Child Care

We spent a couple days last week checking out some long day-care and occasional care centres for Aidan, just to see what's out there, and if we can even afford it. Day-care is impossibly expensive, even with the childcare benefit and tax rebates we'll get, and the changes in July! Geez louise batman, the nice places can go up to $80, the not-for-profits are cheaper, but have long wait-lists (and everything's just a tad older). It's probably more worth it for me to stay home and collect the dole than to work and miss out on spending time with Aidan.

That said, I do feel I'm sometimes suffering from cabin fever, and my brain is slowly atrophying. So I thought I'd sign up for a class that starts in July, and put Aidan in occasional care ($7.80 an hour, phew!) for a few hours.

Yesterday we tried our FIRST day in child care to see how he'd go. Just for the minimum 2 hrs. He's usually pretty good when he's baby-sat by Ellie or Ivy & Stephen, or over at May's, so I wasn't too worried. As we left him playing on the mat though, EG confessed his unease at leaving him with strangers (even accredited ones), and I felt more than a little guilty too. In the end though, 2 hrs flew past pretty quickly amidst running errands and having lunch, and we were back to pick him up again.

He was supposed to have lunch there, which we'd packed for him, but apparently he was so distraught from our absence he refused to eat. They said he wouldn't stop crying until they carried him, so he spent the 2 hrs being shuffled from one embrace to another. Poor bubba. It was a good thing Monday's quiet day, so they could give him extra attention. He didn't seem too upset when we went to pick him up though, just sucking on his dummy in the carer's lap, reading a story together. But he did make whingy noises when he saw us enter the room!

They suggested we put him in twice a week so he could get used to the new faces and the place. Frequency breeds familiarity I suppose! He's never been a fussy baby with strangers (though I suspect racial profiling's at work haha - he's not used to all those white faces!), so it's heartbreaking to hear that he was upset. But we're trying again tomorrow and see how he goes. I'm wondering if I should just cancel my class. What's the point if it just makes him upset and hubby uneasy? I can't help but feel selfish for doing this.

EG has been good though, saying if that's what I need to keep my sanity then it's worth it. If it makes me a better mum in the end for him, to just focus my mind on something else for awhile, then it's worth a little distress (for him, and me!) I do hope he adjusts quickly though!

First day at Child Care with Daddy and Mummy!