Pregnancy & Newborn

Pull our toddler out of daycare while I'm on maternity leave with the second, or keep her going?

pebble_drum_468

We're expecting our second. Our daughter goes to daycare on weekdays and loves it, and I've started wondering what happens to that once I'm on leave. On one side, I'll be home anyway, the fee is not small, and I don't want her feeling packed off while the baby gets me all day. On the other, daycare is her routine and her friends, and on some days I imagine I'll need those hours just to sleep. Did anyone keep the older one in daycare through the leave, cut down to half days, or bring them home? How did the older one take it?

3 comments

  • maple_hammock_5795

    Only one child here, so not quite this. But when my daughter was small, her daycare days were the fixed point of our week, and the weeks she was home sick were the ones where everything came apart. In your place I'd keep her going, maybe half days, so the baby isn't the reason her whole routine changed.

    • pebble_drum_468

      'So the baby isn't the reason her routine changed' is what I was trying to say to myself. Half days might be the answer. I'll ask whether they do that, and about holding the seat.

  • fern_pigeon_3414

    Get the daycare's seat policy in writing before you decide. A colleague paused her son's place for her leave and was told in the third month that it had gone to someone on the waiting list. Some places hold it, some don't.

  • basil_diary_8187

    I'm a month into my first, so I can't speak to the toddler side. On the newborn side, though: the first two weeks, with family around, were tiring but manageable. Weeks three and four, after my mother went home, were when I most needed a few quiet hours in the day. If daycare gives you those, I wouldn't feel guilty about keeping it.

Add a comment

Share what happened for you. Plain text; be kind and specific.

Keep going

Keep reading

More from the parents who were here.