No win daycare

On Friday, I did more calling and checking into daycares without any further luck. I’ve only had three private home daycare interviews and one at a large daycare facility. The first private home daycare wasn’t even close to my standards. The second one was very clean and nice. The layout was good and plenty of toys for the various ages she cared for, but I didn’t like the person that ran it. It seemed like she took great care of the children but I didn’t like her personality much. She knows everyone in the city and is quite the gossiper.

She had asked me who our pediatrician was and because this seems relevant to her caring for my child, I answered. Well she doesn’t like him or any of his staff. She says none of them are any good if a child has a rare problem. Well duh! They’re FAMILY doctors. That means they know a little bit of everything and if you need a specialist they refer you to one. She also went on about how she’s an expert at diagnosing children before the pediatrician can. She said she was especially good as diagnosing personality problems like ADD and asperger’s syndrome. *eye roll* I understand that as a caregiver she would be observing my child more than say a doctor but in my opinion her limit should be telling me about odd symptoms/behaviors. Because uumm she ain’t a doctor and I don’t want her trying to diagnose my child.

Ms. Gossip Queen asked me if I had visited any other daycares and I told her another provider had referred me to her. She started to talk bad about that person and then stopped herself saying, “oh but she’s my friend I shouldn’t say that about her”. No shit you shouldn’t, especially since your “friend” is the one that referred me. How does this woman get any business if she talks bad about everyone? She asked me what I had thought of the other provider’s place. I told her the lady seemed very nice but I felt the space was small with an awkward layout. I didn’t mention that it also appeared dirty to me, or the fact that there was a child against the wall that seemed to be ignored.

Kurt says the aspects of her personality that I didn’t like doesn’t matter since Sophia will only be there for three months until the large daycare facility calls us around June. I agree with him about that, but the other thing that turned me off about this second place was that there was no separate area for the infants and she cares for children up to twelve years of age. She kept saying how “her girls” (other children in her care), ages nine and twelve would love Sophia. I know I originally wanted the “family” environment but these girls weren’t there for me to meet at the time, so I don’t know them at all. The fact is they aren’t family and I’m not paying children to play with my daughter as if she’s a doll! I’m paying an adult to care for my real life human baby. If I wanted a child to care for my infant, I would personally interview teenagers. That place is simply out of the question.

The third private home daycare was good. I really liked the lady that ran it. She had just moved to a new location and her daycare setup wasn’t complete so it was difficult to evaluate that properly. Unfortunately, she also seemed to want to keep her options open and didn’t want to save an infant spot for me since I don’t need a daycare until March.

I called another large daycare facility that has two different sites that are close enough for me to deal with for the three months that we would need them. I called the closest one first of course. The lady said, “Oh we won’t have an opening for a couple months.” I was excited, “So you’ll have something in March?” “No,” she says, “we won’t have anything until July.” That’s six months not a couple months you stupid bitch! I didn’t say that of course but I was quite frustrated. I called their other site. Nothing until August - I just can’t win. They have another site that will be opening nearby in “the spring of 2008”. I called their main office to find out what month of “spring 2008” they mean. I had to leave a message and haven’t heard back from them yet. *GGRRrrr*