Starting nursery worries

[Hyperquiet]

17 month old is starting nursery and feel a bit sad! Will be going for 3 long days a week.

The lack of attention i guess that nurturing and nourishment won't be there. It's strange.

During the settling in sessions, the babies looked a bit subdued.

Oh and their hands weren't washed before snacktime. Going to raise that with them...

It's a chain nursery not sure whether that makes a difference

It's a tough time alright, I'm glad I never have to do it again.
Re: hand washing, I don't know what's normal these days, they defrost have time for it before food at my children's primary schools.

Mine started nursery much younger and they've thrived. It's a new normal so wobbles are going to happen but if it's a good nursery, you truly have nothing to worry about.

My 2 year old washes his hands before eating at nursery.

I suppose everyone gets through the transition somehow!

I asked some people and they said that hand washing before meals is an ofsted requirement.

Thats good to know.

Also bracing myself for the inevitable bugs but I think they should be washing their hands or at least wiping them before eating.

The nursery is rated good but I only looked round 3 and 1 was awful and the other too far!

Is this your first baby? I felt exactly the same when my first started nursery at similar age and despite people saying it would get better with time, I never stopped feeling sad about it. With my second, I decided not to go back after mat leave and now I’m a SAHM and love it. Is that an option for you?

The bugs were absolutely brutal which didn’t help the way I felt about nursery. It was horrible seeing her so poorly all the time.

Yes first! I have maxed out all leave available to stretch my time this long already. Plus it'll be 3 days at nursery not 5 which is something i guess.

Honestly, I feel more balanced, less over stimulated and more patient and present when im with my child now that im working a few days.

Not looking forward to this:(

It wasn't bad for us at all thankfully. Colds and sniffles but no temps or tummy bugs when first starting.

If you can afford it, your DC is old enough to have the chicken pox vaccination. I'd highly recommend it if you can because that is one that can obviously spread around nurseries very quickly and it means a lot of time off nursery/work too.

I don’t wash my kids hands before a snack and it’s not something I would expect from a nursery.

I'm glad it wasn't too bad for you and I'll look into the chicken pox vaccine thank you.

I think that's quite personal to you. Personally to me, I do wash my hands before handing food especially for my baby and I clean his hands before eating too.

Objectively speaking I've since learned it's an Ofsted requirement anyway and it is considered abnormal for nurseries not to do this from speaking to various other people yesterday.

They themselves did say today that they were supposed to be doing it.