A View from the Playground

Put Your Name Down Now!

The realisation that I will have to return to work soon, hit me with a hard blow this week. As I need to do something about childcare, I took it upon myself to weed out the finest nursery's St Albans has to offer, phone them and make appointment to visit them, should they have places. Life can deal you some hard knocks;  one by one, I was told that they were full with very long waiting lists. 'Fine', I said. 'Send me your application pack and I'll fill it in anyhow'. On receiving the application packs its appears that most nursery's charge just for putting your name down, prices seem to vary from £35 to £75, this is not refundable. So thats more money down the drain then. There were two nursery's with spaces, one has the worst Ofsted report in St Albans, the other has a good one. Childminders are another option, you are a better peson than me if you can find one with appropriate spaces to keep the pair of them together. Ofsted will only allow a childminder to look after 3 under 5 year olds, most have their own little kids, or are full. So much for choice, looks like I dont have any. The moral of this tale is, if you are pregnant, and considering going back to work look at your childcare options and put your name down, now!