Dilemma - nursery near work or home?

[chargedproton]

I work about 45 minutes - 1 hour away from home.

I am due back at work in September and need to get a move on with finding a nursery. I started looking in January but mother in law died so everything just want in a standstill.

I want to do long hours. 8am-5:15pm 3 days a week so I can earn as much as I can.

However this doesn’t give me many options for nurseries near my home as most open 7:30 - 8am and close at 6pm.

There is quite a few near my work that have good reputations etc whereas not many where I live do.

But do you think it’s better for my child to be one near my home? I could change my hours to fit around this if I must. There isn’t many good ones near where I live though.

Will it effect him? The travelling?

We eventually want to move house in two years to a different town, so may well move near my workplace or move somewhere and he needs to come out of nursery and I’ll have to put him in one near our house (I’ll make sure there’s a good nursery and schools nearby next time we buy a house!).

What do you think?

When he can start walking, I will probably give him to my parents 1 day a week.

Self employed as in he’s a contractor for an IT firm. He has to do his contracted hours to get his day rate. He can’t take no sick days or if he leaves work early...he gets paid for half a day or no day whereas I would still get paid by making up my time or taking a holiday.

I don’t mind as he pays for majority of the bills and I don’t actually enjoy working as much as he does but I don’t want to not work and i want the extra income coming into the house.

Understand that your DH has to do his daily hours but is there any flexibility in when he does them? On the days that you are working could he work 7:30-4:30 (8hr shift) and then finish to pick up the baby from nursery?

You do the nursery drop off at 7:30am and then get to work to do 8:30-5:30.

My little one started nursery when she was 1 and I put her in one that I really liked next to work.

The journey to work was fun but the journey home was exhausting - it was definitely worth it to be able to hang out with her at lunchtimes and know I was only 5 mins away if there was a problem.

When she was one and a half we were offered a space at an amazing place near home that we were on the wait list for which we happily accepted. I do miss our morning trips and lunchtimes but by that point she was down to one nap and sleeping over lunch anyway.

If you look at both options hopefully like us you'll just get a feel for which place suits you best. And you can always change if it doesn't suit you after all. Good luck :)

He does have flexibility by either working 7:45-4pm or 8:45-5pm but my workplace have now accepted my hours of 8am-5:15pm three days a week...so happy!

I just need to find a nursery now. I’ve emailed one I like to arrange a visit but still haven’t got back to me grr!

If I was to do drop off, it’d have to be a nursery near me, which means I can pick up too as it’s abit pointless for him to do it and way out of his way. I really don’t mind. He does more of his fair share.

I'd definitely choose one near home. There's no need to make your child do the daily commute too.

There you are then. I'd go for one near home and you drop off and he picks up. Or He drops and you collect. Start as you mean to go on with both of you sharing the parenting.

We picked one close to work. At the time we lived 30 mins drive from my place of work and I found it easier to be able to collect and drop off local to work in case I got stuck on the motorway at pick up. Also, if I got a call that they were sick I'd be with them quicker. The motorway between work and home was notorious for accidents and long delays.

We did near work (30min commute) as near home wasn't feasible (despite being 2 miles from home, the nearest nursery would have easily added 20-25mins to our journey due to traffic + being in wrong direction). It worked well for us and meant we were close if he was ill. Is a pain if you have a day off and want to send your child in for some reason. Also means they don't go to the same school as their peers usually. Pros and cons to both. We didn't find sleeping in the car an issue (he slept but still went to bed)