Ok, so I’m over not getting a SpringBreak from being a Mom, and really enjoying my week with the Monkey and my girlfriends. Earlier in the week I had a very weird fantasy about signing the Monkey up for child care–sending her to one of the billion places around our house instead of lugging her to school every day. See, the school thing is good til Summer–then I have to make other arrangements anyway. I’m teaching through the summer, but the person watching her won’t be at the school.
So I had this fantasy of signing the Monkey up somewhere else, thinking, “Wow, maybe one or two days a week after work I could do something like grocery shop or get my hair cut or go to the bookstore by myself..” Because right now the minute I’m done with work, it’s a race home to get her down for her nap.
I called a few places, and found out that I’d have to pay for a full-time space. Ouch. But I thought I’d check them out anyway. FANTASY OVER.
The two things I wasn’t prepared for:
1) the smallness of the “young toddler” rooms (once you can crawl, pull up and eat some table food, you are a young toddler, apparently). There can only be 5-10 children in one room, and of course you want your facility to be a profitable as possible. So the young toddler rooms are really no bigger than the Monkey’s bedroom. Granted, she’s got a big bedroom, but still! And one of the facilities had no windows or natural light whatsoever.
2) the babies playing on the floor, by themselves, with two caregivers sitting the rocking chairs, the room completely silent. No adult conversation, no interaction with the children, no music in the background…
FANTASY OVER. Now I know not every place is like this, and I’ve been teaching long enough to know that you can’t judge a classroom on a two minute glance. But I’m thinking that if nothing else is going on (feeding, diapering, soothing, putting to sleep) that one of the caregivers should in, some way, be interacting with the children!
So now I’m on a mission to find Mary Poppins and keep our current routine of bringing the Monkey to school everyday and knowing that every day at 1pm I will be headed home and crossing my fingers that she doesn’t fall asleep in the car.
And on days when I’m close to the edge and whiny, I’ll just think back to where the Monkey could be instead, and realize that this moment too, shall pass.
Hi Mich:
I GOTTA remember to get over and visit you more often and post to your blog. I always leave with a smile on my face and thanks for stopping by my site and leaving comments. My counter says that people actually come and read what I have to say, but, I wouldn’t know it if you didn’t leave a comment from time to time. Argh! Frustrating.