Daycare

Originally, I intended to write a witty and insightful essay on my views and experiences on daycare.  However, I have neither the time nor the talent to do so.  Instead, I’m hoping to write semi-witty and insightful thoughts and observations as they occur.  I may even start a new daycare category because I have a feeling “issues” are going to arise continuously until the little monkey and whatever sibling(s) he might have go to elementary school.

My first stewing thoughts have to do with daycare versus stay at home moms (SAHMs).  I feel like there’s a persistent belief that SAHMs are automatically better.  I don’t buy that.  I think some SAHMs are probably quite talented in childcare with loads of patience and tons of ideas for entertaining and enriching their children’s lives.  I’m not one of those chicks. 

It’s easy for me to think of examples in which SAHMs may not provide as many benefits as childcare:  watching a lot of TV either with or without the child, exponentially increasing frustration and decreasing patience at being the sole childcare provider with no adult conversation and no time to even bathe, playing games which are not as exciting to children such as “Let’s Check Mommy’s email” and later “The Quiet Game.”  Guess which type best describes me????

When I think about what may be happening at daycare, clearly, the negatives spring to mind quickly:  my son crying and no one attending to him, not eating enough because he doesn’t like the bottle (a recurring issue right now which may explain why we’re no longer sleeping through the night), illnesses, slices of American cheese on white bread, and more vaguely, not enough smoochie time. 

But then, daycare has many advantages:  no to TVs, yes to organized music and art play, story telling, outdoor play every single day, a diversity of faces and children with which he interacts, and multiple care providers who can tag team when it’s time to break and regain their patience without neglecting the child.  Of course, none of them love Conor like I do.  But really, it’s not always worse to have the baby in daycare.

So, welcome to my repetitive list of rationalizations I go through nearly every day I drop him off at daycare or figure out what we’re going to do on the days I’m off.  Unfortunately, this whole thought process has been triggered because the main teacher whom we love in his room is taking another job in the organization;  she’s leaving next week. 

Bleah.  We’ve got to make a few calls today and figure out what our next steps are. 

Cute Observation of the night:  Dave woke up about 2:00 am and saw Conor stretched between us with one hand on my boob and one hand on Duncan, who had snuck up to snuggle with Dave.  Cute, but still sleep deprived.

9:15:22 AM