Daycare Dilemmas

Mommy venting session approaching...

I am a working mom and I REALLY wish I wasn't. Oh, to be able to stay home and do lots of fun things with my sunshine all day, every day, would be a dream. Unfortunately, I must instead leave her with someone else during the day. Since she was about six months old she has been with the same person, in a home environment, with the lady's daughter who is eight months older than Audrey. We are getting ready to move closer to my job so I don't have to deal with the stress of a 45 minute commute full of crazy drivers each way every single seemingly endless day. We are also wanting to get Audrey ready for a more structured, school like setting, with more kids to interact with. But, trying to choose a place near my work is becoming quite a panic inducing experience. Which strangers should I leave my "heart" with? A few of these places will cost almost my entire salary! Others are only a little more than half. Some have more structure and schedules than others. I know it's a bad sign when the thought of leaving my sweet girl at a specific place makes me cry!

In a little over an hour I will be taking a tour at the Daycare with the exact same name as the one that was awful to me as a child. I'm hopeful that all the good things I've heard about this chain are true. The Assistant Director's name is Sunny, and I want to believe that is a sign that this may be the place for my sunshine.

My husband and I went on a tour on Monday and, well, I'll just post what I sent out to the facebook universe:

So, i cant help but lay here thinking about the daycare we saw today compared to others in the past. This one is family owned, with woodchips on the playground, much smaller room for 2yr olds, 8 kids to a teacher, they go on walks around the neighborhood, everything looks a bit more tattered, but they are willing to give us a great rate for fulltime care, its a learning daycare and we witnessed that most of the kids in the 2 room know their letters and numbers, and how to spell their names, they have cameras everywhere so I can, theoretically, watch Audrey all day long if I wanted, and Joe pointed out that every kid we saw looked very happy there... And I did witness Audrey exploring, watching, and really enjoying herself and wanting to join in. But, my mommy mind keeps going to the negatives. Most other daycares will charge us at least $60 more per week, and there are no cameras. UGH!!! I don't want this decision!

I keep thinking about little things, like how Audrey picked up an outlet plug cover that had been in the middle of the floor, open staples hanging from the folder the Director was pulling example menus and daily sheets for me to see, some of the toys were dirty, the room is so small I am still trying to figure out how they manage to fit 16 cots in there for nap time, and minimal structure and schedule.

I have to believe I will find something. She would be at this daycare slightly longer than the time I am at my job every week, and I feel like I practically live there I'm there so much... so the same would basically go for Audrey's daycare for her. With so many things in the news about children being hurt, duct taped to chairs or walls, or even killed, I am really nervous about knowing which one is the right place. I wish I enjoyed taking care of other people's kids, then I could just stay home.

Wish me luck...

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