Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Questions like..

Do you bake chocolate chip cookies and lace them with anthrax? Or arsenic if we want to get all Flowers in the Attic referency. (Seriously, y'all. How crazy was VC Andrews and my moms ability to let me read MULTIPLE of her books... that came in series. Yet, I wasn't allowed to leave 6 Flags to eat. I mean, we did, but we weren't allowed to. And people are worried about Harry Potter?)

This week we are visiting TWO care options for Black Baby (whose name is Griffin--that when shortened for a while was Grif, but we've decided we like Fin better.)

Tomorrow we visit this AMAZINGly expensive school that teaches sign language, spanish and has baby yoga and a dedicated sleep area for infants. I mean, it isn't shut off from everything else, but it's separated and has different lighting that can be adjusted and and and. The ASSISTANT in the room has a masters in social work. The owner has called me back every time I've called. I'm kind of crazy impressed with them. The downfall of this is the price, the fact that they don't have PT options for infants and the cost. Though, he did say that they would work with me on him being PT for a few months. We'll see what this looks like. I also like that if the teacher is sick they still have school. Their teachers get paid vacation. I know the schedule. There's reliability. He can be there for many years because it's a school.

Thursday we are visiting with a lady in our 'hood who keeps kids and has for 15 years. She has 6 kids at a time. She teaches SOME sign language. She is much cheaper, very close, seems like a great person. Downside--she doesn't have an assistant. What happens if there is an emergency and she has to take all 6 kids somewhere? What if she's sick? She follows the school calendar (she has a lot of teachers kids) which means that I have to find something for him at Christmas time, spring break, etc. (though she is now keeping kids through the summer, and wasn't previously.) If she's sick--we're out. Things to ask--what if our child is sick or we are on vacation for a week--do we pay for that week (I'm guessing yes?)

AH so much to think about.

Should I have already made my millions I wouldn't be so worried. I would find a mothers day out at a church a few times a week and I'd carry him around to my philanthropic activities and buy him a custom swimsuit. I'd also probably not be worried about the gang fight that apparently erupted in a close by apartment complex this weekend that involved 5 cop cars on our street and a neighbor 2 doors down who found bloody shorts and a beeper in her back yard. Um... who has a beeper? You need to up your drug deals and get an iphone, dude. Or, that should be on your list of "things to do" to be initiated into the gang. Just sayin'. And shorts... I believe that "gang shorts" are really capri's.

So questions to ask these baby care options?

5 comments:

Chasity said...

That is one of the hardest decisions to make. I was so blessed when I had my little one (13 years ago) and found the sweetest lady in our 'hood that kept her and treated her like her own grandchild. And then following her - I just kept being blessed with great people and great facilities that all proved to be so beneficial to my sweet girl. I am sure that the right decision will become very clear to you soon.

Side Note: I had not thought about the VC Andrews books in forever. Ditto here. I read them all too ... and so creepy.

SpeasHill said...

Parent references! Talk to parents of the kids currently in each program. They know best!

Courtneytcu98 said...

The.most.difficult.decision. I feel ya' on your angst. I think you need to go with your gut instinct--you'll know when you visit. As for paying if YOU are on vacation, I think that's fairly standard, from what I saw. I know you'll pick the right thing for the Griff-meister. (Ha.) Fin.

Deana said...

OK. So here's THE PLAN. THE PLAN is in all caps which = TOTAL SERIOUSNESS.

Step 1: I win the lottery and become mad wealthy.
Step 2: I skip all gangst initiations and throw out my beeper. I'm over that plan.
Step 3: I board my private plane every morning, with your nephew, Elliott, fly to Austin and keep Fin (love it, btw)and his 'cuz in your very own home.
Step 4: Sometimes you just send Fin to Fort Worth because, for real, I got other bidness to take care of sometimes.
Step 5: I will not teach baby yoga. Mainly, because regular yoga frightens me. But they will understand the importance of freethrows by age 4.
Step 6: Everyone is happy.

Feel free to send me $1 bills at random. I can't accomplish THE PLAN all by myself, you know.

As you can plainly see, I have no real advice. But when has that ever stopped me?

Carol said...

Ok, so on the fancy daycare, very cool long term but the first year? Eh?

My daycare has a webcam and I would check in on my LO during his first year of life, and guess what? They sleep like HALF the work day. The other half, alot of it is spent sucking down bottles in their oh-so-slow way and getting their diapers changed every two hours (or less). So, the 10 minutes here or 10 minutes there of flash cards, sign language, bubbles, "excercise", etc. is nice but....yeah, they sleep...ALOT and eat ALOT and SLOWLY the first year or so. Just something to remember.