Why is the search for daycare so painful? When my eldest was born, I put her name on a waiting list at a few different daycare centers, my preference being that she go to the daycare attached to my church. Of course, that's not the one that called and time was running out before my husband had to go back to work. Yes I split my parental leave with him. I took the first 7 months and he was thrilled to have the next 4 months off of work.
Okay so "beggars can't be choosers" right? I also figured that once my preferred daycare called we could switch her over. In the meantime, we were covered and it was close to the train station so I could get to work. OMG!! From what I hear, our experience at this daycare was pretty typical but it drove me crazy. She came home with cold after cold. I saw other parent's dropping their kids off with bags full of medicine, it was no wonder she caught colds. And then one day, I get a call from the daycare... Your daughter has discharge coming out of her ear and you have to come pick her up. This was about 2:30 pm. Concerned of course, I agreed to come get her and told them I would be there by 4pm. The daycare lady started arguing with me. Our policy states that you have to pick up your child within an hour of us calling you. I tried to explain to her that I worked downtown and I had to wait until the next bus because there are no trains during the day. She kept arguing with me. I told her I would get there as soon as I could. 3:50 pm I walked through the doors of the daycare, having taken the next bus and drove from the train station as fast as I could. The lady then, trying to be nice, says, Oh I thought you said after 4pm. WHATEVER!!
Then I saw my poor daughter. They had quarantined her off in a corner and they were off playing with other kids. My daughter just over a year old at the time. So this experience made me very skeptical about daycares. I understand that they were trying to keep the other kids healthy but what about all those other kids coming with bags full of medicine.
Then our luck changed... My husband spotted a flyer on the mailboxes near our house. A lady with an ECE certificate was opening a daycare in her home... 10 houses away from our house. Sweet! Now I know what you're thinking!!! We don't even know this lady and now we are thinking of leaving our child with her. Well, we had those concerns too but decided to take a chance and gave her a call. She invited us over for an interview where we met her, her husband, her mother-in-law and her daughter who was less than a month older than our daughter. It was the nicest visit we ever had with anyone and she was able to answer all of our questions and concerns.
So we left that night and discussed it thoroughly with each other. We decided to take a chance. 3 years later... it was the best risk we ever took. I can only remember this lady calling us once and it was just to tell us that our daughter had a fever and she was going to give her some Tylenol. WHAT!!! You mean I don't have to rush there and pick her up!! Now their daughter and our daughter are the best of friends. The daycare lady and her husband have become very good friends of ours. In fact both her parents and his mom are our friends as well. I have also since become a reference for her.
Now daughter #2... We actually thought about getting daughter #2 into a regular daycare because we now live in a different town and our favorite daycare lady lives 15 minutes away WITH NO TRAFFIC. We were thinking about trying to find someone local. WHAT WERE WE THINKING!!
Finally, my husband and I decided that we would rather drive in traffic back to our old town and get the same quality of care. We see flyers for home daycare around our town but we are not sure that we would get that lucky twice. So this past week we confirmed both our daughters with this wonderful lady and her family.
Okay so "beggars can't be choosers" right? I also figured that once my preferred daycare called we could switch her over. In the meantime, we were covered and it was close to the train station so I could get to work. OMG!! From what I hear, our experience at this daycare was pretty typical but it drove me crazy. She came home with cold after cold. I saw other parent's dropping their kids off with bags full of medicine, it was no wonder she caught colds. And then one day, I get a call from the daycare... Your daughter has discharge coming out of her ear and you have to come pick her up. This was about 2:30 pm. Concerned of course, I agreed to come get her and told them I would be there by 4pm. The daycare lady started arguing with me. Our policy states that you have to pick up your child within an hour of us calling you. I tried to explain to her that I worked downtown and I had to wait until the next bus because there are no trains during the day. She kept arguing with me. I told her I would get there as soon as I could. 3:50 pm I walked through the doors of the daycare, having taken the next bus and drove from the train station as fast as I could. The lady then, trying to be nice, says, Oh I thought you said after 4pm. WHATEVER!!
Then I saw my poor daughter. They had quarantined her off in a corner and they were off playing with other kids. My daughter just over a year old at the time. So this experience made me very skeptical about daycares. I understand that they were trying to keep the other kids healthy but what about all those other kids coming with bags full of medicine.
Then our luck changed... My husband spotted a flyer on the mailboxes near our house. A lady with an ECE certificate was opening a daycare in her home... 10 houses away from our house. Sweet! Now I know what you're thinking!!! We don't even know this lady and now we are thinking of leaving our child with her. Well, we had those concerns too but decided to take a chance and gave her a call. She invited us over for an interview where we met her, her husband, her mother-in-law and her daughter who was less than a month older than our daughter. It was the nicest visit we ever had with anyone and she was able to answer all of our questions and concerns.
So we left that night and discussed it thoroughly with each other. We decided to take a chance. 3 years later... it was the best risk we ever took. I can only remember this lady calling us once and it was just to tell us that our daughter had a fever and she was going to give her some Tylenol. WHAT!!! You mean I don't have to rush there and pick her up!! Now their daughter and our daughter are the best of friends. The daycare lady and her husband have become very good friends of ours. In fact both her parents and his mom are our friends as well. I have also since become a reference for her.
Now daughter #2... We actually thought about getting daughter #2 into a regular daycare because we now live in a different town and our favorite daycare lady lives 15 minutes away WITH NO TRAFFIC. We were thinking about trying to find someone local. WHAT WERE WE THINKING!!
Finally, my husband and I decided that we would rather drive in traffic back to our old town and get the same quality of care. We see flyers for home daycare around our town but we are not sure that we would get that lucky twice. So this past week we confirmed both our daughters with this wonderful lady and her family.
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