Tell me about your experiences of mum looking after LO

[LoveBeingAMummy]

As title says, looking for some words of wisdom

Do you mean your mum ie the grandmother?

For us it works brilliantly. My mother has my Dds two days a week whilst I work. The children love going there, and are very happy in her care. I think the key to making it work is that my mum looks after my DDs the way I want her to. She follows my lead on how I am raising my children and are totally consistent with me. I have 100% faith that she continues this when I am not there. So, for us it works. That said, I think it only works if you trust your mum 100% - if you don't then there could be troubles ahead.
HTH

Yes stinkyfeet

Thanks Elkat.

I will be going back full time

OK! For the last 5 years ds1 has been looked after one day a week by my mum, and one day by MIL. For the last 2 years, they've also had ds2. It works well for us, I just let them get on with it! They've successfully parented 7 children between them so they know what they're doing.

I know the boys are cared for and loved - I don't ask for more than that. Yes, they may do some things that I wouldn't, but they are doing us an enormous favour by looking after them so I ignore those things.

The boys have fantastic relationships with their grandparents and we are very thankful for that.

HTH.

Thanks stinky - I know that my mum totally adores DD, in fact DH and I ahve trouble getting a look in if she's around lol.

My mum looked after all my 3, although only 2 of them at any one time IYSWIM as the elder one was at school by the time I had dd. She was fab and probably better at the 'getting on the floor and playing' stuff than me. She had much more patience with them. As Elkat said, mine was 100% consistent with our parenting too. TBH I wouldn't have been able to have 3 if she'd not looked after them.

The children are all teens now but have a great relationship with my parents.

i've just gone to work from 4 days a week, my mum looks after my DS on all 4 days from 7am until 6pm'ish..... i trust her implicitly to mirror my parenting.

It works really well for us, she is brilliant with him and is a great support for me and DH. Without her help i would not have been able to go back to work as childcare would have not made it worth our while.

I think the key is for both of you to be relaxed and flexible.
I found that i was very anxious for the first couple of weeks when i called everyday to find that he may have missed a nap or was being fussy with his food... which he NEVER was with me.

This was just a teething period where DS was learning to adjust, so if you do decide to let your mum look after your LO, give it time, give her a chance to find her feet/routine that can mirror yours as closely as possible.

For us the advantages far out weight the disadvantages.
I have to be mega organised because i work 4 days a week, sometimes 5, but i know he is well cared for, loved and if i'm a bit late from work i'm not worried about childminder kicking off!

Good luck with going back to work

HTH

Luckily mine was always a non-starter. I think you have to have a very trusting special relationship for it to work and your parents have to be quite unselfish with their time. My mum always used to offer but then over the slightest disagreement the relationship would break down and she would continually let me down regardless of the effect it had on my job or our family finances. In the end I sent dd to a private nursery who get paid for their excellent care and there's no politics involved. Problem solved and we never stress about someone being there to care after dd in the way we want them to

My Mum and MIL have my two kids one day a week too and it is great. My only difficulty is that I work from home office, so if they are looking after kids here it does mean I struggle to get much done by the time I've had to prepare lunch for kids and grans, deal with enquiries about locations of items, make cups of tea, tidy up after them etc. Much prefer it if the kids go to them.

My mum looks after my DS one day a week and it works really well. She does things the way I like on the whole although she does give him more biscuits than I do but I think that's part of being a good grandma!

He absolutely adores her and because she comes to our house, she spends all her time playing with him rather than trying to distract him so she can post on MN do chores like I do

Thanks for all your experiences it really has helped. I've not been worried about mum looking after her just how it all works, I know she would never do anything 'wrong' just her own way however she has been really good so far in following my way of doing things. Roll on Jan 2nd!!!!!