The Childcare Search

A two liter bottle filled with water upside down with a wide straw coming out of the cap, a large bowl of Cheetos, maybe a few Disney movies, a closet, and an outside lock on the closet is apparently frowned upon in the state of California as a source of daycare for my four year old and four month old. Do to this discovery, I have started my search for real daycare since I start my new job in a month. Back “home” I was paying $500 a month for my oldest son to go to school that had a curriculum. By the time we left, my then newly four year old was working on a Kindergarten level. We thought this price we really pricey, but knew he was getting an education as well. Here, in California, I’m not sure how people survive if they have more than one child. No lie, for both boys to go to daycare the lowest price was $2,000 a month! *insert wide eyed emoji* People, this is for childcare without a curriculum! I tried all the reputable sites. It was time to go back to my roots. I checked Craigslist.com. W’s first daycare provider, which was like hitting the jackpot, was technically on Craigslist, but I heard of her through word of mouth. There are so many daycare providers on craigslist. Many of whom identified their race within the tag line. “Indian provider”, “Bilingual Nana”, many Asian providers, and one “Elderly Woman”. The last one got me. Was she going for the whole Mrs. Doubtfire thing or just putting out there that she was looking for a nice rocker to complete her knitting while your children jumped from counters and held real jousting tournaments with knives in your living room while Mamaw was getting a head start on her knitted Christmas gifts. I went to one that was advertised as a Montessori daycare with “complementary curriculum”. I have many friends who children go to a Montessori school and have nothing but amazing things to say. Mrs. R was amazing. She had a fulltime helper and was able to have up to 14 kids at a time, which apparently not all who have 14 children have to have a full time provider. Yuck! I cannot imagine leaving my 4 month old in a house with 13 other children and one adult. Um, no. Though Mrs. R was super nice and affordable, there were two rooms the children could be in. A very small part of the kitchen and the living room which was, again, small. There was actually a leg missing from the yellow pleather sofa that had been replaced with yellow painted blocks of wood. The cleanliness was not next to Godliness in the play area. It was not disgusting it was jus noticeable that dirty little hands had been discovering things. I am not the best house keeper, so I get it. However, I also do not have 14 kids in my care every day. The thing that truly stuck out to me the most as worry was the temperature of the house. We keep our house at a steamy 70* at night as we sleep so my family has a need for cool air. This house had me looking for tiny sewing machines or production lines. I went a head the next day and called Mamaw aka “Elderly Woman” aka “Mrs. Doubtfire”. She had advertised as doing light house cleaning and cooking as well as fulltime childcare. I called her, as she of course did not email, to talk with her. She answered in a way that let me know that she was frustrated with something. “Hi, I saw your ad on Craigslist about childcare. I have a 4 month and 4 year old I am look for care for.” “Oh, what are your dates and times? Get over here!” “Uh, I guess it would be considered full time. Five days a week, full days. You wouldn’t need to do any cooking or cleaning as that is why we had children.” Silence “I’m just kidding. Sorry.” “That is too much time. No. I’m not interested.” Hangs up the phone. I didn’t know whether to be offended or laugh at myself for even calling her! What did I expect? Really? I called a provider today. My expectations were super low. She was amazing! We ended up talking on the phone for close to 20 minutes while she helped the little ones around her. She used a calm voice and all the kids responded well. I told her we were new to California and she explained that she had moved years ago from Virginia to California and knew exactly how I felt. She gave me a list of things to go and see this weekend. I have an interview with her tomorrow. I am hoping it goes better than my conversation with Mamaw, as well as with Mrs. R but with better air cirulation, and as well as the two interview I did with W’s first two providers Mrs. Sharon and Mimi. Fingers Crossed!