Not sure where to begin really, this could morph into a mammoth and not sure I have time to do it and make dinner and eat it before 8:30 when we need to leave for Swing! Agh!
So basically, I set up two meetings for this afternoon to go and look at nurseries. Both are 'chains', one 'posh' (in my mother's words) and the other a sort of middle ground-ish.
Had the middle ground one first (I won't say the names) which is a 3 minute drive from home. They can only do a Monday and Friday for now (we needed/wanted Wednesday and Friday), so a slight downer to begin with. But the place is great, all on one level, clean and tidy, well kept, great atmosphere and ethos amongst the staff and the manager really knew what she was talking about, her own kids go there and she knew every kid by name. So we were really impressed. We were dreading the bit at the end where she handed over the price list, but were really pleasantly surprised as it's only £45 a day. She can go from 7:30am which means I can still do my 'earlies' at work, promotion or not, and pick her up at about 5:30ish. Which is a long day I know, but ultimately, I think it will benefit her. She seemed to fit right in, was playing with the other kids, fascinated by the water and the sand, brought a tear to my eye to see her so independent.
Onto the other one, closer to the University, the 'posher' of the two. Bearing in mind we've already had a great impression of the other one. So we arrived and were shown to a tiny waiting room. From the outset we were a bit weary, it smelt a bit like an old peoples home, a smell which only intensified as we went upstairs to the toddlers room where Scarlett would be placed. It was tiny, about a third of the space she'd have at the other one. Dated and dirty, really rundown and unkempt. Felt a bit bad for them as the girl showing us round was so enthusiastic. All the workers were in their teens, typical school drop outs (yes, massive generalisation there). Me and Andy were really struggling to focus, partly because it smelt, partly because it was rundown and I think our thoughts were just, "Christ, this is twice the price of the other one!"
She showed us round and we tried to keep our focus. She took us back to the waiting room at the end and gave us the pricelist and brochure. I already knew it was going to cost us a lot more for 2 days than the other one. Yeah, they can do a Wednesday and Friday like we want, but really, what's the point when we don't like it?! She asked if we wanted to meet the manager, who we'd already been told was on a conference call so we just said, Oh don't bother her if she's busy because we were just trying to get out of there! Had a brief chat with her, she seemed nice enough, limpest handshake ever! But we just wanted to go. Wish I'd called the first one straight back to say, I don't care that you can't give us the days we want, just save us from this place!
So, we're thinking she can go to the first one on a Monday and Friday, and we'll have to find a Childminder for the Wednesday. It's a pisser really because originally mum was going to do the Monday, because she doesn't work, but she really can't do a Wednesday. Bum. It's really going to stretch us, but I think we'll still be better off with Andy working.
Now just fingers crossed for that job that I'm interviewing for next week.
It was the same with nurseries in Jersey. The bigger named one, was twice the price and looking at it, was basically a battery hen farm for babies. At first I was like "Oh they have space, great" but when I went to look I was really not happy, nor could I afford it. And we are talking MEGA MEGA BUCKS. It was basically more than I actually earned myself. I was on some waiting lists for other nurseries in Jersey but it being an island, there are never enough spaces unless you put them down on a list at BIRTH so obviously I didn't get one. I ended up using a childminder, who also looked after another toddler whose mother I worked with. This was by far the best choice for me, and I would recommend looking into that. Get a good one and they still have plenty of interaction with other kids and are much more flexible than a nursery and when Scarlett is sick you won't have as much hassle as you will with a nursery and have to take her out for 72 hours, regardless of if she is okay or not. Mine used to sometimes drop Addie to me after work, rather than me going up to get her all the time. She went and met up with other kids as my childminder had play dates with other minders, and they went on trips to the park, to the beach, swimming etc. And it was marginally cheaper than the nursery option.
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