3 into 2 wont go

Three (full time jobs; looking after boy and work-work) into two (parents) wont go.

"Get some child care!" I hear you say.

Sure. If only it were that easy.

First theres the decisions - do you go child care centre, family day care, council supplied, private, food provided, nappies included, no nuts, no dairy, ratio of carers... decisions decisions.

Which are all academic anyway cos when you do decide (walking distance council run childcare recommended by neighbours and given the big mum tick) you get put on a waiting list.

Council care booking lady: "Excellent - thanks for choosing us. You're now 231st in the queue."

Mum: "Errr... he'll be five by then and off to school!"

Booking lady: {smile}

In the lead up to this somewhat disappointing moment Mum had done the groundwork checking out all the places. And was somewhat shocked. ABC childcare equated to "A Bit Crappy", as did most of the other private places that ticked the boxes "within cooee" and "financially non-crippling".

In at least one she arrived at sleepy time to find cocoons with babbling and staring caterpillar-like bubs strung around in some form of stasis - was like the starting scene from Alien. She tip toed out in fright.

Then theres the afore-hinted cost.

When we told Mike's Nana the going rate she was so gobsmacked she dropped her binoculars. (Thats the birdwatching-type equivalent of total bowel control loss.)

And then we pointed out that that was a cheap place.

For the one centre that was within a greenhouse emissions acceptable distance with some play area and a policy of treating the kiddies as people and not "units", it was waaaay over $90 a day.

Which if you think about it, means that even for the slightly above-average-pay wage slave working 4 or 5-days a week you're pretty much in the coal mine a full extra day just to cover the care so you can go to work. It'd do your head in.

In the end it was decided we'd go with family day care - where the boy stays with a family rather than in a stalag, the cost is in the $60 a day range (excludes nappies and food), and waiting lists were far shorter. Luckily we'd decided to look at the right time - when kiddies were about to start school and hence some new places were trickling in. But which one?

The first place Mistress P inspected had lots of toys and a nice big yard.

"Oh, he'll love getting outside and playing out there, he just loves being ou..." she said.

"HE'S TOO SMALL - NO OUTSIDE FOR HIM!" said the lady in a Seinfeld soup-nazi-like voice.

Mmmm... ok...

The next lady was very nice and would have allowed him glimpses of the sun, but... no yard at all, and a somewhat Spartan interior and toy count. Much as we'd like to breed a future warrior (preferably of the "eco" type) this really didn't seem good enough.

We wondered what to do. Seemed the options were ultimate bankruptcy, stalag 13, Cell block H or Kapooka.

Then a last call from the council.

"Theres one last place - and its just around the corner from you..."

And indeed it was.

With a great big play room with interactive toys galore, a large backyard, a lady who loved walks to the nearby park and getting outside, 3 young daughters who ravished Master M the moment they laid eyes on him (as do all the laydees of course), a little dog kept outside (both a positive and a negative; Mike loves dogs, but dogs can be unpredictable if they get beaten up by little boys), and lots of older kiddies on her books who get dropped off at kindy in the middle of the day hence leaving M with one-on-one care.

Looked great.

"We'll take it."

And indeed thats now been the case since the start of the year, and will soon be upped from two days a week to three.

A winner all round - to the point that, unlike friends who have to tear themselves away from a bawling kiddie every child-care morning, our lad's face lights up like a Victorian national park in summer when he sees Jackie (his carer) or her girls.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Mistress P
Date: 20 Mar 2008 09:56
Subject: Re: Mmm... its so true...

Hey - I think I had a moment like you had when you picked up Mike that time and he had learnt new dance moves... As we rolled up to the door this morn he started giggling with delight. Then the eldest girl Bridget was holding him, and he was giving her lovely tight hugs, then looking around and grinning at all the goings on. What a fun place they have there. I am so glad he is going there rather than the other 2 families I went and checked out...

love you,
P.

Its enough to make you wonder what we're doing wrong at home.

On the boy front... lots of standing up (including being able to empty the dishwasher without hanging on), a fascination with whats in the toilet (¡Ay, caramba - we have to block access with the change table), some excellent sleeping right through the night, more skinny dipping during the heat, and (it troubles us to write this...) his first baby-cino at a cafe.

3 into 3 for 3

= 3 (happy campers).

Print this post