This past week has been a whirlwind of looking for a new daycare. My niece has been taking care of Little Miss CGR since she was 2 months old. They have been having lots of fun and my niece has been there for the last 6 months Mon-Fri other than a trip she took to Italy back in March. She of course sees her on weekends too so you can imagine they have seen a lot of each other. I have a feeling they will both miss each other a lot. My niece posted a picture of CGR the first day she started and then this week.
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| 2/1/11 to 8/1/11 |
So, knowing the my niece was going off to Grad school this fall, I should have started looking for daycare a while ago but every time I did no one knew if they would have an opening in Aug and said to call back. I decided just to wait then.
Well, August was fast approaching and I decided to make an apt with a lady that was close by and see if she would work. It took us a week to finally meet her as our schedule didn't work out. At first I thought she would be fine, but then right before we were leaving she felt the need to impart her "wisdom" on how I should be raising my child. I didn't sit well with me as I am not ok with the whole cry it out method of sleep training and I feel if my daughter wakes up at night and wants to nurse that I will nurse her. Nursing isn't all about food but I won't get started on that. After meeting her, I decided to check her up on the licensing board and I was further disappointed in her when I found a complaint. I won't say what the complaint was but It wasn't one that I was willing to over look. Armed with the knowledge that this lady wouldn't work, I had to figure something out and soon!
I put a call out to my mommy and me group on facebook and a mommy mentioned that her daycare had an opening. I quickly called her. The lady was very sweet, however, she lived too far away. Graciously, she said that she can post on her daycare board for people to email me if they had openings. She forwarded me the email she posted and within several hours I already had 5 options to meet.
Since SK had gone to the last one and I knew he really wouldn't want to meet all these ladies, I asked my sister Fleas to come with CGR and me. Looking back, thank God I did! That night we met two ladies, and they could not have been more polar opposites! The first lady was such a sweet woman. She brought us into her home and we talked and did a tour and then about 30 mins after being in the house, she asked me if she could hold CGR and of course I said yes. CGR cuddled her and seemed to feel very comfortable with her. I left with a good feeling after being there for a little over an hour. From there, we trekked up to the 2nd lady. I should have just called and cancelled when I was driving up there but I insisted that I needed to meet all my options. When we got to the home, I already knew I didn't want to be there. We walked in and as soon as the woman opened the door we were bombarded with a very strong perfume smell. She had not even closed the door when she snatched little miss CGR out of my hands. I felt a wave of panic and the intense need to get my daughter back as soon as I could! We were polite but asked very few questions and I could not get CGR back and us out of there fast enough. We drove home and all I could think was absolutely NOT!
The next day, we met with another woman during lunch and she was another very nice woman. I enjoyed her and I think she would have been a great choice. She had a comfortable home, however, she has 3 boys of her own on top of the potentially 6 daycare kids and I just felt that CGR wasn't ready for that. After driving far for the one woman's house, I decided it was better to find someone closer and cancelled the last two options. Since we had all loved the first woman I met, I decided to have SK meet her and if he liked her then that's who we would go with. We met her on Friday and I think SK felt as I did that she would be perfect to take care of our little girl. We signed papers and put a deposit down on Saturday and worked out the details of the switch.
We are not going to switch her over to the new daycare for another two weeks so everyone has some time to transition over. It's going to be a bit tough as I have to change my hours at work and SK will need to be doing the drop off in the morning. And the hardest of all will be losing our nanny. At this new daycare, CGR will be one of 2 girls around the same age and then there is another boy who is 10 months old who comes twice a week. She has openings for 2 over 18 months but she has not filled them yet. I'm feeling good that most the week at least in the beginning, she will be with only one other girl around her age.
It is so hard to pick someone you can trust to take care of your child that is not your family. Family is always best but when you have to choose I feel it all goes with your gut...and as the daycare lady we chose said to us, we really have to feel we trust her in order for it to work. She's been doing daycare for 26 years and she is a grandma to several grandchildren. As she also said, no one is perfect but you have to find the best pick. We've had to make some changes, such as we introduced a sippy cup finally even though I still just give her water in a glass most the time. We've also introduced cereal which to be honest, she really doesn't like. She will take about 2 bites and then wants whatever else we have to offer her.
In the long run, I didn't feel these were things I couldn't compromise on. I had wanted to ask her to do cloth but at the time I just really wanted to find someone great after the bad experiences we had. I am sure the first day we drop off I might cry...but I thought that about the first day coming back to work and I didn't. Only time will tell if we made the right choice but I feel we did.
Thanks for reading my story and I hope that you enjoyed it. If you have any daycare stories good or bad, please feel free to share them.
Happy Mothering!
oh I have been there, girlie. we had one bad experience with daycare, and we've been super happy with our current situation (which is a daycare center). We're actually interviewing a new place right now, which is a woman who runs a daycare out of her home, much like the place you've found. It's so hard to find the right place, but you do have to go with your gut, and it sounds like you're doing just that. I'm with ya on the no-cry-it-out and nursing when they need it ... C is almost 18 months and he still nurses at night. As long as we're all getting sleep, I'm happy with the way things are :) you're an awesome mama!
ReplyDeleteI hope everything works out. It sounds like you've really done your research and I'm sure you've made a good choice and C will be happy. She's looking like such a big girl!
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