Best age to go to Nursery full time? Or, My Life plan of maybes!

[Flossam]

Right there is a very distant and vague possibility we might might might make it back to Bristol next year. Dp's sorting out the application form. Don't know if he'll be accepted, but crossing fingers!

Basically now comes me (prematurely of course) trying to work out the logistics of it all.

Hope 1, we will get a key worker mortgage. Our own home, hurrah!

Hope 2, He can live with parents for a month or so whilest everything sorts itself out (start date is March, lease on flat here runs out start of May)

Hope 3, I can get a good (or even maybe my old? job back)

Hope 4, We can save up enough cash to do this.

Hope 5, Obviously! He gets the job.

Now, the only thing is, realistically, we will need to put DS into nursery. Dp will be on short (8 hr) shifts, I can probably still do long (12 hr) shifts, so DS could go in for 9 hrs say, 3 times a week when I do my shift, and be picked up by DP. Financially I think I will need to do that many hours, DP will be having a pay cut (not in london any more) and so will I.

DS would be 18 month old by then. I thought that at some point he will benefit from socialising etc. Also, really really into the future here, if I was at work F/T would benefit better from Mat pay if I were to have another. Is this reasonable?

[Chandra]

DS is going to nursery mainly for the socialisation point, otherwise he won't know children his age existed as only ones we know are his friends from the nursery.

He has had times and phases, times when he cries because he doesn't want to stay at nursery and times when we cries because he doesn't want to leave at the end of the day...

[Flossam]

Aww, bless him. I guess I would better be able to gauge it nearer the time. Just wondered at what ages others sent their kids there. Also would have to factor in the cost.