Austin360 blogs > Bottlecaps & Wingnuts > Archives > 2008 > May > 21 > Entry
Babysitting blues
As a semi-stay-at-home dad, I’ve had a fondness for our daycare. The half-day option is a bit pricey, but I have the option of dropping the boy off as early as 1 p.m.
Typically, though, I’ve dropped him off about 3:30 p.m. and Shannon has picked him up about 5:30 p.m., leading us to refer to it as “baby happy hour.”
The boy comes in, has a few shots of milk, flirts with the ladies, and he’s out of there. Must be a good life.
I’ve liked the daycare because it offers socialization, helps build his immunity and offers an early education in diversity.
Shannon, who foots the bill for the daycare, hasn’t been quite as enamored with the place. And it does seem kind of wrong to pay for a half-day of daycare when often we only need 2-3 hours.
The place’s most recent price hike (let’s just the cost of part-time care jumped by the price of a decent night on the town with about half a week’s warning) forced us to realize that there was no way we could pay for two kids in daycare — and we weren’t going to let our daycare determine the size of our family.
So we started looking into in-home care. Not our home, but a stay-at-home mom looking to host a baby happy hour for a few extra bucks a day.
This is scary. We met with a few nice people, but all I could think about was all the horrible stories I’ve read during a 16-year career in the newspaper business. And I’ve read some pretty awful things.
The idea of entrusting your child to a person you just met for 30 minutes last week doesn’t come easy to someone like me.
But we’ve settled on a nice family in the next neighborhood to the east of us — they’re practically neighbors. They live in a nice house, have two well-behaved boys and volunteer at their church.
(She watches kids at the church. And she passed their background check. We talked with the church. I’m pretty paranoid.)
Basically, they’re more upstanding citizens than we are. And she’s reassured us over and over that she’s sure she wants to do this and won’t bail out two months in.
So why am I still nervous about this?
Permalink | Comments (2) | Post your comment Categories: By Dave Thomas
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By beth
May 22, 2008 10:07 AM | Link to this
Because you will forever be nervous about everything, dude. Why do you think we stayed in Southeast Texas in the town where both sets of our parents lived? Until the Ks could talk, I was NOT comfortable with leaving them with strangers, pure and simple. And when I worked evenings, they spent two hours with grandparents intent on spoiling them ROTTEN, and then the rest of the evening with Daddy. Now, they're 8.5 and 6, and Nana picks them up after school. When she can't do it, Paw-Paw does.
Everybody makes sacrifices. Ours is staying in the same small town where we grew up. But it's the best thing ever for the kids.
By stevear
May 21, 2008 2:18 PM | Link to this
You should remain keenly aware of your duty as protector at all times. Before i had two kids, i had no gun in the house; now, i've realized the wisdom in my southern-rural Texas upbringing; my 'perty .22 and bullet clip are readily available.
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Dave says: Steve, I have no idea whether you're a) serious, b) making fun of me or c) just typing at random.
When my blog moves on, I may actually miss these pronouncements