How do people feel about babies going to nursery? What age is suitable? Should people stay at home more or use a child-minder? Just wondering, there are a lot of people who don't think children develop properly in a nursery.

it's simply a fact of modern life that not all parents are able to stay at home and mind their children, as they may wish to do, and that others want to pursue a career that they may have bee working on long before their children were born. Around 18 months is acceptable i feel as this would allow sufficent time for a lasting parent child bond to have fromed before there is long term distance between the two on a regular basis.

this is not to say i have a low opinion of anyone that leaves their child at a nuresey before this time btw just what i feel i would like to do if i ever were to have children.

Cerys started nursery last week for 2 reasons. Col and are are both working full time atm and his parents shouldn't be expected to look after her 5 days a week at their age. Also, as I don't know many people here Cerys has little interaction with children her own age so she stands to benefit from her 2 sessions per week.


My first 2 children stayed at home with me as I wasn't working at that time. WW 2 went to nursey ar 2.5 years so that I could go to college . She enjoyed herself at nursery but also had the benefit of being at home for 2.5 days a week.

Personally I think that children are better off with their parents/ grandparents providing they spend time with other children learning social skills, and get plenty of attention. Nursery is a necessity for some parents and I don't blame them for that. Most families need the incomes of both parents these days and don't have the luxury of family members to help out. Ideally I think a baby should stay at home for 6-12 months, but this isn't always possible.

One thing that I've learned as a parent is that the media will bring out contradicting advice periodically, and it's best to ignore most of the spin and concentrate on what's best for you and your own children.

Amory went to nursery at 9 months, we needed both incomes to get by. We would have loved to have stayed at home with her but really couldn't afford to. She has loved nursery though and has done really well there. I know this isn't the case for every child but luckily it was for us. Our next one will be going at about 9 months also, but Mrs Milgod will be working part time when she goes back to work.

The same circumstances were present in our case after the first born. Mrs needed to get back to work and our daughter first went to a child minder and then Nursery at an early age. We did have the option of leaving her with my parents but felt that she would not get any interaction with children of her own age so selected a child minder who was looking after children of similar age. After our son was born Mrs did leave work and looked after him herself but still enrolled into nursery at an early age as we felt he would benefit from interaction.

My only concern would be for children who spend longer period at home that they tend to become clingy to the parent who is looking after them so when the nursery time comes it is a difficult initial period which becomes longer for those children. As it takes them longer to settle in with other children.

Speaking from my own personal experience i never went to Nursery and didn't find the transition to school that hard as I often intreacted with other kids who lived beside my parents and can see why this would be such a big thing for parents especially in single child families.