January 28, 2015 - Day Care

Elizabeth and I finally got around to watching Baby Boom, the classic 80's movie about a career minded woman who learns to be a mom.  It's a silly movie, but definitely more redeeming than Three Men and a Baby and the awful Nine Months.  There's some real heart to it, and some memorable and cute moments.  Diane Keaton's character inherits a child from cousins she hasn't seen in years (is this a thing that actually happens?).  She goes through the expected trials and tribulations of single motherhood (she weighs the baby in a food scale to figure out what diapers to buy, hilarious), and eventually starts her own baby food company (hmmmm, maybe that's something I should look into...)

One of the great scenes is when Keaton takes the baby to a yuppy institute that is supposed to accelerate child development.  She holds up flash cards of famous composers, salmon sushi, buildings, etc., in an effort to stimulate the brain and encourage growth (I'm pretty sure my flash cards had farm animals on them...what were my parents trying to pull?!)

Keaton goes to this institute after hearing about it from other mothers.  They are all dishing about where their children were going to preschool, and an expectant mother even says that her child is on the waiting list for a school and it hasn't even been born yet. This got us to thinking.  We don't want Nugget to get left behind because we hadn't signed him up for stuff on time.  So last night, we started looking into day care options in our area.

There are a lot of them...


This is an important choice, because both Elizabeth and I intend to work after Nugget gets here, and we'll need some help.  There are options at churches.  There are options that focus on a Montessori style of education.  There are options that look to be the gateway to a life lived on a commune with people named Moonbeam and Sage.

Elizabeth has lucked out by joining a book club in town.  Most of the ladies in the book club have children, so they have been a wealth of knowledge when it comes to babies.  They've also had some great advice to give, and a lot of it has revolved around child care.  Of course, choosing a day care option is not as simple as "Oh, that looks nice."

I won't bore you with the list of questions Elizabeth wrote down after talking to her book club about it, but suffice it to say it is extensive.  Everything from how the diaper area is sanitized (I'm guessing fire hose) to how breast milk is handled for the child (I'm guessing in a bottle and fed to the baby, but I could be way off here).

You have to find out the hours of the center, and if they allow for half day or full day care.  You have to find out what kind of activities they offer (I'm hoping for a GUTS style training regimen, but I'll settle for a curriculum based on Legends of the Hidden Temple).  Is it in a nice area? And is it NAEYC certified? (Note to self: find out what the hell NAEYC means...)

Elizabeth's book club gave us several recommendations, and we narrowed that list down to two in Greensboro last night.  Next week, our plan is to go visit both and see if we like them.  If we do, we'll put down a deposit to save a spot for Nugget.

If that doesn't work, maybe we can just send Nugget to where we board Merlin when we leave town for the weekend.  He seems to like it there, and there would be plenty of toys for Nugget to play with.  I don't see a downside to this plan...