My two and a half year old son started nursery 3 days a week 3 weeks ago, and the staff say he remains quite unsettled there, though the last week has been a little bit better than the preceding ones. He says he does not want to go because "I might miss my mummy", and takes quite a lot of persuasion to get him there. During the day he's apparently OK some of the time, but quite frequently becomes tearful and repeats "I want my mummy". Nursery staff are finding this hard to cope with, though they say they feel it will probably get better (not certainly). They seem very nice and caring, and the nursery is very well liked by local parents.
Before starting nursery, he had been looked after by the same nanny since I went back to work when he was 7 months, and was settled with her. He's seemed to be developing well, and has a lot of language for his age. He enjoys playing with other children when there are one or two others to play with, but has for several months been a bit shy and withdrawn in larger groups, at least at first. He's shown a bit of terrible twos defiance, but nothing really hard to deal with.
In the past couple of weeks, since starting nursery, he's much more clingy with me than before, and can get upset when I leave the room for quite short periods. He wants me, rather than his normally very involved dad, to do things like putting him to bed and helping put his clothes on. Generally he seems quite a bit more unsettled at home than before starting.
My question is whether at this stage we should persevere with the nursery in the hope/expectation that things will get better, or start thinking about other options? Advice and experiences very much welcomed!