The search is on...

After 3.5 years of wonderful care from our current daycare provider/babysitter, we have to look for a new situation for the big sister and little brother beginning in June when I go back to work. Our current babysitter's youngest son is starting 1st grade in the fall and will be gone all day and she is ready for a change and doesn't want to babysit anymore. I have to say, I don't blame her! I could never care for other children out of my home -- I'm not cut out for that type of work.

So, after a period of mourning and sadness, I've begun the search for a new daycare provider. It's an interesting experience. Last time, when my daughter was an infant, our current provider went to church with us -- I didn't 'interview' anyone, we just sat down and decided the particulars and there you go -- we had a babysitter.

This time, it's a bit different. I'm looking for a home situation in which the big sister can get some education stimulation as well as the love and support of a home situation. I think the big sister would actually thrive best in a daycare center, however I'm not too fond of taking an infant to a center -- plus, the cost! It would cost us over $80 a day to have 2 children in a daycare center!

So, in my quest, I've run into some interested situations:

Situation #1: I called a lady who advertised in the local paper and this was her response to my call, "Oh, that would be great if you brought your kids to my house. I have a 3 year old son from my second marriage that I'm looking for a playmate for him. I do have 2 older children from a previous marriage, they're in their 20's so they won't be around. Then, sometimes my husband's son from his first marriage is here.......(and on and on)" I really just want a daycare provider, not a tangled personal mess.

Situation #2: I've wised up a bit on my cold-calling of daycare providers. I'm really looking for some sort of structure or preschool curriculum for the big sister, so I ask this question right away. One lady told me yesterday, "oh, I don't have a curriculum we do, but at lunch time I take the preschool-aged kids to the cupboard and have them pick out what they want to eat for lunch and then I have them spell the letters on the boxes." Not exactly what I was looking for...

Situation #3: this just happened today. I was at the park with the kiddos and another mom was there and we started talking about kids, her soon-to-be new baby and various other 'mommy' stuff. We started talking about working and staying at home. I told her I was on maternity leave and she told me she was a stay-at-home-mom. She then began to inform me that there was no reason to really work, because any home daycare I chose would be horrible and that she wouldn't trust any in-home daycare. She told me of a story of when her son was in daycare and the provider would go to garage sales while the kids slept, etc, etc. She looked at me and basically said, "why would you even work?" I ended the conversation and we ended up leaving (we were ready to leave anyway), but I wanted to say to her, "I like working....so there!"

So, the search continues...