14mo moving nursery after 8 weeks?

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We were unable to get a place at our preferred nursery for at least 6 months so I’ve gone back to work and our 12mo will start at another nursery (not well located for us) 3 days per week.

Now preferred nursery has said they can start her in 8 weeks instead and advised not to start her elsewhere as it will be very disruptive. But we have no childcare so we either start her and move nursery in 8 weeks or we use a lot of annual leave for childcare over the 8 weeks until we get in to the nursery we want.

Would it be really be that disruptive at 14 months to move my daughter? It does concern me but the alternative is using up a lot of holiday (and I’ve already used a lot of my parental leave allowance as well) which also worries me as I couldn’t work 6 months without a break.

Anyone any advice?

Honestly I'd do everything I could to avoid moving her after she's potentially just settled. It's a massive adjustment to their lives anyway.

Childcare worker here btw

Hmm, tricky. Is it ideal to move her to one nursery and then again in eight weeks - obviously not, but you know that, and nobody parents in ideals.

I've not been through this exact thing, the closest for us was during covid when our nursery closed completely and we sent our then-20mo to a different nursery for two months, which was still open (we were both keyworkers, and this other nursery was on-site at DH's workplace), and then back to her usual one when it re-opened. Tbh she seemed to settle both times super quickly, we were surprised, we thought it would be more difficult both ways. I can't say how much of that was due to her personality though, or her older age etc, and the fact that she'd been happy and settled at her original nursery since she was 9 months old. The staff at the second nursery commented that they thought it was obvious that she was used to being in a secure and happy nursery environment and that was partly why she settled so quickly into theirs. I can't say that a child who has only been in any nursery setting for 8 weeks would settle quickly into another because it can take longer than that to fully settle into the original nursery in some cases.

I think if you can afford it I would probably look for you and your DP (you say 'we', so I assume there's a partner) to both take a mixture of unpaid parental leave and annual leave to cover the 8 weeks, so take 4 weeks each, and just start her in the nursery you wanted tbh. I think overall that's probably in everyone's best interests.

I moved my DS after about 8/10 weeks at this age primarily because I was not happy with the first place he was looked after. He was completely fine despite being a Covid baby and now a completely fine 4 year old.