My DD is seven months old and I intend to go back to work part-time in July/August for five days per fortnight. We are lucky that a) my partner is a shift worker and b) that means we qualify for in-home care and c) that we will only need that care for two short days one week and three x three hours the next weeks so around 20-25 hours in total for the fortnight.

I feel very good about this because I need to go back to work for my own wellbeing. I have loved being at home with my DD full-time but I think I would appreciate and treasure that time even more if I was working part-time. As I've said in other posts, I do get a little frustrated that at home it's the same To Do list every day and it's hard to stay motivated whereas at work you can tick things off the To Do list and those 'wins' keep you motivated. I think the balance will be better for me, better for DD and better for my relationship with DP.

I am also much more comfortable that she will have one-on-one care in our own home as I don't think that she needs to be around other babies/children right now. I've seen her at Mothers Group and none of them are really interested in interacting with the other children, they're just interested in a) their mummy and b) stealing other children's toys.

However, I do think there comes an age when interacting with other children will be VERY good for her - just not yet.

So although we will be paying an arm and a leg to have one-on-one care for her in the short term, my longer term plan is to use family daycare or if I can't find one I'm comfortable with, then a childcare centre.

In other people's opinions, at what age do you think your child benefited from being around other children and in an ideal world, at what age would you choose to use daycare?

PS - this is in no way meant to be a criticism of parents who use daycare - either because they choose to or because they feel forced to because of their economic circumstances. We don't live in an ideal world, we live in the real world and we all have to make the best decision we can based on different circumstances. If it turns into a slanging match, I'll ask the mods to remove. I expect us to have differing opinions on what is the 'right' age but hope we can express those views without being critical of others'.