As little man is not yet even 2, he won’t get his free nursery funding until next year – despite this, hubby & I have recently been debating whether to place him anyway and obviously pay for it. After umm-ing and ahh-ing over various factors, we decided we would go for it (though I kept wondering if we were doing the right thing).

There is a perfect little private nursery just around the corner from us which we decided was the one – we signed him up for just one day a week (8 hours). When I went in to do all the form filling, little man spent half an hour in the toddler section. He went straight in without any fuss, but when he realised I had gone (into the office) I could hear him crying – I of course got emotional but the manager went through and he was OK, he just kept getting upset when other parents went in and he realised it wasn’t me. When I went to get him afterwards, he didn’t want to leave! After this small session, he had a 1 hour settling in session a couple of days after. This time he went in without any fuss and when I went to collect him, again he didn’t want to leave! 

He started with his first full day last week. He starts at 8am so I had to wake him up earlier, as he doesn’t usually wake up until around this time (or later). He was very sleepy but I gave him his milk which he drank in bed, and then he got up and dressed. I’d gotten his bag ready the night before so once we were both dressed we were ready to go. This time when I dropped him off, he went in just fine again, but then he turned around and saw me leaving and ran up to the safety gate screaming his head off. I was so upset knowing I was leaving him for the next 8 hours and I just wanted to go back and give him a cuddle, but I just had to go. I was restless for the remainder of the day after that happened, though I knew he would be fine eventually. 

When we collected him at 4pm, his key worker went through his day with us. She said he was a bit grumpy for around an hour after I left him but once he’d settled he was fine. He refused breakfast (probably because he was grumpy), but he then had some fruit at snack time, he had two plates of lunch (chilli, rice & naan bread – it’s one of his favourite meals) and then he had a bun at afternoon snack time, which they had made in the morning. He also had a play outside, he’d done some chalking, and he drew us his first nursery picture! He was also helping to tidy up when we arrived. The smile on his face when he saw us was (mainly) worth the upset from the morning – it was one of those priceless moments and confirmed that we had done the right thing – I think both him & I will gain so much from it.