When we were shopping around for day care for the first time, I was really worried. I wished so much that I could stay home and raise my kids myself. I thought I would be depriving her of something and had some real guilt issues over it. We obsessed over where to take her (which is always a good thing).
We thought about a home day care, but decided that there was no use paying for day care if it didn't gaurantee that I could drop Ally off every day, and home ones get sick or go on vacation occasionally. Plus, it's not like we live in a major metroplois or anything, but there are a lot of nasty people out there and some of them look normal to outsiders. At least with a center, the people are usually regulated a little more carefully. (most of the time)
We got lucky and got her into the day care provided for the hospital my husband worked at. It's a great place, but I still worried. I checked up on her a lot and made sure they were always doing things "right". I still think I may have missed a lot of good stuff at the very beginning, and regret that a little - but when you've broke, you've got to work.
But now - I'm realizing just how much more they can provide for her than I would at home. Now that she's past the eat-sleep-poop stage, she learns so much by just having the opportunity to observe so many different kids her own age and older. Plus, their job is to come up with exciting things to entertain, encourage and interest my kid. They can go beyond the parent-child struggle. Anyway - I started on this ramble because of one simple, tiny, innocent thing Ally did the other day that had nothing to do with me:
She started singing "5 Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed" when I gave her a Little People monkey to play with. I have never sang this to her. It never occured to me.
Posted by ktjrdn
at 11:28 CDT