Yesterday was the lads first taster of nursery care for the lad since I quit my job and we took the lad out of private nursery almost two years ago. We had been invited down to our local state run nursery for a pre-enrolment ‘parents meeting’; the main thing that stood out for me is that it’s pretty small, as evidenced by it’s mistake of 9 pre-schoolers this year … and that’s a BIG intake, in fact that’s their maximum!
It largely seemed to be a chance to dish out the usual health promotion stuff normally doled out by health visitors, if they could only be bothered to do any visiting. A such it was mostly aimed at patronising the parents that showed up, the information being imparted (in my opinion) was aimed to low. Lots of talk of good diets, “eat frui”; head lice, “you’ll need to check for them”; immunisations, “there are lots to be had”; reading “it helps with language development” and an array of other obvious ‘good parenting’ stuff. Of course, on the whole immunisation thing I’m inclined to roll my eyes and go to sleep … do you know how much crap they want to inject into our kids!
Having the lad go off to nursery is something of a concern for us following our last experience. The lad was originally in nursery from 5 months until he was just over 2 … a situation that was less than satisfactory for all involved - but then needs must … maybe?! I never saw the lad due to work. The mrs was depressed and irritated by the nursery. The lad would get really upset at being left. The nursery was largely useless. For one thing they [the nursery staff] equated a babies loose stool with diarrhoea which necessitated absence from nursery, and therefore absence from work - a privilege we had to pay for, we always suspected that they just couldn’t be arsed or were under-staffed on those days
They complained about the cloth nappies we used, no different from disposable except that they had to put them in the bag provided rather than the bin. They complained about the home-made food we provided and anything else they disagreed with - like the blanket ban on sweets, crisps and other ‘crap’ … they used to take the kids to MacDonald’s for a treat :roll: . They insisted on making parents take their children to the doctors for anything and everything … except, of course, when the lad stopped breathing and turned blue! They didn’t even contact us to let us know, saving that particular gem until he was being picked up :x . Not unsurprisingly that was the last straw …
When we took him out of nursery his development improved palpably, most notably his speech … it makes you wonder just what was going on. Of course that was then and this is now, but I think you can understand why we might be a tad apprehensive. Back then it was full time (8am - 6pm, 5 days a week), it was awful; now it’ll be three afternoons for 3 hours a time … and he can tell us what’s going on. From what I’ve seen so far it certainly seems far better organised than the private nursery and it’s not staffed by teenagers either … which is a bonus!
Things are different now, the lad can express himself and we’re more confident in the role of parents. I know that I certainly am and fully intend to make myself heard if there are any concerns, yet I don’t think it’ll come to that this time around.
Anyway, the lad was in for an hour or so with the other kids while I was in the meeting and I practically had to drag him away - I think that’s a good sign! We enrol him tomorrow and he starts next Monday, so wish us luck and hopefully it’ll all go smoothly. It’s such a big thing handing responsibility for your children’s care over to someone else, even for a couple of hours … there are members of the family that don’t get that privilege!?
