can you please tell me about the first time you took your dc's to nursery please

[lizandlulu]

i am going on thursday to have a look around a nursery. if it is ok and i decide to let her go there, it will be the first time i will have left her with anyone apart from my mum and in-laws.
i feel it will be good for her to go, but awful at the same time for leaving her with strangers.
my friend has just put her 2 ds's in this nursery and i think this will help my dd settle in as they are great friends.
i just wanted to have some reassurance i was doing the right thing, and what kind of thing to expect[

I visited as many times as my ds needed to feel that the staff were NOT strangers

I think I stayed with him about 6 times before he was ready for me to leave for half an hour

I don't see why small children should be happy about being left with people they don't know, and I don't see why we should force them to get used to this

how old is she? I sent my twins when they were 5 months old - but i was so stressed and knackered and depressed, I handed them over and ran!

They are now 3 and in preschool (same nursery, different room), and since the new year have been little non-clingy stars, just walk, sit down with their friends, wave bye mummy and thats that!

You will have some settling in sessions if you do send her, to make you feel at ease - if the nursery doesn't feel right just don't send her, i went to a few when I was looking and some were just plain awful, but the one we ended up with is fabbo and it just felt right.

she is 2.2 andother people have said i should have sent her sooner, but i just didnt feel ready to leave her. i work 3 days a week and my mum looks after her, but now i think it would do her good to be around other children more. she is only just starting to speak, and feel this will improve when she goes, also her eating isnt great and think this will also improve if she is at a table with lots of other children all eating.
i have to go back to work now, but any other advice would be great!

Dd1 started just before her 3rd birthday, we sent dd2 for one day a week at 10 months as dd1 was there already. We then took dd1 out of nursery as i was not happy with a few things there, so we then took dd2 out.
Dd1 now goes to another nursery and dd2 is staying at home until she is 3.

We looked around and spent a few hours at dd's 2nd nursery and then she went for a morning the following week.

I decided not to put dd2 into nursery as dh or i would be at home to look after her. Dd2 goes to nursery/pre-school just to get her ready for september when she starts school.

The first time ds went he was 18 months, he didn't cry and loved the whole day,
but after about 3 times he started to cry when we were leaving. But he was doing it because a few of the other children do it and as soon as we were out of sight (still looking in but he didn't know we were there) he stoped crying and started playing. He loves his nursery and the staff there are amazing, non of the nursery staff are under 25 all fully qualified before they can work there no 16 year old chavs doing nvq1 that can't be bothered.
We veiwed a few before we found one as good as this. Having friends there will help alot.

i was planning go a couple of times and staying with her, like they reccomend and go from there. i am really nervous and will have to write a list of things to ask before i go or else i will forget!