Nursery at 1 Years Old

[sunshinecitrus1]

I am due back to work from maternity leave in August and have childcare arrangements in place. My LO will be a year old by then. We did look into nursery options however, the nurseries we looked at wanted us to commit to 2 full sessions each week as opposed to the 1 session that we were looking for.

I am pleased that we have childcare in place with grandparents etc. however, I am worried that because my LO isn’t going to nursery he will fall behind on social skills etc. I am off on Friday’s so I was planning on that being our day where we go to a baby class, soft play etc. but I’m just concerned that he will fall behind if he isn’t attending nursery. I would love to send him for the 2 sessions but it is just so expensive and not financially doable for us at this point.

Pretty sure that you’ve got the ideal set-up for your child. Time with other children will start to matter when your DC is 2 or even 3. Plenty of children only start once their funded hours start at 3.

Your set up sounds fine. To be honest; 1 session isn’t really that beneficial and can often be more difficult as they aren’t there often enough to settle in.
When the funded hours come in, your child will benefit much more at that age.

Playgroups are a lovely way to introduce your child to playing with others.

I’m sure he’ll be absolutely fine. It also depends on what grandparents are doing with him.

My mum looks after my 1 year old while I work 4 days but she takes him to toddler groups most days so he is seeing other children. And she does lots of activities with him at home.
He’ll be starting nursery 2 days when he’s 18 months.

Maybe research and suggest some groups that GPs can take him to if they want to. There are a lot of grandmas with kids at the ones my DS goes to. Especially church playgroups etc.

Lots of people don’t send their kids to nursery until the funded hours kick in - consider yourself lucky you don’t have to bankrupt yourself for nursery fees. Honestly by the time they are in reception you won’t know who went to nursery from 1 vs those who went from 2/3.

I think at 1 it will be fine - a lot of people would say better off.
It's only really about the age of 3 that children actually socialise.

Nursery is of no benefit to a child until they reach 3. That is not the same as saying nursery harms children (because there's no evidence that it does), but they do not need to socialise at that age. What they need is at least one consistent care giver, which your LO clearly has. So please do not worry. My DD is 14 months and not at nursery and she is thriving, as I'm sure she would at nursery. The only thing I try and do is make sure she has lots of opportunity to do messy play as that's often what gets overlooked when they're not in a nursery setting

I'm a huge nursery fan and mine have been full time since they were 10 months, but at 1yo I think that's absolutely fine. Even better if the grandparents bring him to groups or to see cousins etc.

Thanks all for your replies, this has made me feel MUCH better 😀

1 day a week would be crap and possible that you would have problems with settling as they would forget about it from week to week. With a grandparent that bond will be there from seeing them normally anyway.