Nursery question - amending hours, help please.

[loullou90]

Hi everyone. I'm going to view a nursery tomorrow, I'm currently pregnant with my first baby due in October.

My question is in terms of hours; I currently work full time but will be trying to return to work 3 days a week. I haven't told work this yet (I was going to in the interests of transparency but friends/family have advised me that there's no sense in that and have told me to keep quiet) and would like the baby to go to nursery at least 2 days. My MIL has agreed to have her one day a week.

On the application form should I just apply for full time hours and try to amend this once I know what my work situation is? Realistically this will be a month or two before I go back. I want to ask the nursery staff but I've got no idea if this is a reasonable question.

This nursery has a good reputation so I wouldn't want them to decline our application on the basis that they think I would be buggaring them about closer to the time with hours etc.

Does anyone have any advice/experience of this? I'd be really grateful :)

I would apply for full time hours, just for your peace of mind. Easier to drop a couple of days than try to pick them up later on in my experience! They will be used to parents changing them closer to when their child is due to start.
The only thing to be mindful of is that most nurseries require around 8weeks notice of your intention to change attendance patterns.

Just chat to the nursery they’ll be asked this all the time, there maybe a minimum number of days they ask to commit to etc. so you’re better off chatting about it now.

plus don’t take it for granted your work will accept you going back part time, you’ll have a fair application process but it still will need to meet the requirements of the business. (Of course not applicable if your moving to another job etc.)

I applied for a full time place knowing I only wanted 2 days but didn't know which ones. I was upfront with them, sounded like they were very used to it. Was a month's notice to reduce days. When I had my second, they even encouraged me to book full time just in case. They're a popular nursery so clearly have no issue filling the spaces.

Thanks all for the comments, I was up front about the hours thing and they were fine about it, just said I’d need to give them as much notice as possible x