Dreading my baby going to nursery

[user276]

My not so little baby is due to start nursery 3 days a week from January! We would have had 15 months together and I’ve only been apart from him for a few hours maximum!

im so nervous and literally could cry at the thought of him looking for me and me not being there! Please tell me this gets easier !! ( he hasn’t even started and I’m already a mess!! )

Oh goodness, I felt this too when my little one started at 11 months! (Similarly 3 days a week - I was lucky to be able to return to work part time)

I couldn't even walk past the place. But, only a couple of weeks later, I started to appreciate the fact that time apart allowed me to rediscover some of my old self. In fact, I found I was a better mum for having more energy!

He's 2.5 now, still attends and loves it. He has proper little friends and lovely relationships with the nursery staff.

Give it a little time, and you'll both be okay! x

(Edited for typo)

I cried buckets when I went back at 12-13 months old, it felt all wrong and I dreaded it. But you and baby will adjust, it won’t be that bad and it will get easier! Focus on the time you have together through the week, and try to enjoy little things like exercising your thinking mind, dressing up for work, getting back to having adult company, drinking a cup of tea while it’s still hot etc!

This is totally normally. Id had 12 months of never being apart from my ds and i can still remember the total and utter feeling of dread i had in the pit of my stomach building up to him starting nursey because i was goimg back to work full time. Im not going to lie it was tough for the first couple of weeks and i remember sobbing as i drove to work most mornings BUT i promise it does get better and i came to realise that my dswas thriving at nursery and he needed more than just me. He was loving making little friends and doing all of the fun activites and becoming his own little person rather than just being my son.

Be easy on yourself and be prepared for both of you to have wobbles in the early days but you will get through it and you will both come out of the other side happy i promise x

Thank you all for your comments. Really appreciate it xx

I remember this feeling. It really was fine though; the staff are experts at comforting them and they even the ones who cry at drop off soon settle. We mainly used childminders but we did use a lovely nursery for a few weeks when I first went back to work after my second and she really loved it there even though she is a shy child who was very attached to me and still breastfed in the day at 15 months when she started. The baby room was very cosy and she really liked her key worker. She did lots of messy play and ate so much more at meal times than she did at home! We left when our childminder had availability as that was more convenient for us but we were sad to leave the nursery.

Don’t worry - this isn’t the end of your time together. Just the start of a new chapter.

My DS started nursery at 15 months and it was the best thing we could’ve done. He absolutely loved it once he’d got settled in. He got to do more of the enriching activities that I didn’t have the wherewithal to organise when he was at home with me and had felt guilty I couldn’t do more of. And he was so much better socialised than his elder sister who had been looked after by a family member rather than paid childcare. Those firm friends he made in the toddler room are still his besties now at primary school.