What age did your child start nursery

[Firsttimemum256]

How old were they when they started nursery and for how many days? Starting to think about the end of my maternity leave and I’m worried dc will be too young for nursery/worried about leaving them

DS1 was 9 months. In hindsight possibly a bit early as he was EBF, bottle refused and nearly killed me with reverse cycling and sleep deprivation.

DS2 was due to start at 10.5 months but lockdown happened, so he was 14 months when he actually started. He managed much better, but he was a very different child!

8 months. I did two days. He did not settle. I even changed nurseries. It was only at 2 years old that he stopped crying at drop offs. He still gets sad when I take him as he'd rather spend the day with me.

Always curious to read that it seems everyone else's kid 'thrived'.

My kid, in any circumstance, would rather stay with me. He truly thrives when he's with me for days.
Yes daycare is good for him and they get to do activities, but mine just loves us being together

2 Yrs + 4 months, 2 days a week, 9am-4:30pm. Settled in after 3 weeks and is rearing to go in the mornings and sometimes doesn't even look back 😂 he loves it and a has brought him on amazing, especially with his talking, you can't shut him up now haha

'and am envious of all the activities they do.'

Like what?

@Elmeux

DS was 5 months, and DD was 10 months.
Both went into nursery for 5 mornings a week.

Leaving DS was much easier. By 10 months DD was much more reluctant to leave me and screamed the nursery down for quite a while. But you have to trust the nursery to settle them (as they did).

Four months and five months pt.
Over twenty years ago now. All fine. Never a single regret.

Mine is 13 months and had his first day yesterday, he'll be doing three full days a week, I recently started my own thread about it as my anxiety was through the roof!

Both around 10/11 months 5 days a week 10-3. Both settles really well and really enjoyed it

My son started at 18 months, by 2 he was doing 7am-6pm Monday to Friday due to my nursing degree. Although if I was off I’d have days where I didn’t send him, but it did him the world of good!

he’s always been sociable and when he started school, other children were distraught but he was straight in with a ‘bye mum’ and they said it was like he’d always been there, no separation anxiety whatsoever and he’s 8 now and we’re really close

I don’t find it curious. Most children do thrive, whether they’re at home or in childcare. My DD thrived at nursery, I’m sure she’d have thrived at home with me too.

Crying at drop-offs does not mean your child is not thriving.

My child cried at every drop off from 2.5 until he started junior school at age 7.
He was perfectly fine after I'd gone.
And yes, he would probably also have rather spent the day with me. But having a preference is different to not thriving.

Mine really did thrive. As PP said they probably would have thrived at home too, although mine were little over lockdown so there were huge benefits to nursery.

Two days can be really tough on some kids, they don't get a decent run at nursery to settle iykwim. Both of mine were well settled by the end of the first week and never looked back. We were very lucky with our nursery too though.

12 weeks and full time. All three of them.

A long maternity leave wasn't for me.

I agree with @Caravaggiouch because my boy and I have been at home together practically 24/7 for 13 months, throughout that time he has already thrived due to the places he's visited, the playing, reading, singing and problem solving we've done together, and I don't doubt that this would've continued. But at nursery he gets exposure to 16 other children and is already trying to mimic what they're doing, with older children especially he will advance in a very different way. If children are looked after, cared for, stimulated and having fun I think they can thrive in a multitude of scenarios

One day a week from 5 months. Won't go full time until 16 months.

My employer tried to give me more money to go back when my son was 3 months old but I felt that was far too young and just couldn't do it so I waited till he was 9 months.

11 months, full-time.

But it didn’t go well due to all of the bugs, she was constantly sick. So ended up being three days per week from 18 months onwards.

Good for you for admitting it. I didn’t enjoy it neither. We did shared PL and I skipped into work.

3.5y and she went to forest school 3 days a week. They started with a brief classroom session and then it was outdoors the rest of the time. We wanted her to get used to a group setting and listening to a teacher before starting more formal school.

10 months for 2 days then increased to 3 days when she was 1 years old. She took around 6 months to fully settle. It wasn't easy but once she settled she really loved it.

At 8 months and full time. She loved it.

All after 14 months of adoption leave, so just over 2.5 for four days a week and 16 months for two days a week. Both settled well without fuss, lots of crying etc.

Mine all started going to (school) nursery, for school hours, in the year before they started Reception (so the September after they turned 3).

However they started going to the Childminder when I went back to work when they were 3 months old. CMer used to take them to various groups with them.

Maybe a childminder would suit your little one, or at least your needs, more than a Nursery ?

Part time age 2.5. They tolerated it, but never loved it, I think because they preferred to be out and about going to forest school, swimming, farms etc. In contrast they absolutely love school and settled straight away.

Two months, full time. I was working overseas and had six weeks maternity leave but was lucky to extend it with annual leave.