Childcare

We first visited the daycare closest to our house on our way back from getting my stitches out of my hand. We stopped in because I think the husband realised I'd been putting it off and he was driving.

I was surprisingly okay with it, so we filled out our details I called every two months or so.

Late last month I decided we'd need to ramp it up a bit, so I visited a few more that were close to my work.

One was run by a really nice lady - she took her time and seemed very genuine. But she is leaving in a month or so, and I worry that the good staff and culture could change once she is gone.

One instantly gave me the icks as soon as I went in.

One seemed okay, but then I heard from two separate people that they wouldn't put their kids in there if their life depended on it.

The other week I decided to drop in on the first centre again, just to make sure that I wasn't imagining my first impression of it. The girls took me through the room again and I was glad that I hadn't imagined it.

Of course, now that the baby is older and in a crazy cute stage, the idea of leaving her somewhere is a lot harder to stomach. I recognise that. But apart from leaving her with family, I am comfortable with the idea of her spending two days a week there eventually.

When we first enrolled, we indicated that we were after care for her from August 2012. Since then, we've decided (well, I've decided) that I will work part time from August and full time from next year. So now our enrollment sheet indicates we would prefer Tuesday and Wednesday, but will take any days. And that we would prefer from 1 January 2013, but we will start earlier if needed.

I've ramped it up to calling weekly and today I was lucky enough to speak to the director. She remembered my name and commented that she had a message from me last week, but no return number. And that she had looked me up but couldn't find an enrollment for us on file. At all.

Luckily, she had another look after I spelled out our surname and she found it. And she told me I was doing the right thing calling so often. And that it was unlikely we would be able to get any care this year but to keep calling and we would be doing the right thing for her to start next year.

I hope, hope, hope she can get a place.