Nursery near home or near work?

[gail734]

I'm planning to put DD into nursery full time when I go back to work in August. She'll be 12.5 months. My work is 15 miles from home. So, do I want the nursery round the corner from home, or the one round the corner from work? Maybe I should disregard location and just judge the nurseries on merit? WWYD?

Are you on your own with her, or is her dad also involved in the nursery pick ups? We decided not to go with a nursery near my work because it would almost always be me who had to take annual leave to pick DS up if he was ill (and they are ill a lot in their first year at nursery - we mamanged 2 weeks before a double whammy of conjunctivitis and D&V); with a nursery nearer home, it's more equal in terms of which of us picks him up.

Do you have anyone else you might want to call on as back up to collect your DD - your mum, MIL, best friend, neighbour etc as you'll also need to factor in how easy it would be for them to get to the nursery?

Ultimately though, go for the nursery you prefer / on merit - gut instinct will tell you which you like / don't like. We went for the best nursery, which happens to be nearer to home than work. The nursery in our village was crap, as was the one nearest to my work, and we avoided both like the plague. What other nurseries are there on, or near, your route to work, as you don't have to only go for the nearest to each location? DH and I both drive to work on the same main road, albeit in different directions, and DS's nursery is about 10 minutes drive off this, so accessible but not en route.

Both my DDs attended a nursery near to home (literally 2 minutes away).

Advantages: If you have a sick day/ day off you can still send them in.
If there is a snowy day and I work from home they can still go and I can be around to collect them if the nursery has to close early.
DH can help with nursery drop off so I can go into work early and come home early.
I get to read a book in peace on the train to and from work!

Disadvantages: In an emergency it would be tricky to get home quickly from work, and sometimes I have trouble with trains being delayed or not running at all. Luckily my parents live nearby but if they didn't this would be a big worry for me. Although now DD1 is in school we have no choice but to send her near to home so this will not be a decision you can make in the future necessarily.

Ideally I would like to work nearer home but this is not looking likely in the sort of area I work in.

I have done both at different times with my children. I chose a nursery near to my workplace for my oldest as it was convenient for me to have the opportunity to stay fairly late at work without worrying about too much traffic. The main disadvantage to this was that my daughter nearly always fell asleep in the car on the way home, which then meant she never wanted to go to bed at the right time!! My younger daughter now attends nursery near our home and the other advantage of this is that many of the children her age will go onto the nearby school with her.

Go for the one near home, unless it is a bad nursery. That way, you can share the pick ups / drop offs if necessary, and if you have leave from.work or sick, it is close by to still send dcs (no doubt you would pay for the place that day regardless).

Also, jobs are uncertain. Especially currently.

I'd go for finding the 'right' nursery, rather than the one that is most convenient. There are big pros and cons to both, though, and some of them might sway you.

If you're travelling every day with the baby then you have to consider that they might sleep in the car, which could be a royal pain, or they might be car sick, which would be a nightmare.

If you're further away from the nursery, then it's harder to collect them when there is an emergency.

Near home - that way on day's off or when you are too ill to work, you don't have to do the commute to drop them off so you can then have the day to yourself.

It's also easier for finding people to help with pick ups in an emergancy, as I have SAHM friends/part time (but different days to me) friends who live within a 15 minute walk of DS's nursery, I know in an emergancy if I was stuck, I could find someone who'd be able to pick up DS until either DH or I was able to get to them to pick DS (such as train cancellation, snow, being stuck in a meeting etc). Near work it's probably only colleagues you know.

Near home, I would say. No point making baby commute 30 miles a day.

Hmmm.. thanks everyone. Dad won't be dropping off/picking up - he works much longer hours than me.

Home for all reasons above. Decent chance that she might go to school with one or two. If you are ill you have the luxury of dropping dd off and going home to bed. Staff more likely to be up for the odd evening babysitting.

Unless the one by your work is vastly superior , I'd go with home one. In addition to the reasons given above: in a year or two you'll be invited parties every other weekend, so you'll either have to drive 30 mile round trip for a kid's party or your daughter will miss out on the fun. Secondly, the young ones are really tired and often very hungry after a day at nusery. I remember driving home (10 minutes) with a screaming baby on several occasions and it wasn't fun and probably quite dangerous. Thirdly, you will be making ties in the community if you stay local. Think playdates, help in a crisis, people to say chat to in the park at the weekends while your children play, carers who will babysit etc. Finally, if you decide to have another child you can have continuity of care and maybe keep an afternoon or two a week going while you are on maternity leave.

Another vote for a nursery near home for all the reasons above, plus our village nursery is developing links with local school, library & shops, so will help DD in the transition to primary school. Also if I finish early, I can have time to myself at home, then go to pick her up, rather than trail all the way back towards work.

Nursery near home, near infant school they will attend, friends who use nurseries have continued to use them for school drop off/ after school and they like the continuity

I've done both too, and would say nearer home is easiest, provided you have a pretty reliable commute. One of the reasons we moved was because we were reliant on the utterly shite First Capital Connect and it was too stressful trying to get back for nursery pick up when their services were regularly delayed or cancelled. Now that we are somewhere with better transport links it is so much easier re getting back on time or if there is a problem.

And commuting with a little one by train can be stressful (not always, we spent hours reading books etc over the months), and if they fall asleep in the car it can be a nightmare getting them to settle once home.

If you pick a nusery near to home then your lo will make friends who live near by when they are older. Its also convienet if you want to send them to nursery on a sick day/ day off.

We tossed this up too. Went for one near home - DH & I can share pick-ups/drop-offs (I know that's not an issue for you); also means DH can take DD to nursery if I'm sick/go on a training course/need to travel; if I take a day off work for some time to myself (ha ha) DD can still go to work; finally, didn't really like the idea of DD sitting in a car for a couple of hours a day. Sometimes, when I'm stuck in traffic trying to get to nursery in time, or when I'm trying to finish work to leave on time to pick DD up, I do think it would be more convenient if she was at the nursery across the road from work.

We don't have one near us which takes under 2s, so had a choice of several 5 miles in the opposite direction from DH's work, or 2 that were 10 miles from home but on DH's route.

We've had no problems being 10 miles away. It's a 20 minute drive (from home) and DD rarely falls asleep.

She still goes for her 2 days a week at the moment, while I'm on maternity leave. She still goes if DH or I are on leave or off sick.

It depends where you are, but we're relatively rural so there are other people who travel similar distances, and it's no more likely that DD would meet local children in any other nursery, unless we'd moved her at 2 into the one in our village, but DS wouldn't be able to go there for a while.

I'd look at the nurseries and see which you prefer. Make location one of the factors, but only one factor iyswim.

Of course, if you're in a city then 15 miles can be completely different.