Nurseries

We spent this morning looking at a couple of local day nurseries for Pumpkin - a rather surreal experience since she's still three months away from being born.  The woman at the first nursery said "did you want to bring your baby with you?" to which we said "well, we did".  Anyway, both places seemed perfectly acceptable - one's a little further away than we might like but the facilities seemed good, while the other was very convenient, had a lovely room for the babies, but not much outdoor space for running about in.  Not that six month olds do a lot of running, but they don't stay stationary for long.  

Having said that, she doesn't have to stay at one place for ever - Isabel loved the nursery that she was in before she started school, so we could move Pumpkin there once she's old enough. Staying in one place has obvious advantages though.  So, as you can see we are not much closer to making a decision, although increasingly aware that we need to book a place somewhere since the good nurseries do book up very quickly, and a long way in advance.  

The other thing which always makes these decisions difficult, for me at least, is that it's not 100% what I want to do.  I certainly want to go back to work, but I'm not dreadfully keen on the idea of spending north of £650 each month on nursery fees.  That's a very depressing thought indeed.  In order to try to save on some of that we need to investigate childcare voucher schemes which is yet another administrative headache.  Still, baby steps (very appropriate) - let's find the nursery, then figure out how to pay for it.  Meanwhile, donations to the nursery fund always warmly received.