The Nursery Question

Thank you Lyle's Golden Syrup & Fleishman-Hillard

I have been struggling with the thought of Nursery lately and would love to know what you do.  Little Miss is 20 months old and does not go to nursery.  In fact, she’s barely out of my presence throughout the week.  The idea of sending her to nursery a few months ago gave me the chills.  I don’t like the idea of her being in nursery for some reason.  It’s probably my controlling nature and psychosis wonderful mothering.  However, I’ve been wondering if I’m doing the right thing for her lately.  Due to circumstances beyond our control and the cycle of friendship, we don’t have a great deal of social opportunities with other children any longer.  We used to attend classes at our local Sure Start Children’s Centre and had a small group of Mummies and Babies who would get together at least once a week.  That’s dwindled off now and Little Miss and I are left with each other.  We still have our best mates to see every so often and we go swimming once a week now but I worry that Little Miss isn’t getting enough interaction with children her age and enough time away from her Mummy.  She’s a very independent young lady who most certainly is not tied to my apron strings (if I wore an apron).  On the rare occasions when I do leave her with family, she had no separation anxiety of any sort however, I have yet to leave her with someone she doesn’t know well or isn’t family.

Little Miss’ best mate is now attending one of our local nurseries 2 mornings a week while her mummy is in some workshops that are put on by the Children’s Centre.  They pay for her to put her daughter in nursery (creche) while she’s in the workshops which is brilliant.  The only way I could take advantage of this is if I attended the workshops and I don’t know that I want/need the workshops.  What I do need is a few hours to myself.  But I come back to the real question here…Does Little Miss need more?  Am I giving her enough?  Is she missing out on social opportunities because of my issues?  What do you do?  We really can’t afford to have her attend nursery even one morning a week as it would cost us between £20-30 for the morning.  There’s a vague possibility of some PAID work for me in the near future and if that happens, I may seriously consider having her attend once a week to start.  I’d love to know what other stay-at-home-mum’s do?  How do you afford it?  Have you seen benefits from your child attending nursery?  Do you regret sending your child to nursery and why?  I am eager to see the response and advice here.  Cafe Bebe is open for suggestion!