Childcare - Am I wrong?

We are doing 2 days nursery, 1 day with my parents & 1 day at home with me when I work from home I'd recommend sending them to nursery for the social and independent education side for little one x

For one thing if you are both working you'll be eligible for 30 hours free childcare term-time (or about 22.5 if throughout the year) and tax-free childcare so you can basically get 2-3 days a week free anyway. I also think he underestimates the difference between looking after a baby this age and one that is 10 months and can crawl etc. Probably only on 2 naps and will need more stimulation, I could not look after a child and work at the same time, one or both will suffer. Also relying on family for childcare can be a problem, especially 3 different sets of grandparents. Will they all follow your routines and guidelines?

Is your OH self employed? Otherwise there’s likely stipulations in their contract about having childcare during working hours. I agree with you though - nurseries or childminders are much more than just someone to look after your child. It’s somewhere they fully understand development, health etc. Also means you’re much less likely to be let down than by an individual (illness, holidays etc)

I think personally if your child went to a care setting there could be greater benefits. It would be closer to your home so you wouldn’t be spending so many hours travelling to and from grandparents and the cost of that will add up over time too. Your child could benefit from being around other children of a similar age, having regular planned activities and day trips, being cared for by someone with childcare experience and passion and may have much more energy and patience to look after children too! They may incorporate learning opportunities and be involved in playgroups and meet ups with other local childminders/ nursery sessions to provide a variety of activities and opportunities. It also helps to keep the grandparent relationship outside of them being regular care givers and could reduce family tensions when things don’t go to plan such as covering sickness and holidays etc.

What we do is our daughter spends 1 day with me at home (I work 4 days a week), 2 days with grandma and 2 days at nursery and this works really well for us and also it’s a lot more reliable that way as I only need to rely on my MIL twice a week and if she can’t have her whether she’s not feeling very well or has been called into work then I can easily get my daughter into nursery an extra day and at least have childcare covered that way. This also gives us a good routine and my daughter has come on fantastically since starting nursery. If you are both working you will be eligible for 30 funded hours which helps massively with the nursery bill as well x

I think nursery is a great idea and you’ll get 15 hours free anyway so why not use them? Also an hour is a hell of a long time to travel just for childcare. Also, I don’t think your partner understands how hard it is to look after a 1 year old and work at the same time. I don’t think he would get much done. I’d really recommend doing a test run first as I know I wouldn’t be happy if my employee was looking after their child and ‘working’ at the same time twice a week. He could potentially get dismissed for this depending on their policy etc

Yeah looking after a child that age as working at the same time would be incredibly stressful/impossible. You’ll get 30 free hours for nursery, I’d definitely use that x

If I could, I would keep my boy home until 2. I think the socialising aspect is not important until after 2. If I had the option you do, I'll take it. As I don't have that option, we're going to put him in nursery or childminder for two days, he'll be with sister-in-law one day and he'll be with me at home two days.