Nurseries or day care for babies

Hellooo! This is super new to me, Im having my baby girl in December and we started looking into options for when I have to go back to work around may June. Because we are going to travel a bit back and forth to my home country I’m a bit confused if I can have my baby in a nursery and only pay for when we are here in England but then for example if we are out of the uk for let’s say 2 months I can skip those months? Is there any rules around this? Do they need to be registered for the full year or can it be something ad-hoc? Thank you so much mamas

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Most nurseries won’t allow you to do this as you sign up for either the full year or a term time place, you may be able to find childminders who will let you but I doubt it. You’d be best speaking to some local childcare settings directly to see if they’d make an exception

If we sign up for a term place let’s say 6 months, can I still take my baby away for as long as I want even if I have to keep paying? Do you know?

You should be fine doing that as you will still be paying but I’d check with individual places. They might advise against long periods as it could be quite unsettling for the child as it would be like they are new again everytime they go back.

You pay for the place, whether you use it or not. So if you get a spot and use it for 6 months and then want to leave for a few months that's ok, but if you want a place when you return you'll need to keep paying. You may be able to work it by taking a term time place and going back to your home country only in the school holidays. It's also worth saying that nurseries have months or years long waiting lists so apply early! Where we were in London it was 18 months to wait - it's really common to need to apply while pregnant.

You can take your baby away for as long as you like but you will likely have to keep paying. As Caroline said the best way around it would be a term time nursery place and going back to your home country in school holidays

Thank you so much for all the information, we are in between the 2 countries so it’s proving a bit complicated, due to work arrangements and everything. I think I’m going to have a look into childminders as well it might be more flexible for when we are in the UK or a term time nursery maybe. We will only need for potentially 2 to 3 days a week and for a couple of months next year as baby will be very small and I’m not a big fan of the idea of leaving my 4 or 5 month baby in the nursery (I know it’s silly) but will try to dig out what the best solution is! Thank you for all the insightful advice and info I had no idea how things work here

You could look at a nanny as may give you a bit more flexibility. They can keep baby at your home and look after them for you.

That might even be more sensible actually and easy for us! We work from home most of the time but I know it will be a bit chaotic working with a baby at home, so a nannie might be a good shout! Thank you

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