Will we regret this? Nursery...

[Bewilderbeastie]

There are a couple of nurseries near us. One is 30secs walk away - it's small, well reviewed but seem very chaotic and disorganized. We are constantly chasing them for info about getting her a place.

Another is 15mins walk and much more organised, also £200 cheaper per month. Better menu, more facilities, more outside space. Great reviews too.

Tempted to go with the second but it's not on the way to any public transport to get into work (if offices do ever reopen) so it's potentially adding more time to commute.

Will we regret going with the one that's further away? I'm sure she'd be just as happy at either one.

Go with the second nursery! Honestly it's not worth the stress and it sounds much better.

Personally my opinion is if the first nursery can't even be arsed to make an effort to provide information before you start then the likelihood is it will be 10 x worse if she attends.

If organisation is important to you, I’d stay well away from a disorganised nursery. It will wear you down over time and you will regret your decision. You want to be able to drop your dc off each day knowing they are safe and you are getting all the information you need without any hassle.

Were the rooms and children’s play spaces disorganised? I consider It’s really important that children know where things are and what is expected of them. If they can’t find their favourite toy or they don’t know what is coming next, that isn’t great for their learning.
For the sake of a slightly longer commute, I’d go for the second nursery. It sounds as though it is a better nursery anyway, more outside space (As long as that is utilised regularly), better food and it’s cheaper, so better for you as well as your dc.

Go with the cheaper, better nursery, which sounds much better anyway – better menu and the outside space would sell me on it. The commute can be worked out; there’s bound to be more wfh in the future anyway. Plus it’s only a potential problem right now - the disorganised nursery is an active problem. Plus the time you’d save on the drop-off will be lost on the chaos.

I would go with the second nursery

2nd one

Some nurseries are better with children than they are with admin! I'd go with the one that looks/feels welcoming & caring.

Definitely go with the second one. The outside space would sell it to me - my son is outdoors most of the time at his nursery, unless the weather is really dreadful.

You will want to know you feel happy with the staff and surroundings.

Thanks all. Both seem very caring and nurturing, and have had good feedback about both from local parents. We're lucky that in that sense, we can't make a 'wrong' decision.

Just wondering if we will end up feeling like we'd have preferred more time at home with her (total 2min commute per day there and back home, compared to 1hr). But if she's spending 8 hours a day there it's also important to us that she's somewhere stimulating and kind, also easy to deal with.

For a shorter commute you could ride a bike, with a kid's trailer or seat behind. Then you can either cycle back home or cycle to a bus stop (probably would go with the seat behind if going straight to a bus stop)

Hmmmm putting your child in a nursery that seems competent, with great reviews, good outside space etc...

Versus one which is more expensive and which you are unhappy with already before she even starts.

🤔

Both are within a few mins walk/ drive from your house. I think your OP answered your own question!

It’s 15 mins walk and good for you both,

Go with the one you really want her to be all day and forget the commute.

Our nursery (which I love) was on my way to work but now I work from home. Things change. We now walk a mile each way to drop off and collect but I would gladly travel further because I trust the nursery completely and she is so happy there.

As an aside, the walk there and back (25 mins and hilly) is actually a really special time together on an otherwise busy work day.

We had a similar situation both well reviewed- except the nursery closest to us was nearly £200 a month cheaper than the second 🤦🏻‍♀️ However the first nursery were a nightmare to pin down and kept changing the days they could offer to DS in the lead up to me going back to work, which didn't fill us with confidence. The second nursery is more expensive and 8 mins in the wrong direction for both of us to go to work so with drop off it adds a good 20 mins on to our commute but it's so, so worth it. The nursery is amazing and DS loves it there. Go with your gut as to where your DC will be happiest and you won't regret it 😊

Right now, we have such little access to the nursery team compared to previous years. If my nursery wasn't organised and good at communicating via the parent app, I'd have no idea what DS was up to and how he was getting on, as they're not necessarily brought to the door by their key worker so I can't get the daily feedback that I used to. For that reason, I'd definitely go with a nursery that was more organised and easy to communicate with.

Well I went for the chaotic small nursery down the road. I loved it when I looked round tho, it had a real family atmosphere whereas my friend went for a look round and instantly hated the disorder. It’s very popular and I had to hound them for months about a place. Totally worth it as I love how close it is and she loves it too.

It's only a 30 min round trip, that's completely fine.

I would go with the 2nd nursery.

When we were looking at nurseries, we picked one we loved that was 10 mins away in the wrong direction. So add that onto my 45 min commute to work from home was a long trip for me. But it was worth it.

Since lockdown that nursery closed but he was moved to one of their sister nurseries, which is on my route to work, but of course I'm now at home. On a busy day it can take 25 mins to get to nursery due to traffic, but again it's a great nursery and he's outside all the time. So I'm happy to have that travel time as long as DS is cared for and enjoys himself.

Thanks for the replies, yes I think I probably had made my mind up in a way, but was wavering because a friend had mentioned that the convenience of sending them to a nursery very close is a huge bonus and we'd regret it if we didn't because nothing is more valuable than time.

But we would still have the commute time together, and if we were both WFH (likely) then it also means we definitely get outside every day so, selfishly, that sort of works for us, too.

It’s a 15 minute walk to our nursery too. No problem at all. You will get used to it. Personally I classify any walk under 20 mins as a short walk but I live in a city.

Lots of things are more valuable than time OP. It is a balance. It depends how much time and how much benefit: otherwise we'd never do anything and waste all of our time! Trust your instinct on this.

I had exactly the same decision to make between a nursery on the doorstep and another 15 minutes away. I am still grateful a couple of years later that I chose the one 15 minutes away. The closer nursery was nice enough but the nursery 15 minutes away is really lovely and definitely worth the journey.

Second one. We walked 15 minutes to our nursery in the opposite direction to the tube station even though there were 2 closer nurseries. Our DC recently left that nursery for school after almost 4 years. We never regretted it once. It’s so important to choose a nursery that feels right and with good communication. The 15 minute walk is lovely time together too!