town by 6pm (when nursery closed). So had to put DD in a nursery close to work. Yes, it has been a pain when I've been ill, but I'm lucky enough to have parents living close by & they have looked after dd on these (few) occasions.

But the plus points of having dd in nursery close to where I worked was that I got to earn slightly more money as I could work longer hours than I could have if I had to allow for the journey to & from a nursery near home. And I also got to spend the journey time with her, chatting about her day, listening & singing to nursery rhyme tapes in the car etc. Being a working mum, I really appreciated this extra 1.5 hrs (45 mins each way) I got to spend with her

How well does your DD travel? I would say closer to work but if she's likely to cry in the car it could get upsetting for both. (I've just driven this evening and DD cried the whole 2 x 10 minutes journey and it was awful.)

I would recommend a nursey near home. My ds goes to a nursery around the corner from our house even though there is one at my work place. I didn't fancy commuting with him in the car every day and some days I go to meetings off site so the work place nursery would be really inconvenient. I was also concious of the other issues people have mentioned such as getting to know local children, dh being able to pick up ds and childcare when I'm ill.

I agree, def try for one near your home. I am about an hour away from my dd/ds's nursery and in the last 4 years have never had an 'urgent' phone call where I felt that 60mins was too long to rush back to them..I have left work to go to them when they were sick but the nursery have trained first aiders and give lots of cuddles so the children were always fine until I got there.
Ds is starting school now and the benefit of having made friends with local children who may be at his school is enormous.
Also, if I had tried to get my children to travel for an hour after a full day at nursery they would either fall asleep in the car (and then be grumpy when woken, refuse to eat properly, and stay up til midnight) or screamed from boredom/tiredness for the journey.
And the dropping them off when you are ill thing is also v. important.

We sent ours to the nursery over the road. Fantastic, and to think we didn't even want kids when we moved here! You do have to watch for opening hours etc - and most importantly you have to like it and feel that your child will too, but it's worked out well for us. Good for parties etc, and for bumping into nursery friends (and teachers) in the park, supermarket etc

Well I think that's pretty conclusive. Thanks everyone, you've been great.
I'm looking at nurseries in West London, which is about 10 minutes from home, on the route to my office in Surrey. This seems like the best compromise.

Just thought of another good reason to use a local one - our nursery staff will do babysitting in the evening for local parents, the children are so much happier to be 'sat' by someone they know so well.

Which part of west london Beetle73? ( We are in W london)

Well we're Maida Vale, but I'm looking at Kids Unlimited in Ladbroke Grove and Teddies & Childbase in Chiswick. Would be very interested in anything you know about any of these.

Have heard good things about teddies in chiswick from a mum on a coffee shop on chiswick high road..but I'm a bit further west (W5).

Great. Thanks Bluebear.

Not my patch alas beetle, but there is a Mumsnetter Bubble99 who is in SW London I think and a nursery proprietor, so she may know of the best one local to you and her advice and views are always excellent...good luck with your search for the right place. A really good nursery is a great help...