Nurseries, fees and compulsory hours!

I honestly cannot believe that I’m already writing a post about nurseries. Erin turns 1 in a couple of weeks and in my head, I had planned on her going to nursery for maybe a half day every week in the New Year. Well, that isn’t going to happen now.

It turns out that nurseries where I live don’t really take children before they’re 2! There is 1 nursery that does but they require the child to do 2 full days. Not what  I wanted to do at all. I understand that they ask this so that the child settles in well and there isn’t so long between their visits. However, at £30ish a day that adds up to a whopping £240 a month. There’s no way I can afford that right now. I only work 12 hours a week and I don’t rely on blog earnings. Paying for Erin to go to this nursery now would mean me only really earning about £100 a month and that’s just not doable.

I wanted Erin to go to nursery early so that she would get used to going somewhere other than being home with me. We don’t have any family that I can leave Erin with and she has only ever been left with someone other than me or John once. I don’t want her to get to 3 when we get free nursery hours and be a nightmare to leave.

I really wish we could afford for Erin to go now. However, I think I’ve nearly come to terms with not being able to do this until Erin is 2. I have already made an appointment with the private school nursery here for February and I’ll ago go to look around the 2 others I had in mind as well.

If anyone has any tips about picking a nursery I would love to hear them!

9 thoughts on “Nurseries, fees and compulsory hours!”

  1. It’s so expensive – we managed by putting our girl in one day a week and then a childminder for the rest of the time which worked out far less expensive so I would recommend looking into that combo. Good luck!

  2. It’s so expensive isn’t it. We’ve managed to put Ophelia in for one full day a week as I was desperate for her to get the social interaction. It costs us £48 a day. The one we chose is pricey but it’s a good one. Good staff, other happy parents and good food x

  3. It’s so expensive isn’t it?! I waited until my eldest was two before sending him. However I do home school now, so it’s looking more unlikely that I will be sending the youngest. Luckily we have plenty of groups, family and friends with kids the same age, for the social side of things. Hope you can find somewhere that will do 1 day a week for you.

  4. Oh wow it is so much money isn’t it. I always wanted to go back to work when mine were little but imagine how much child care would have been for 4. I decided to be a stay at home mum.

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