The Boy Child started attending a new daycare last week.
To give you a little bit of perspective, he had been going to his previous daycare since he was less than a year old (he started a few months after my ex left), and he is now almost 5. To him, that daycare was a big part of his life. The teachers were his "other mothers," and his classmates were his "other siblings." His nap cot was his 2nd bed, and the facility was his second home. He has eaten there, slept there, played there, learned there, and thrived there for as long as he can remember, and he loved it.
But when
everything went down with the states child care funding crisis that threatened my childcare subsidy, and some changes were made at the center with staffing, we needed to find a new place. And I'm not going to lie, it made me really sad, because I've trusted that place with raising both my daughter and my son. They have been there for them when I couldn't be, and until recently, they've done a great job.
So looking for a new center, it was hard! It felt like jumping into the dating world the day after the love of your life breaks up with you. It didn't matter what any of the other places had to offer, none of them were the one we loved; the place we were comfortable with.
But there wasn't much I could do about that, and with my subsidy threatened and a huge staff turnover at the facility, it was time to get moving. I kid you not, I called every damn daycare within a 30 minute radius of my house. I did tour after tour, visiting some places more than once (often with friends), and when the directors would ask me if I had any questions, you had better believe that I had no less than 30. Because this is my child we are talking about here, and if he is going to be "raised" by someone else during the day, then I want to make sure that he is being raised in a place that supports the way I'd like to see him raised.
