I am over halfway through my maternity leave. Some days, I can't think of anything more amazing than staying home with Jackson and some days the idea of getting ready and going into an office sounds like a day at the spa.
But either way, the plan is to head back to work the first week of April. I'm sure I'll be a blubbering mess, but what's really got me stressed at the moment is not knowing where, exactly, we're going to take Jackson while we go to work. It is entirely too difficult to find a place to take your child around here. All the "good" places have huge waiting lists, and many of the best in-home daycares also have no openings. They basically make you pay a registration fee (typically in the hundreds of dollars) and then a "renewal" fee every year while you sit on the lists. I am in the wrong line of work, I tell you. I should open up a daycare enterprise.
We've been on two lists pretty much since we found out I was pregnant. There's a good daycare at the Senate - which, last I checked, we were #104 - and another in Old Town that gets rave reviews from some of my mom friends. That one looks more promising but when you've got 10 infant spots and over a hundred people on a waiting list, nothing is ever a done deal.
There is a good chance that neither of those will work out by April 4, so I'm currently stressing out about Option C: an as-yet-undetermined location for our not-very-old little boy. I refuse to take him just anywhere after hearing horror stories of babies left all day crying in their car seats. (I want to cry just thinking about it.) We've got lists of questions we're supposed to ask potential child care providers - everything from what's their emergency safety plan to is everyone a legal citizen and who is their back-up - and are trying to find someone who will love our child that has an opening for an infant the first week of April or before. I asked fewer questions when I was trying to decide which college to attend. And this all seems like an incredibly overwhelming and frustrating task.
This is another one of those moments when I wish Jackson's grandmas lived closer!
3 comments:
Move to KC and Brian can take care of Jackson during the day
Sounds like what we are going through for Catholic school. I have been watching for the mail every day waiting to see which kindergarten Brendan got into. Definitely more stressed than I was for MY college acceptance! Good luck, and hope you find a wonderful place for Jackson. You guys can always move to the Midwest - we have tons of good places with openings out here! :)
Sure wish you were back here and I could take him into my "daycare". Would there be a Grandma willing to do it like I did for McClures or a stay at home Mom? They would be more apt to love them as their own and not be big groups of kids. Keeping 3 kids or less don't have to have a license. Not as costly either to do. Doesn't hurt to ask around and convince someone like I was convinced to do it.
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