Too Fresh for Créche: How to deal with your child starting baby-school [VIDEO]

Me: Alice, baby, how was school?

Alice: Okay.

Me: Only okay? Didn't you learn anything?

Alice: Not enough, apparently. I have to go back tomorrow.

How's that for a dad joke to start a blog post!

Alice started school [or créche, or daycare, or whatever you want to call it] this week. And it went really well. I know there can often be stress and separation anxiety linked to this, but it seemed not to be the case. It does help that Megan's sister, Kirsty [Alice's aunt] is a teacher at the school, and every little bit of comfort helps to ease what is a pretty tricky day.

It also helps that the school itself, Candies Cribs, felt right from even before we enrolled Alice there -- and this is vital, since she'll be there for about 7 hours a day.

Is school worth it? Well...apparently Alice can read already.

I asked Megan to give some tips on coping [I had to pay her with a Magnum ice cream]. This is what she said:

• Make sure you are comfortable with the child care provider
• Have a set of instructions written down so you don't forget them (feeding, changing sleeping routines, etc.)
• Trust yourself and your decision enough to leave and know that your baba will be in a safe environment
• Keep your phone on and not on silent - if there is any problem, big or small, they will contact you
• If you can try and take them a bit later and fetch them a bit earlier to ease them into the new routine
• If you have any other tips, let me know in the comments below, or email goodbaddaddy@gmail.com

Sleepy angel in her big-girl bed at school.

Ps. I now have a vlog. Kind of. It's still a work in progress. But you can subscribe here and when it's up and running you'll be the first to know. In the meantime, here's a video of how it went down on Tuesday: