Our choice
It was never an option for me not to return to work after having our baby due to our financial commitments, but choosing child care was not an easy thing to do. After all, we were finding a place/person who was going to be looking after the most precious little person in our lives.
The choices for us were either a childminder or a nursery…
We liked the idea of a child minder, the more personal touch, but then thought about the issues:
- Having to take holidays around the child minder
- What to do if the child minder was poorly
- How would we know who was visiting the child minder during the day
- The age range of the other children, we wanted our baby bear to have children of a similar age to play with
So, the nursery came out on top for us.
I went to see a couple, whilst I was on maternity leave, and once we had picked the "right one" the dreaded first day arrived...
Settling in was not as easy as we thought…
Our little one started when he was 9 months old, he went into the baby room for an hour or so whilst we signed paperwork and went through “the rules”. The girls had to bring him through to us after about 45 minutes as he had started crying, but we weren't surprised, it was his first day.
He had a settling in period over the course of two weeks, he started going in for an hour, gradually building it up over the two weeks. I had gone back to work and in hindsight would certainly have started this process whilst I was in the last couple of weeks of maternity leave if I had the choice again. It was a little awkward as I went back to work at the beginning of January and the nursery was closed over Christmas and New Year, but certainly I would have taken holidays or extra maternity leave to help through those first couple of weeks.
After the two weeks, he started full time… The nursery is open from 7.45 am until 6 pm. He has breakfast, mid-morning snack, lunch and an afternoon snack - so plenty to eat!
We provide a piece of fruit per day, nappies, wipes, cream and a change of clothes - you get told what you'll need to provide when you have a look round, if not, ask! It all adds onto the costs.
It is not easy, he has been there since January 2012 and still has a few tears when we drop him off. It helps to wait (out of sight), peek into the room and see him happily playing about five/ten minutes later though. But, it certainly makes you feel guilty leaving your little one, I would love to be a stay at home mummy, we went to lots of lovely play days and swimming whilst I was on maternity leave but sadly its not possible for me not to work.
I would suggest leaving your little one with family members or close friends if you can a few weeks before they start nursery, especially if during maternity leave they have not left you. We hadn't done that so it makes that separation a little harder. Obviously the younger the baby is the easier it is for them, our little one at 9 months was well aware we were leaving the room and him behind, but a baby of 6 months probably wouldn't mind as much as long as there was a cuddle and some milk on offer :)
The debate on working mums and dads will go on, I like to think as he is an only child he is having lots of play time and interaction with little ones of his own age… I don’t think there is a right or a wrong, just a “whatever suits”…
Its good having a job, you do get "you" back in some respects and you have another conversation apart from what baby did that day!
