Does anyone use a nursery just half a day a week?

[dogindisguise]

I am mostly a SAHM though I do some freelance work from home. I didn't plan to send my DS (14 months) to nursery until he is three and can go to a nursery attached to our local primary school, mainly because we live near to my almost fully retired mum who can look after him quite often.
However, I've just been wondering whether it might be a good idea to put him in nursery half a day a week - my DH keeps going on about it, probably because he's having a very 'screechy' phase. However, we go to at least one toddler group a week so it is not as though he is not mixing with any other children.

I'm just wondering if anyone else has done this and found it worthwhile and if your children found it OK being in just half a day a week.

I can't help, but would also be interested in people's experiences with this... My DS is 7 months at the moment and I will have a similar work situation in a few months' time. I'm not yet sure how well my work will fit around looking after a one to two year old without much childcare, so am thinking about the various options for childcare for one or two half days a week. I'm not sure whether a little bit of being at nursery or childminders is likely to be unsettling, but we don't have any close family who can help.

Hi I have worked in day nurseries for 12 years and in my experience most nurseries require you to do at least two sessions ie two mornings/ afternoons or a full days hope this helps

I think the benefits of nursery eg socialising and learning to share etc would be tricky for just half a day a week, and there could be settling problems as it is not frequent enough if you see what I mean. Also agree with jojo that there may well be a minimum number of sessions you need to sign up to.

My DS goes two afternoons a week. It was the minimum they would allow. He took a long time to settle but does now love it (19 months) and tells me about his friends there and what they do. I think it is a benefit but you may struggle to find one that will allow one session a week.

In our nursery we do not have a minimum amount of sesions, and do allow a child to attend just one afternoon/morning. the majority of the children do well with just one session but they are 'confident' children who come from a busy home (many siblings) we have experienced in the past that some children just can't cope with one session a week and there being such a long gap between each session. this can take settling in a long time as every time you go back to the nursery it's like starting again. Hope that makes sense. It can be done (if your local nurseries allow), but it may not be the best for your child.

ds1 did two short afternoons a week at nursery and IMO he gained nothing from it. He wasn't there long enough for the staff to get to know him and he never really settled. Unless you need it for childcare reasons then I wouldn't bother.

Many nurseries will not allow it because they might never settle in.

I did my DD went she is my eldest and didn't have a sibling at the time - she settled after a while. She did cry at the drop off time but the carers assured me she settled after about 5 mins.

Ds2 goes to nursery 2 mornings a week and loves it, however he didn't start going until he was almost 2 and a half.

In mvho they don't get tons out of it socially till then, so if that's the only reason for sending him, I'd wait for a bit. Fwiw, I started ds1 with a cm around the age your ds is, and it was a complete nightmare for ages, he just didn't seem to grasp that I was coming back.

Both mine did 1 session a week from about 1 for a year. I needed a tiny bit of space in an otherwise crazy week! They both settled and I didn't have issues with lots of tears. They had good fun. The nursery was happy to do it but having my child meant them turning away a full time child, then they would have asked me to swop to a different session.

Thanks for all the replies - that's really helpful. The nursery I'm thinking of would allow him to go for half a day a week. I'm going to visit them this week to have a look round, but will bear in mind the above posts and may end up not using a nursery until he's a bit older. I'm a bit worried as a week is a long time for a child his age I don't know if he would form a bond with a keyworker.

We take children that do only one morning or afternoon session a week and although it can take longer for them to settle, most of the children settle well and really enjoy there time at nursery, also lots of children who do more days or even full time can take forever to settle as well.

I am bonded as much with the babies i look after for 1/2 days or 1 day as i am the ones who attend full time and all of those inbetween.