It’s so hard, I don’t have my baby full time at nursery but we are also trying to find a work pattern that works for us and allow us to have quality time with our baby. I have booked holidays to have a day off and requested compressed hours but my company doesn’t want to approve, I am trying to prove now that my case will work for us and them because I want to be able to spend a day with my baby where it’s not just bedtime routine.
It’s definitely hard 😩
Hi my husband is on shift work and I work full time. I have condensed my full time hours into 4 days so I just need to worry about tues to fri. We have found a nursery that actually takes my lo one on a flexible basis. As I know my husbands shift pattern months in advance I just put him in one day a week using the 15 free hours. We both use holidays to manage days where he maybe working mostly weekday. It’s a busy bees. Maybe something like this could work for you?
My son is in nursery all day Mon, Tues, Thurs & Friday morning. I dropped a Wednesday in work which breaks the week up nicely and my mum covers him on Friday afternoon. He absolutely loves Nursery and doing so well there! He reaches out to his key workers when I drop him off too Xx
My boy goes 3.5 days (8-5/5:30 tues-Thurs and 8-12:30 on Fri). He loves it so I actually think he’d be fine full time but it’s expensive and I want to spend more than just the weekend with him so I don’t miss him growing up too much x
@Rosie Thank you for this I never even considered condensing my hours. My nursery won’t accept any flexibility with dates either which is a shame as that really could’ve worked for us!
Yeh I guess we are lucky with the flexibility. It took a while to find one that did it. I recommend you enquire at different nurseries and you might find one
Me and my partner work full time so my little boy also goes full time nursery, 8am-5:30pm and has been since the first week of September. He absolutely loves it now. Eats well, sleeps well, and gets to play all day whilst learning to socialise. It's the perfect day for him 😅 and he's less shy and clingy to me/his dad when we are around other people because of it. I do miss him loads though and it was a few weeks before I stopped crying after dropping him off at nursery! I am considering dropping 2 days in work now though, to spend those 2 days with him whilst he's still little 🥺
My twins have been full time 8-6 mon-fri since August. They love it there. They've got a great schedule as well now. I didn't have the option to condense my hours and I am the breadwinner so it is what it is. The whole 'it's a long day for them logic kind of annoys me because it's just not, I'm not waking them up to go, they're up at 6:30 and go to bed like 7:45 so it's not like they lose sleep to go, their day length is the same just spent a lot of it at nursery.
My little one is not at nursery full time but my friends is and she’s more than ok. Another (expensive) option since your nursery is not flexible - just pay for the full time and when there are times when your husband is off work or you are just don’t send send the baby in ! X also 9-4 is not a long day. I’m in London where a lot of people do 8-6.30 x
My baby goes full time Mon- fri . Initially I was skeptical. Now seeing my baby enjoying the activities and play time there along with his friend, I am fine too🙂
I really appreciate everyone’s thoughts and opinions on this. It’s a big decision and commitment to make hence my hesitation, but it’s great to hear others have settled in well full time at nursery. It’s just difficult to come to terms with the fact I would only see my daughter for 4-5hours a day other than weekends
My girl is in full days Monday to Friday, from 8/8:30ish til 5:30. Honestly, she's doing so well and learning and experiencing lots, so I think it's good for her (although obviously sad to not see her all the time). I didn't realise until reading this thread that I was in the minority having my little one in full time though!
My little one is full time since end of April and loves it. My job wouldn't be possible part time and quitting would create a massive hole in my career that would be difficult to catch up so the option was to go back full time. I work 8am to 3pm and pick him up straight after, he goes to bed at 8.30pm so I have some hours in the evening with him.
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My LO has been in 3 days a week but from November is in 5 days a week as I have been using 2 days a week annual leave to have her. I am going to miss her loads but she is THRIVING since being I'm with a childminder. She absolutely lovesssss it there and she has come on leaps and bounds. Xxx
I work 3 days a week 8.30-4.30pm so the kids are in nursery on those days from 8.15 till 5pm ish. I wouldn’t put them in any more days than that as it’s a long day for them. But if you are working and u have no choice then not much you can do. Ideally I would have preferred for them to go 9-3 but they don’t offer that at my nursery.