Creché

baddebt

Just looking or some opinions here ,
My son (2yrs old), currently been minded by my parents (they look after my child and my nephew same age) and have been for the past year , things are going great , he's such a placid wee man ,
.
but in the last week , my wife and i decided to send the child to a creche 2 days a week 4hours a day.

we have done a trial run of an hour a day for each of the past 3 days (both of us off work this week) , the poor little man just cried and cried , and that is totally out of character with him , and I've now noticed a bit of a difference in him when I get home from work ,

I'm very sad about this , as i just hate to see my son upset , should I keep at the creche , or not ( I am sending him purely just to expand his social skilled ,

the plan for next week is to have him in the creche Wednesday and thursday for 4 hours each (back to work , so this is the expected time he would have to endure for 2 days a week)
but really don't know if it's the right thing to do ,
anyone got any advice ? we are both quite sad about doing this , and feel a tad Guilty

Ayla

Seems to me like your son is telling you something pretty clearly.

He *is* getting social interaction with your parents & his cousin - don't think he needs to go into a creche (with tons of visual/auditory & interpersonal overstimulation) in order to learn how to be a social child. It sounds like your son obviously doesn't like it there, and while our society seems to have this "force him through it b/c it's for his good & he'll eventually learn to love it" mentality, I would argue that it's unfair on a 2-yr old to assume he can deal with something that makes him that upset. In fact, I would think that if this is forced on him before he's ready, it will have the opposite effect - he will instead retreat into a corner (where he'll feel happier & more secure).

Children (and many adults) naturally are happiest when in groups of 2-3 people, so just b/c your son is "only" with the same couple of people each day doesn't mean that he's going to be a recluse.

He's happy at your parents' house - why try to fix what ain't broken?

Boom_Bap

I think that it's quite normal for a child to be upset when they start off in a creche as they dont have a familiar face around. Before my lad started, the staff in the creche advised us of this, family and friends told us it might happen. But they all said it would only last a couple of days. They were right, after 3 days I think, he wasnt even looking back to us when he was going into the creche.

slarkin123

I recently put my 2 year old into a creche for 2 mornings a week. We were lucky enough that he loved it from the start. Though if he had acted the way your child did i don't think i would send him back. Its way too upsetting on you and him.

bubbaloo

If you can bear it I would recommend you stick with it. From my experience - both as a mother of a child in a creche and previously as a creche staff member - most children react as your son did to begin with. He is used to a routine with his grandparents and his cousin and he's now being dropped to a place he doesn't know, and left with people he doesn't know. This would normally ease with time as he becomes more familiar.
However, sending him just 2 days a week could prolong the settling-in period as by the time he is used to creche on Thursday, a full week passes before he goes to creche the following Wednesday. If you have to keep it to 2 days I would suggest maybe Monday and Thursday as this leaves a maximum of 3 days between creche days.

Also, most children might cry when being left into creche or while mummy/daddy are still in the room but in most cases the crying stops 5-10 minutes later.
If it's any consolation, I knew all of this before I put my little man into creche but it didn't stop me feeling guilty and bawling my eyes out when starting him in there.
He loves it so much now and he gets so much interaction/activity that he would never get from being at home with me or a childminder.
Good luck.

Moonbeam

I think his granny probably has him spoilt and it is a familiar place, where as there creche is a big new strange place with strange new people.
Give him a few weeks and see how he goes

baddebt

wow ,
thanks a million guys for the advise much appreciated , myself and the wife are going to talk it over this evening and see whats best , me personally I'm thinking of just leaving him where he is for another year at least, but sure you never know