Decisions

It's so hard as a parent to figure out what is the best thing for your child. Especially when it comes to child care. Since both Nathan and I work out of the home, Ethan requires someone else to look after him. It was not easy handing him over that first week at daycare, but when I realized that it was the best thing for me, it got a lot easier to send him there each morning. Although, I am being quite selfish by saying it's the best thing for me, it really is the best for all of us. While there are times I wish I could spend my every waking moment with Ethan, I do cherish times that I get to be an adult and get out of the house. Daycare not only gave me my sanity back, it helped Ethan in a lot of ways too. He is very social, loves to watch other kids play and be around other people, he doesn't seem to have major separation anxiety and, not that he is handed over to anyone, but he is ok being around people he doesn't know.
We were always pretty sure we would have Ethan in a daycare facility, mostly economically, but I was never big on someone (a nanny) coming into our home and keeping him. Why? For, whatever reason, I felt like at least in a multiple care giver environment, Ethan was being watched by more people and there would be "witnesses" around which would hopefully lesson any possibility of anything happening to him. With a single person coming into our home, it could allow for more chances of things happening. Now, I know things can happen anywhere to any child no matter how many people are around, this is just my thought process on why I chose a multiple caregiver environment, I am in no way putting down what other people choose is the best for their situation. Let me also clarify, that I am speaking of someone I don't know, when I talk of a single care giver, I have no problems with either family or friends keeping Ethan.

All that being said, the whole point of this post is that we were not exactly happy with the certain daycare facility that we chose. I never thought Ethan was in harms way or that they were neglecting him. There were just certain things, that always bugged me. The biggest one of all, we pay A LOT of money each month for Ethan's care and I couldn't really see that what we paid equaled the type of care he was getting. So, we made the decision to pull him out for a few months. Our moms will be tag teaming it for a while. This time will give us a chance to find a different daycare and with our recent stint of sickness, maybe give all of our immune systems a chance to recharge.

Now, we have the fun time of looking for a new place to send him. I just don't know how to make sure it's the right place. We both felt very comfortable with the last place, before the little things became a problem. And I am sure every place has it's pros and cons. And then how much do we spend? I sometimes feel like a horrible mom because I can't afford to send Ethan to the best and feel like I am not allowing him to learn and grow to his full potential b/c of that. But, we still have to pay our other bills and still have to eat, so what price do you set on your child's care?

Decisions, decisions.......