Nursery baby room worried

[Cazzyandthebabe]

Hello! We've recently moved to a new area and I'm starting my 3 year old and almost-1 year old at the same nursery. My 3 year old only started nursery at 2.5 as she was at a childminder before so I have no experience with the 'baby room'. This week I have been settling my 3 year old and my 1 year old will start in a couple of weeks. Yesterday when I dropped 3 yr old to settle I asked to visit the baby room (I had only had a virtual tour before signing up). The room had a gate separating the baby play area from the staff supplies etc, which is understandable, but the 2 staff members were on the that side of the gate while all the babies were inside, mostly standing at the gate. I had thought it was a bit of a shame that neither staff member was in with the babies, playing and interacting with them, but understood I had just popped in. Today I dropped and collected my daughter for another settle and so peaked into the room 4 times on my way in and out and each time the situation was the same, with the babies all inside the gate and staff members the other side. I'm now feeling very anxious about sending my baby there as feels they are just plonked in a 'pen' and watched over?! Does this sound weird or normal practice? I really don't know if I'm being over anxious as obviously it is an anxious time settling your baby into nursery but it just made me feel a bit sad to think of him in there 😬

I think you should bring it up with the nursery and see what they say first? Doesn't sound great though. My 1yo's nursery is great. When I've gone in there's always been members of staff actively engaging with the children, sitting on the floor with them playing etc. I wouldn't be happy with this and would look for elsewhere.

Yeah doesn't sound anything like my DD's nursery, which is fab. Have you looked up what the reviews are like? Are there other nurseries nearby you could look at instead?

Thanks for your replies. It's so hard as a lot of places were not letting you look round when we had to decide, and if they did it was out of hours so you don't get a sense of the staff and rapport with the babies. I chose this based on a good friends recommendation, but her youngest left last year so it has been a long time since they were in the baby room. I just feel sick I have made the wrong choice and my daughter has started settling in already. I have made a couple of enquiries but nurseries seem to be very busy and I am after 2 places (as want them together!)
My daughter seems to have had fun (she is very easy going!) but when I collected her yesterday she said they had been watching Hey Dugee... which I thought was a bit strange too 🙈

Mine went to nursery at 7 and 9 months, never seen anything other than staff on the floor with babies or in entertaining them.

With reagrds to the tv I would be wary of this too and would ask about timings if it keeps happening.

Ask in your local Facebook group what people's experiences have been. Doesn't sound great.

Mine did watch a programme at a set time in nursery.
I think the staff used it as down time for them to tidy up and get new stuff out, like painting.
I picked him up at that time (half day) and there was nothing suspicious about it.

Go with your instincts.

Neither room sounds great to me, tbh. I would ask around and keep looking for somewhere else - presumably the better nurseries have longer waiting lists.

Mine has been in nursery since he was 11 months and the staff were always in the baby room, on the floor cuddling and playing. I know some nurseries do use TV for clearing up time which is understandable, but I wouldn't be keen personally.

Yeah a bit of TV doesn't bother me per se but she was only there for a 2 hour settle and I was on high alert already! Also, my daughter said it (excitedly!) in front of the staff member handing her over, and rather than acknowledge it and say 'yes, sometimes we let them watch a bit of tv while we tidy' (or whatever the case may be!) she just awkwardly tried to ignore she had said it. I'm definitely going to look at alternatives but I'm back to work next month so time is not on my side

I agree this doesn't sound great. I would look else where. It doesn't sound unsafe so if I was stuck I would probably send them until I found a better setting.

Doesn't sound brilliant really, I think I would be concerned too! My son started nursery at 11 months and every time we visited there was at least 2 members of staff cuddling/playing/rocking the babies and always seemed very involved. He's now 3 and very happy there, they do plenty of activities and I know they do watch the odd bit of TV at the end of the day while they're tidying and cleaning but I don't mind that at all.

I have 2 experiences of baby rooms. One within a nursery that eventually got a poor ofsted rating, specifically for concerns about the baby room. The staff always seemed a bit overwhelmed and stressed by all the babies. That whole nursery had a capacity of 128 across all age ranges.

Another where the baby room was mixed with the 1-2 yr olds. They were much more interactive. They would get the babies involved in 'painting', which just meant guiding them with a paintbrush or stripping them down to nappy and letting them kick about in a bit of paint to make a picture with their body. I remember getting art work home from my 8 month old 😂😂. This nursery has a capacity of 52 across all age ranges so I do wonder if its something to do with size of the nursery.