I think I've mentioned on here before, but I am very fortunate in that I will get six months maternity leave when this little baby arrives. It's no where near all paid, but we've been saving for quite a while in anticipation for this pregnancy. I feel very fortunate to have this opportunity to spend so much time at home with our new little one.
With that said, having that much time off opens a whole new can of worms with daycare. Most places have a waiting list, but they can't tell you what that list will look like in May 2013. Some places don't even have openings until next August, one year from now. We have a very small radius where we are looking. My husband works south of where we live and I work north. He'll do the drop off and I'll do the pickup so we need a central location. I had a good list of 4-5 places. Two were immediately knocked off because of their August 2013 timing.
We visited a center last week. The director was very nice and very friendly. She took a huge chunk of her morning showing us around and answering all of our questions. We got to meet and talk with some of the caregivers in the infant room. We left feeling great. Right now they have two openings for the fall, but she obviously doesn't know what it will look like come May.
Today we were supposed to visit the place I used to go to pick up a little girl I babysat for. Both times I've talked to the director on the phone, I was not impressed. She was rude and very short with me. I called last week to schedule a visit and was told to just stop in whenever and someone could answer my questions. So we came in today at the time that was suggested. The director couldn't meet with us because a caregiver had called in sick and she had to help in the infant room. And wow was she not happy. I got the impression that she hated her job and was bothered by having to take care of the kids. I understand it's not her everyday job, but I would think that you should like kids even if you are just the director. We poked our heads into the baby room just to see the setup while we were there, and she didn't say one word to us. Not even hi. I explained we were just popping in and we'd leave shortly. She still didn't say anything. I can appreciate being frazzled. But I would never treat clients like that. I just left with a really bad impression. Aaron suggested I call tomorrow to talk with her and see how she is before completely writing them off.
We have one more visit tomorrow morning. Our neighbor takes their child to preschool there and the lady (his teacher) is also the director. She has been so nice every time I've talked with her. They have no waiting list whatsoever. Right now, they don't have any infants, but will have two in the fall. This also makes me a little leery having our child be one of so few. We'll see what our visit tomorrow brings.
I know it will all get figured out. I just don't like leaving something so important left open ended at the moment.
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