Friday, August 13, 2010

Jack's first day of real daycare

Jack had his first day of real daycare this week. A woman previously kept him with her 12 month old daughter in her home. We loved the arrangement because Jack got one-on-one care, plus it was budget-friendly.

How ironic that the same week a study comes out saying infant childcare has exceeded the cost of college tuition? And Minnesota is ranked #3 as the least-affordable childcare state? Great. The news is truly no surprise to us because daycare for a month costs nearly as much as our mortgage. We consider ourselves educated people who lead a very modest middle class lifestyle. How do other people with lesser means do this?!

We exhausted all our avenues to find local in-home daycare, and we felt better going with a childcare center for daycare anyway. There's extra security, lots of regulations, and lots of protocol. They do activities and lessons with him. Everyday I get a detailed sheet of what Jack did and when he did it. So, I guess even if it is more money, he might get more out of it... we shall see.

Of course, Jack seemed more than fine with the entire arrangement. He doesn't meet a stranger, but didn't seem upset by the transition to a new provider. Dave didn't do the drop-n-dash, but stayed with him for awhile at first... then checked back in with him before he left town for work. Jack kicked, squirmed, and squealed when I picked him up and that was a very nice thing for me to see.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

I don't know how we would do it and we both have "Nice" , OK jobs for 30 year olds in NYC. There is a private school steps from our apartment that is $40k per year for pre-k and the french school that Angelina & Brad took their kids for a minute is also nearby. Ugh.

OK- My salary isn't much more than that. I'd be staying home... staring at my baby... being broke!

I have no idea how people do it.