Nursery near home or work in London?

[firsttimer08]

The obvious advantage of nursery near work is that I can see the baby at lunch time. Also the timings are more amenable to work 8-6, so I can leave work just at 5.45 and collect the baby, rather than having to leave at 5pm to pick up the child from nursery near home.

The problem is the commute and travelling on the tube in London - am a bit worried about tackling a stroller on the stairs at tube stations - unfortunately there is no step-free exit where I work.

Any advice or personal experiences?

I would say it would be better to go for the nursery near home for these reasons...

1. Packed trains in a rush hour with a buggy I would imagine must be pretty exhausting.
2. I personally would not like to be popping in to see my DSs during the day, I think it might upset the nursery routines.
3. There may be days when you want to drop off at nursery but not go into work.
4. Once you've dropped off you can then settle down to your journey to work (me time for you)

I am speaking from my experiences of dropping off before going to work. My decision is not as difficult as yours though as I drive.
But it does mean that I have to leave at 5 on the dot. No hanging around and no late meetings or phone calls.
The office does get used to it after a while! There is a nursery next to the building where I work and I did consider it too.

Good luck with your decision

I mum at my sons old nursery had chosen a nursery next to her work place.

She regretted her choice for the reasons breeminor mentioned. When she was pregnant with nr 2, it became a real struggle to get to work on the train, with a buggy and a bump, so she decided to uproot her dd from the nursery and settle her in a nursery close to her home instead.

Another thing is, you probably have friends and neighbours near your home? And if you do, their help can be invaluable, if you are ill, you can let a neibhgour take your child to nursery.

And london is a nightmare with a buggy.

Also, you dont want to go check on your baby in the day. He will be devastated when you leave him a SECOND time that day, and might be hard to settle again. It might confuse him.

how long is your commute - how may trains etc?

TBH, i would go for a nursery nearer to home and Bree has highlighted some good reasons

i commute and DS's nursery is 5 minutes from home

Hi, I commuted, only 2 stops but with a buggy when ds was small and it was a PITA tbh, because

a) trains packed
b) people didn't always help up steps
c) stressful travelling with baby if train stuck etc
d) I never did go down at lunchtime
e) it meant it was ALWAYS me, never dh who collected

and I think you should be able to leave at 5pm so I'd go with near home. But I'd also make sure my dh did his share of pick ups too.

Oh yes and another thing, sometimes you might want to leave work early and pop in to the shops for a quick 5 min shop.
Not sure I could do that with babies in tow. It would just makes it cumbersome and tiring.
Also what would happen if you decided to change jobs. My DS has been at his nursery for 4 years (still find this hard to believe!) and I have changed jobs once in that time.

And as www said having your little one near work just means a tendency for you to work longer hours and having even less time for you to spend with the little one.

thanks those are all good points that I never thought of i.e. leaving early for shopping or not going to work on a certain day. What would i do without mumsnetters' advice

Did anyone ever consider a split between daycare and childminder? i.e. 2-3 days in one environment and the rest in another, or would that be too disruptive for the baby too?

I'm having exactly this dilemma! My workplace (NHS hospital) has a fantastic nursery that is heavily subsidised (~£400 a month cheaper than a local private one) and has a place for her, however, my commute is 50 minutes minimum by train/tube & my little one would be only 7 months so she'd be starting this 4 days a week in the middle of winter!

The one near home is good (according to Ofsted anyway!), but I just feel weird about being so far away from her? I've written lists of pros and cons, but am still struggling! To make things worse, if I knew that we would live where we are now for the near future, this decision would be a no-brainer, but I'm desperate to move (probably to an area with a 20 min public transport commute to work), but hubby reasonably wants to wait for the "market" to improve. So I'm also trying to consider how crap it would be for her to change nursery!

Am I making this more difficult than it need be? What would you do?

Dolly in your situation I would go for the one near work because of the £400 difference in cost, and because I'd feel more confident about quality.

However, those would to me be exceptional reasons for the near work nursery, otherwise I think near home would be better, eg for firsttimer.

On hours, I think leaving in time to be able to collect from near home by 6 is better, because then maybe you can spend a little time talking/playing before bed. dp usually does pick up, not me, but at the moment we take 16 month ds to the park most days, although obviously we won't be able to do that at 5.30 in a few weeks' time. But I'd sooner one of us was able to take him straight home and have some food/chat/play before we move on to the bedtime routine at about 7 - 7.30 pm.

You asked about splitting between daycare and childminder. I went for an interview once for someone that was going use a nursery 2 days a week as she liked the social aspect (Mon & Fri) and a nanny for the other 3. The idea being that a nanny might be able to look after her lo if she was not well enough for nursery (they do pick up lots of bugs when they start) and the nanny would also do nursery duties (babies washing, room cleaning etc) so freeing up her time to spend with her lo when not working.

I don't know how it worked out for her as I didn't get the job as I wanted more money than she was offering, but it did seem like a good idea to me.

Home. You need to think about: days off, getting baby home quickly when poorly, the travel you've already flagged up, making friends that she/he can play with at home and perhaps go to school with later.

And seeing the baby at lunch time isn't always a good idea, different babies react differently. My youngest went nuts if I went in again because it just meant he knew I was going again...

Thanks everyone for the advice, I think the consensus is for something closer to home! Now, I'd better get her name down or we will be commuting!!