Child Care

I simply have to go public with the following sentiment because it's something that I think about all the time: I love Charlotte's day care. I am AMAZED at how lucky we got. We were in the eleventh hour with no child care option. I was due back at work shortly, but child care was not yet set up. Charlotte had been on three waitlists since the previous Augsust, and my constant nagging ("Has a space opened up yet? How do the next couple months look?") was getting me nowhere. Oh, how I worried. Then Charlotte got into one of them. Unfortunately, this particular center was at the bottom of my list. It's probably a perfectly good day care center, but I just didn't like it. It didn't feel right. "Chris, I'll stay home before I put her there," I said. "This isn't the right place for her. Let's just wait and see, and maybe something else will work out." He didn't like this option (he worries more than I do!), but I got my way. In case day care didn't work out, I made Plan A, Plan B, Plan C, and Plan D (all of which were truly terrible plans). And then, at the very end of March, I got a phone call from one of the day cares where Charlotte was waitlisted. A mom had decided to stay home with her baby at the last minute, so a spot for our girl had unexpectedly opened up. Oh, what a blessing this was for our little family. Obviously, we ended up taking it. It's excrutiatingly expensive, but this is one big check that I do not feel guilty about writing each month. These people are worth every penny. They adore our little girl, they keep us very well-informed (I mean, I even got a call at work when Charlotte had an especially big poop), they do so many activities, and it just feels right. There are only six babies and the baby-to-caregiver ratio is three-to-one. And Charlotte is just happy as can be while she's there. I cannot adequately articulate what a relief it is to know that my baby is being well-cared for while I'm at work. It takes such a special person to happily deal with babies all day long (I'm certainly not wired for it), and they deserve our undying gratitude.