Parents using nurseries & Nursery workers: 2 1/2 days or 1 full day?

[lizardqueenie]

Hello

have found really helpful advice on here so far re choosing nurseries etc so just trying to sort out days & times now & returning for a bit more advice/ words of wisdom.

I am going to be starting DD in Nursery just after her second bday, I need to return to some kind of paid work for financial reasons amongst others but I want DD to be settled in nursery before I go and find a part time job. I am unsure whether she should go for 2 half days at first which will/ can be increased to full days if and when I need them to be. Or as a friend has advised to start her on a full day so she is used to the whole routine if eventually she will be doing a full day there. She has been at home with me FT so i am not really expecting her to wander off happily until she is really settled so i thought that one full day might actually be harder for her to get used to it as its only once a week?

I dont think its a great idea for me to send her 2 full days until I am actually working.

Can anyone advise what they think is best? Do kids once they are settled go easily from half days to full days or am I better of going in the deep end?

Thanks for any advice & responses :)

No direct experience, but my gut feeling would be 2 half days. One day once a week will mean it's very far apart for your DD between nursery days and make it harder to settle.

I'd imagine that the most important thing would be getting her settled into the situation first and working on length of day at a later date.

2 half days would be my reaction - as vvv says if 1 day a week is a long time to wait until the day comes round again - little and often would be better imo

2 half days, very difficult for them to get used to a new setting in only 1 day/week.

Ps so what if she misses the other half a day of the nursery routine, she won't know will she?!

I have just had my dd in nursery whilst I was on mat leave with ds and she did 2 half days which will increase to 2 full days when I go back to work. This has worked well for us.

I'd agree - go for half days. My DD started at 3 and went for 3 half days initially (but they were collected after lunch). After three months my mum died and so we started on full days and she made the transition very easily.

another vote for 2 half days - that's what we did when DS2 arrived. A week appart is to long for them to remember the place, and settling will take ages. Its also less time for her to miss you, as you'll be there after lunch.

I agree with the other posters - two half days and spread them across the week.

If/when it comes to extending the days, I think your DD will be fine. She'll just carry on with the day when you don't turn up to collect her. She'll be very tired after nursery at first, then she'll get used to it, then when you go from half to full days, she'll take time to adjust again. But if you find a nice nursery, she'll be fine :)

Good luck with the job hunt :)

Thank you thank you thank you for all of your replies and sharing your experiences :) And its actual nice to see that my gut feeling on this wasnt way off.

Exit I am so sorry about your mum :(

I am really pleased with the nursery and feel that they will do everything to help her settle. They have also said that if I wanted to do the ad-hoc full day to see how she settles then that is fine too, so I think they are being quite flexible really.

If i can ask a slightly different question then without pushing it - does it matter when the 2 days are? does it matter if they arent consecutive? As I dont have a job to go to yet it is hard for me to guess what days will work well. There are more BH on mondays so I thought id avoid putting her in then if poss and only activity we do I'd like to really stick at is swimming on a Wed but I could possibly change this with enough notice. Any views/ opinions on what works well would really help. Thank you :)

I agree with the other posters and think two half days are better, especially the morning sessions. I think that there are positives and negatives about either consecutive days or spreading it out these are:

Consecutive (positive)

• They have all there days over quicker
• There is no break in between to confuse them
• May sleep better (as nursery is tiring)

Consecutive (negative)

• There is no break at home for them to relax/unwind/recover
• It can be really tiring for them (make them ratty)

Spread out (positive)

• Its nice to have a break in between nursery days
• Have an even ish amount of days between nursery days

Spread out (negative)

• Child may prefer the continuity of days all in a row and get confused being at home.

-Can upset routine being here, there and everywhere.

Personally i work in a nursery, and when i have children i plan to have them in nursery for mornings on tues and thurs.

Thanks walking & thanks loads for taking the time to list all of those points! Yes Tue & Thurs appealed to me too & would fit in with swimming on a wed. I also felt that if I found a job 3 days a week my mum would prob have dd on a wed for me which would also mean say she has a temp at nursey on tue or picks something up on the tue, she at least has wed at home with my mum to be looked after & recover and then for minor things she could go back to nursery on thurs.

NB that financially when you do get a job it's better value to do full days because you don't have to pay for so much travelling time - but I guess you'll adjust as and when.

Sorry Dilys not sure if I'm confused by what you mean- do u mean that one I'm
Working move dd to full days from half days?

No that's not right- you mean move from 1/2 days to full days? What did u mean about travel time?

I mean that you'll have to pay for the nursery to look after your DC during the time when you're travelling between work and nursery, but you won't be paid by your employer for that time, so it may be a good thing financially to compress your hours into fewer days so you have less travelling time to cover across the course of a week. The details depend on all sorts of things, nursery charging schedules, WTC benefits etc, but it's worth thinking about.

Ah I see exactly what you mean now! Thank you for that- something I hadnt given consideration to yet.