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So in our search for a different child care set up for Little Man Wifey and I have run into some deal breakers for childcare.
The first of the deal breakers has been the lack of part time daycare availability in the area. Some places say they do part time (not full week) but they are lying through their plaque ridden teeth. Most places have only a limited amount of part time spaces, and oddly enough, they are all filled up. Most places say that they offer part-time because they feel that you, as the parents, can just decide not to bring your kid in on all 5 workweek days. You pay for 5 days a week, but only have to use the place the days that you want. Well, thanks a bunch guys. Other places set up their daycare like a timeshare. We can only use them as a part-time child care facility if we can find someone who is willing to have their kid take Little Man’s slot on the days that he isn’t there. I like to think of the other kid like those seat fillers at the Golden Globes and the Oscars. So far only one place we have contacted has full on part-time capability, and Wifey has called a shit-ton of the places recently.
The second of the deal breakers is their food allergen policy. I mean seriously. In this day and age with the prevalence of lethal and near lethal reactions to the major 8 food allergens, a daycare should have some kind of food allergen policy in place. Each facility should at least be tree-nut and peanut free. That is a no brainier, but the facilities should also have a policy in place for people with multiple food allergies. I am not saying that all child-care places should be tree-nut, peanut, dairy, egg, soy, wheat, fish and shellfish free, but they should have at least an idea of what they could do to ensure the health and safety of a child who has multiple food allergies. For the record, I do think that most places should also be fish and shellfish free, because, that is just weird to have tilapia and lobster out on the snack table.
The third of the deal breakers is location. The realty maxim of “Location, Location, Location” also matter when dealing with child care. It does no good if the potential childcare is a 40 minute commute from where we live or our relative places of work. Some of the more attractive places are across town from where either of us even remotely roam. One would think that places would abound near us, but they all have issues with the idea of 3 days a week with food allergies.
The fourth of the deal breakers is environment. Well, more to the point, this deal breaker happens to be about carpet and small furry creatures. I am amazed at how many day care facilities have carpet. With the number of spills and messes associated with kids, I would think that a surface that could be hosed down makes the most sense. If we were currently building with Splashy McSpillsalot in our household, Wifey and I would be hard-pressed not to have cement floors in all the rooms with drains on all the floors. Not to mention Little Man’s asthma. Carpet is a bad thing for him. It traps stuff in it that makes him cough. Again, I am not saying that all places need to be carpet free, but our kid’s asthma kind of necessitate it for or decision making purposes. The asthma and his allergy to most things furry also mean there should not be any hamsters, guinea pigs, marmots, ferrets, cats, dogs, rhinos, etc.. as class pets. Not to mention cedar chips don’t really work. They just make the poop and pee smell like it has been in a cedar chest.
The fifth of the deal breakers is murals. Not all murals, mind you, just the murals that depict hippos as kindly, happy go lucky friends to people. Those animals are vicious killers. Most African animal encounter deaths are due to the hippo. They are insanely territorial and murderous slavering beasties. My son, heir to my self imposed moniker, Natural Hippopotamus Enemy, will not… nay… can not abide in an environment that makes hippos seem that friendly, cuddly friends. It would be like having murals of cartoony dictators plastered over the walls for the kids to play with. You know, like murals of a dancing Ivan, the Terribly Fun for Kids, and Ghengis Duck Duck Goose Khan.
The sixth and final deal breaker is their stance on cryptozoological existence. Little Man’s uncle happens to be a half Yeti. Most pre-schools and daycares discourage children from believeing that yetis andbigfoots (bigfeet?) okay… sasquatches, amoks, elves, jabberwockies, satyrs, dryads, nyads, trolls, giants, unicorns, dragons, jack-a-lopes, etc… exist. The odd thing is they are more than willing to propogate the holiday entities charade. Oooh, look it's Santa and the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy (wait, the Toothe Fairy isn't associated with a holiday, nevermind). Well if they feel that cryptos don’t exist, they are denying Little Man’s uncle’s existence (well, half his existence anyway) and that is not acceptible.
To recap:
Looks like we have solid child care for the next few weeks at least
Back to the normal schedule
And therefore the normal posting schedule
Not that this schedule ever really changed
Little Man wore his jammies to “work” today
Who wouldn’t want to wear jammies to work
I have one of those headaches today
Yep, one of those pine marten trying to escape the confines of my skull headaches
Stupid weather
Our questionnaire for in home/private childcare is going to be rather interesting, isn’t it?
The first of the deal breakers has been the lack of part time daycare availability in the area. Some places say they do part time (not full week) but they are lying through their plaque ridden teeth. Most places have only a limited amount of part time spaces, and oddly enough, they are all filled up. Most places say that they offer part-time because they feel that you, as the parents, can just decide not to bring your kid in on all 5 workweek days. You pay for 5 days a week, but only have to use the place the days that you want. Well, thanks a bunch guys. Other places set up their daycare like a timeshare. We can only use them as a part-time child care facility if we can find someone who is willing to have their kid take Little Man’s slot on the days that he isn’t there. I like to think of the other kid like those seat fillers at the Golden Globes and the Oscars. So far only one place we have contacted has full on part-time capability, and Wifey has called a shit-ton of the places recently.
The second of the deal breakers is their food allergen policy. I mean seriously. In this day and age with the prevalence of lethal and near lethal reactions to the major 8 food allergens, a daycare should have some kind of food allergen policy in place. Each facility should at least be tree-nut and peanut free. That is a no brainier, but the facilities should also have a policy in place for people with multiple food allergies. I am not saying that all child-care places should be tree-nut, peanut, dairy, egg, soy, wheat, fish and shellfish free, but they should have at least an idea of what they could do to ensure the health and safety of a child who has multiple food allergies. For the record, I do think that most places should also be fish and shellfish free, because, that is just weird to have tilapia and lobster out on the snack table.
The third of the deal breakers is location. The realty maxim of “Location, Location, Location” also matter when dealing with child care. It does no good if the potential childcare is a 40 minute commute from where we live or our relative places of work. Some of the more attractive places are across town from where either of us even remotely roam. One would think that places would abound near us, but they all have issues with the idea of 3 days a week with food allergies.
The fourth of the deal breakers is environment. Well, more to the point, this deal breaker happens to be about carpet and small furry creatures. I am amazed at how many day care facilities have carpet. With the number of spills and messes associated with kids, I would think that a surface that could be hosed down makes the most sense. If we were currently building with Splashy McSpillsalot in our household, Wifey and I would be hard-pressed not to have cement floors in all the rooms with drains on all the floors. Not to mention Little Man’s asthma. Carpet is a bad thing for him. It traps stuff in it that makes him cough. Again, I am not saying that all places need to be carpet free, but our kid’s asthma kind of necessitate it for or decision making purposes. The asthma and his allergy to most things furry also mean there should not be any hamsters, guinea pigs, marmots, ferrets, cats, dogs, rhinos, etc.. as class pets. Not to mention cedar chips don’t really work. They just make the poop and pee smell like it has been in a cedar chest.
The fifth of the deal breakers is murals. Not all murals, mind you, just the murals that depict hippos as kindly, happy go lucky friends to people. Those animals are vicious killers. Most African animal encounter deaths are due to the hippo. They are insanely territorial and murderous slavering beasties. My son, heir to my self imposed moniker, Natural Hippopotamus Enemy, will not… nay… can not abide in an environment that makes hippos seem that friendly, cuddly friends. It would be like having murals of cartoony dictators plastered over the walls for the kids to play with. You know, like murals of a dancing Ivan, the Terribly Fun for Kids, and Ghengis Duck Duck Goose Khan.
The sixth and final deal breaker is their stance on cryptozoological existence. Little Man’s uncle happens to be a half Yeti. Most pre-schools and daycares discourage children from believeing that yetis and
To recap:
Looks like we have solid child care for the next few weeks at least
Back to the normal schedule
And therefore the normal posting schedule
Not that this schedule ever really changed
Little Man wore his jammies to “work” today
Who wouldn’t want to wear jammies to work
I have one of those headaches today
Yep, one of those pine marten trying to escape the confines of my skull headachesStupid weather
Our questionnaire for in home/private childcare is going to be rather interesting, isn’t it?
Sorry for the lateness of the post today, Blogger was acting wonky
Labels: Little Man, mad ramblings, Pine Marten in tha House
5 Comments:
Hunting for childcare sucks. We compromised one year and left our kids with a really crappy daycare. They let the kids watch tv ALL DAY and once we picked up Charlie and he was barefoot...they had lost his shoes.
But it was cheap.
I don't envy your dilemma.
That sucks!
Had a similar issue when The Boy was young. Doctore wouldn't let him go to daycare for a year after a major lung infection. I resolved by working two PT jobs - one from 6:00 a.m. unti 10:00 a.m. and another from 7:00 p.m. until midnight. The Wife worked from 10-6 full time. We never saw each other but The Boy was always covered.
Hope you find a place!
Later.
Kristi:
Were the daycare workers getting high? How do you lose a kid's shoes?
J.A.:
Yeah, we have figured out some short term fixes that seem similar to your whacked out schedule, but they are only temporary at best.
Both: thanks for the kind words of encouragement.
Allrileyedup:
Wow, a rice allergy. That is a rare one. Is that one difficult to avoid? The dairy I know. Soy I know. Egg I know, but rice... I just don't know.
Allrileyedup:
I imagine the rice and fish thing is rather puzzling to the Filipino portion of the fam. That was the first thing Wifey said to me when I told her your list of allergens. She said, "Wow, that must be hard with her filipino family." And then we giggled at thinking about how many times I would mis-spell filipino.
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