Keeping place for DD during my mat leave: Is this pretty standard practice?

[SydneyB]

DD, 18 mths is at nursery 4 days a week (although we have to pay for 5 days) but when I go on maternity leave in a few months, I'm obviously not going to have the money to pay for her to be there and I'm going to want her at home with me. She is really happy there and I'd like her to go back there when I go back to work 6 months later, and possibly also send the new one there too. Thing is that the nursery say we have to keep her in there 2 days a week during that whole time and that at the end of that time they couldn't even guarantee her a place to go back up to the 4 days or guarantee a place for the new baby. So, I could end up having to take her out of there anyway. Is this normal? Do other nurseries offer sibling priority or allow people to keep places whilst on mat leave? It must happen a lot.

Ours will normally allow you to drop down to two days then go back up, but you need to let them know firm dates at the beginning. They do offer sibling priority, but again you need to actually apply for a place and they need to know (at least approximate) dates.

I think they can determine whatever policy they choose. A year is a long time to expect them to hold a place open and probably others have tried the same and left them in the lurch. Your best long term bet is to pay a deposit for the baby's place and keep your dd there in the interim. Ask them at what notice you could expect to be guaranteed a place.

Standard practice - they can't keep place open as would lose money.

Also many childminders have similar practice - mine did, and I did same as Jura.

How come you have to pay for 5 days when your dd is only there for four?

I would have thought that the rest of your OP is standard practice.

If I were you I would "book" both your dd's and your baby's places now with approximate dates to reserve your places for when you need them - other than that I don't think there's much you can do.

I had to keep ds1 in nursery for the 3 days he went there while I was on mat leave with ds2. It kept his place and we got priority over any new parents, for the same 3 days for ds3, which in a popular nursery would have been difficult other wise.

If my employer said oh we don't feel like giving you any work this week so we aren't going to pay you, but don't look for another job because we might want you back in 6 months.....

tbh I think the nurseries are right to protect themselves as they often find after a 2nd child arrives the mother decides she is cutting her hours/not going back to work at all.

We 'obviously' didn't have the money to keep ds1 in the nusery while I was on mat leave, but if doing that meant that they both had nursery places so that I could go back to work and we'd be better off in the long run, then I just tried not to think about how much it was costing me and look at the long term picture.

Mine let me cut down from 4 days to 2 and then go back up again - I think I had to pretty much confirm when I would need the 4 days again. I knew I had to go back to work so no issue with that. Actually those two days just about saved my life!! With two under two it was fab to have two days to spend some quality time with DD on her own. And good for DS to keep a bit of normal routine. Was well worth the money even though we struggled!

Thanks for responses, interesting to hear. And yes, I can see their point. Is just so frustrating trying to sort it all out! But I'm not alone in this!

Tigerfeet - they say they can't fill a single day! which is just mean. Esp. as there was another mum there who had 2 days and wanted 3 and we've never used our 5th day.