As you all know, my wife and I purchased an unfinished cabin last week. As part of that purchase, we knew that my wife would have to go back to work for awhile. We are able to cover the purchase cost and monthly costs of having it on my salary alone, but that wouldn’t leave much for the rest of the construction costs. (We want to pay cash for the rest)
Well, I don’t mind telling you that I’m finding the thought of daycare to be a heart wrenching ordeal. (and so is my wife but we are both coping). We went and toured the daycare yesterday with our daughter. I was pleased to see how secure the facility is and how many adults there are there. (all of them certified). We pretty much chose the “Mercedes” of daycares because we want to feel as confident as we can that our daughter is in a safe, positive environment where she’ll thrive. I have to admit, I found myself feeling a little scared for my 3 year old daughter. She’s going to learn a lot more independence than she has at home. We’ve been good about making her do things at home, but she’ll be one of 7 other children that one adult is watching. The expectations of her will be high. I think that’s going to be positive in the long run but it will be a little stressful at first. Since we are most likely only having one child, we want to be sure she doesn’t feel like she’s the center of the universe. We smother her with love at home, but we also try not to make her the center of the family. I’d say we are only marginally successful at that. We think that being in the daycare with the other children will help her recognize that she is only one of many people.
So, as we toured the daycare I kept a close eye on how the other children watched the teacher. They seemed to be comfortable with her and definitely didn’t feel afraid of her. There are actually 4 teachers in the same area with the kids (there are 4 groups of kids, 7 in each group), so I think they probably keep an eye on each other as well.
While my wife and I have definitely talked about our nervousness, I think that we also feel like we made a good decision. Our daughter is going to get lots more exposure to structured learning that we hope will help her thrive once she goes to school. I’m sure she’ll also get lots more exposure to childhood illnesses, but I guess that’s good too, since it will build her immune system. (Wow. Talk about rationalizing…….)
Oh, and here’s a picture of what we have to complete (The cabin in the background is our family cabin):
