Knocked Up

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• Ohmygod ohmygod ohmygod CHILDCARE!

  Full on panic mode here.  You can probably feel the hyperventilation through the computer.  Anxiety level is a 9.2 on a 10 point scale.  I'm grinding my teeth.   I can't stop eating salads with jalapenos.  OK, that has nothing to do with stress, but it is related to pregnancy and, as cravings go, it's one I'll take over a desperate need for brownies.  I wouldn't turn down a brownie, mind you, I just don't have to go to the same place every day and buy one, as I have to with salads.  The poor salad maker guy thinks I'm nuts, hovering over him, demanding he add even more jalapenos, despite the fact that all reasonable tastebuds would refuse to consume apples + pears + spinach + extra extra jalapenos +salmon.    When I'm not obsessing over the salad I just ate or the salad I really want to have beamed in front of me but can't go get because my husband's at work and Axel is asleep and somebody must stay home with the wee child, I am obsessing over childcare.  This is what it means to be a working mother - a quarter of your time is spent worrying about childcare.  (This may be true for many fathers out there, too, just not in my house.  Childcare anxiety falls on my to-do list, along with nursing and making risotto.  My husband gets to take the pets to the vet and take out the trash, and shows up when I schedule even more childcare center tours.) Read More... Posted Jan 07 2009, 07:41 PM by knockedup with | with 28 comment(s) Filed under: daycare, childcare, nannies

• Mean Teachers and Wait Lists

  Here's what I heard yesterday when I picked up Axel from his child care center: "He wants to be picked up again.  You know what?  Your parents don't pay enough for us to pick you up all the time.  Get up."  This was said to a 20-month-old who'd plopped down on the floor in front of the door to the hallway that leads to the classrooms.  It was not a joke.  His toddler class had been playing in the gym, and two teachers were herding the group through the lobby and back to their classroom.    I'd just walked into the lobby after making faces at two of the toddlers, who's paused to make blowfish on the glass doors.  I don't know if the teacher who made the comment noticed me waiting for the group to cluster and weave down the hallway.   Maybe he was having a bad day, maybe he did want to be carried all the time, maybe he was just being a not-quite-two-year-old and being difficult.  Maybe she was having a bad day and just wanted to be carried herself.   The teacher was right - we don't pay enough for each of our children to be held constantly.  That would mean all the parents would have nannies and one-on-one care for each child, and, umm, they wouldn't be in group care.   Rarely are early childhood teachers aren't paid what they're worth.   Read More... Posted Sep 10 2008, 07:42 PM by knockedup with | with 27 comment(s) Filed under: working mother, daycare, childcare, nannies