Anne LouiseOne day, Silas was called home from day-care with fever when a mix of mother/pregnancy hormones kicked in with a determination that the day-care he was in was not taking good enough care of him.
Of course they should call me when my kid has fever and they recently implemented a no-tolerance policy that all sick kids must remain at home. I completely agree with this, but where was this all the other times my kid got sick because of some snotty child, whose parents had deemed him/her ok enough to go to day-care? At the same time, many other issues surfaced that I had previously just pushed a side as not really important. All of a sudden they all seemed really important. I got mad! So mad that I started my search for a new day-care.
I found a short list of potential new places and had my list of arguments ready for when Mr baby-daddy came home. When he did, he was bombarded with explanations, websites and arguments to why we should change. Obviously, he first thought I had received a new batch of crazy pregnancy hormones, but after some thinking and having a look at the new day-cares I had found, he started to agree with me. We sought advice from his mother, who is a child-psychologist and our friend, who is a kindergarten teacher, both thought it was a very bad idea to change day-care so close to Silas becoming a big brother. His world would be disrupted enough as it is, there is no need to make it worse.
I was devastated! Why hadn’t I seen all these things earlier? Despite the good advise, we went to visit one of the potential day-cares anyway and we loved it! We loved the teachers, the place, we just had a good feeling and Silas could start right away! We had to make a quick decision, weighing pros and cons. Even Mrs mother-in-law changed her mind.
So we did it! Silas went for a couple of days and of course, got sick! Really sick, we had to go to the hospital. Luckily, he recovered quickly and has now been at the new place this week.
They tell me that he participates with excitement in all activities and he is such a sweet boy! What can I say? “I know!”. The old day-care seemed more like a babysitting services, where the kids are watched but not really stimulated. In this new day-care, they have English lessons for crying out loud!
I think he seems happier. He loves to learn and always wants to be tested in the “new thing he can do”, for instance he knows all colours now (in 2 languages!) and wants to be asked all the time. I love that he is so curious about life and loves learning. I pray that he will keep this up for the rest of his life.
During these weeks, I have had to put all my activities on hold, which has been really difficult for me. Why do I have to stop everything I am doing when the kid is sick? It is difficult enough to not have a career at the moment while trying to find my place in the world – now I have to be the one to stop everything because I don’t work for a bank? Anyway, I made my peace with it – sort of…
I really hope the new day-care is the right decision for us and that we can soon get back to a normal routine. I want to get back on track with writing this blog, catch up on my courses and to prepare the arrival of the new baby-boy!
By the way, my belly has gotten really big the last couple of weeks!
32 weeks pregnant, 91 kg, baby-boy is about 2 kg, normal and healthy pregnancy so far and only 6 weeks to go!