My husband and I recently went to look at nurseries, sadly I have to go back to work when my little one is 3 months old. It is a mixture of Statutory Maternity Pay being peanuts and I wanted to get onto the childcare voucher scheme before it was due to end in autumn this year (of course, this is now not ending until 2017 but at the time it was different). Luckily, it is only 2 afternoons a week I need to put him into nursery, but I am dreading the first day!
Anyway, when we were viewing these nurseries they were really lovely and friendly, and we have decided on one we feel is a great, nurturing environment. (I am going to post a bit more about the search for a nursery, some tips, at a later date). However, one word that the Nursery Managers kept saying during our show arounds was routine...
"We will work around your routine"... "Just let us know what routine Archie has"... "We will write down his routine for his Key Worker"... Routine, routine, routine...
I had a slight oh my goodness moment! What routine? My baby is only 9 weeks old surely this is a bit early for a routine?!
Ensue parenting panic! Am I being a bad Mum by not imposing a routine for him? I don't even keep a strict night time routine. He is slowly getting one but I am loathed to be too inflexible with him at this stage. Although he sleeps well through the night now, usually going from 9.30pm to 3.30am then waking at 6.30am, I am not strict about bedtime.
Also, and please don't judge me... I sometimes bath him in the morning instead of at night. This feels like a dirty little secret of mine because I hear so many other Mums talking about a bath, feed then bed routine.
I now have about 6 weeks before he is off to nursery and I really don't know if I should be setting down a routine or should I go with the flow still. I could argue it either way really: a routine could mean he will be really unsettled if that routine is ever interrupted but does a lack of routine mean your baby doesn't feel secure in his daily happenings?!
Due to this I think I am going to have to invest in some parenting books and get an idea of what parenting techniques I am really going to stand by and use. I was a bit unsure, again, about using parenting books. I kind of feel that they lead you down one technique and I feel this could be too restrictive, as all babies are different.
Either way I think that the time has come to decide what kind of parent I am going to be, which I am sure to blog about. So watch this space.
Anyway, when we were viewing these nurseries they were really lovely and friendly, and we have decided on one we feel is a great, nurturing environment. (I am going to post a bit more about the search for a nursery, some tips, at a later date). However, one word that the Nursery Managers kept saying during our show arounds was routine...
"We will work around your routine"... "Just let us know what routine Archie has"... "We will write down his routine for his Key Worker"... Routine, routine, routine...
 |
| Link: http://knowyourmeme.com/memes |
Ensue parenting panic! Am I being a bad Mum by not imposing a routine for him? I don't even keep a strict night time routine. He is slowly getting one but I am loathed to be too inflexible with him at this stage. Although he sleeps well through the night now, usually going from 9.30pm to 3.30am then waking at 6.30am, I am not strict about bedtime.
Also, and please don't judge me... I sometimes bath him in the morning instead of at night. This feels like a dirty little secret of mine because I hear so many other Mums talking about a bath, feed then bed routine.
I now have about 6 weeks before he is off to nursery and I really don't know if I should be setting down a routine or should I go with the flow still. I could argue it either way really: a routine could mean he will be really unsettled if that routine is ever interrupted but does a lack of routine mean your baby doesn't feel secure in his daily happenings?!
Due to this I think I am going to have to invest in some parenting books and get an idea of what parenting techniques I am really going to stand by and use. I was a bit unsure, again, about using parenting books. I kind of feel that they lead you down one technique and I feel this could be too restrictive, as all babies are different.
Either way I think that the time has come to decide what kind of parent I am going to be, which I am sure to blog about. So watch this space.
No comments:
Post a Comment