I sat down nearly an hour ago to crank out this entry, and I'm just now starting it. Stupid Facebook. I had to send somebody a quick message, and next thing I know I've clicked a link posted by one of my friends, and I'm halfway through a story on a feminist website about why the author, a black woman, won't date white men. It wasn't a very good article, yet I read the entire thing, and I read all the comments, to boot. This is exactly why I deleted the Facebook app on my phone. I'd open it to see some pics of my family and friends, and 15 minutes later I'd find myself knee-deep in a poorly written blog post by some guy named "Uncle Scam" on how Rand Paul was filibustering in favor of a bill to grow the economy by arming Americans to shoot down domestic drones or something like that.
Anyway...
To follow up on the nanny conundrum, we've come to compromise... for now. This "for now" is important, because the whole situation just isn't financially tenable for us in the long run. We can do it for a few months, but that's about it. Without another family to share the costs, we simply can't afford to pay our nanny what she wants, and we're struggling to find another family.
So, we've moved on to Plan B: daycare. We put our names on the waiting list at a daycare up the street, and it sounds like there will be some openings at the end of the summer, which is right when we'd want to start, so that's encouraging. S actually found this place a long time ago, and we might have pursued it then, but there was a miscommunication. It's on the same street as another much shadier-looking daycare, and when S told me about it I thought she was talking about this shady one, and I was like, "absolutely not."*
But the daycare S was actually taking about, is decidedly non-shady. It looks decent, and it's conveniently located, which is all I really want out of a daycare. Safe and easy. During the tour the woman was really trying to sell me on their creative curriculum and theme days and diversity nurturing and all that jazz; which is all well and good, but I'm perfectly content if they just feed him, change his diaper, and give him a few blocks to bang together. I'm not so sure his diversity needs to be nurtured at age 0. Plus, is it just me or is there a much bigger push on parents now to constantly be providing their children with developmental stimulation and activities? Like if your aren't playing Baby Einstein for your child by four months, he's going to end up with the special kids in kindergarten and never recover. It reminds of the old Chris Rock line, "What ever happened to just being bored?" It's a good question. I think "just being bored" can be good for a kid, because it teaches them to entertain and think for themselves. I mentioned this to S, and then I launched into a 15-minute jag about how as a kid I could entertain myself for hours with just a legal pad and a pencil, and her response was, "Yeah, but you're weird." Touché.
Oh, another thing to follow up on, the couple I mentioned in the previous entry who never emailed us back about the share finally emailed us back. They apologized for the delay, and said they hope we find a family. That was it. They still didn't even explicitly tell us, yes or no. Again, I have to ask, what the fuck is wrong with people? I mean, it's obvious from the context (not to mention they're putting up new posts seeking a nanny on the same list serve we found them on), and we'd written them off long ago, but still, quit being so passive and inconsiderate. You don't want to do the nanny share with us. Fine. Just say that, preferably when it might still be useful information.
Anyway, now that we've decided to go the daycare route S and I have to figure out how to manage the nanny situation in the interim. I think next week we're just going to have to tell her that we're probably putting Lil' S in daycare at the end of the summer. Our contract says we only need to give a month notice, but withholding this information until the last possible moment seems like a serious dick move. Obviously, the worry in telling her now is that she'll find a different job the next day, and then we won't have any childcare lined up for a few months (although, she has to give us a month's notice also), but it still seems like the right thing to do. I've found you can't really go wrong with being completely upfront from the get-go. Karmically it feels the cleanest, and it often works out practically to your benefit as well because your forthrightness is appreciated and returned. Hey, maybe honesty really is the best policy.**
Alright, that's about all for this entry. I made a list throughout the week of about ten things I wanted to talk about in this entry, and I got to approximately zero of them. I shouldn't have clicked that Facebook link. Oh well.
Until next time...
*I drive by the shady daycare almost everyday, it's on a somewhat busy street, and the thing that bothers me the most about it is that the parents don't cross at the crosswalk with their kids. They'll wait for a red light so that traffic stops, and then they'll walk between the cars. For God's sake, you're leading a two-year old child, take the extra fifty paces to the crosswalk! Now, this is the parents, not the employees of the daycare, but still. It doesn't reflect well on the institution in general.
**I once came up with an idea for a crossword puzzle where it was going to be puns on tenets, so, for example, a clue would be -- Honesty is the best policy? -- and the answer would be -- TRUEMANDOCTRINE. Get it? Another is -- Nihilism? -- and the answer is -- NOTTHEORY. It's a pretty good idea except those are the only two I could come up with, so maybe it's not such a great idea.
Anyway...
To follow up on the nanny conundrum, we've come to compromise... for now. This "for now" is important, because the whole situation just isn't financially tenable for us in the long run. We can do it for a few months, but that's about it. Without another family to share the costs, we simply can't afford to pay our nanny what she wants, and we're struggling to find another family.
[Our nanny]
So, we've moved on to Plan B: daycare. We put our names on the waiting list at a daycare up the street, and it sounds like there will be some openings at the end of the summer, which is right when we'd want to start, so that's encouraging. S actually found this place a long time ago, and we might have pursued it then, but there was a miscommunication. It's on the same street as another much shadier-looking daycare, and when S told me about it I thought she was talking about this shady one, and I was like, "absolutely not."*
But the daycare S was actually taking about, is decidedly non-shady. It looks decent, and it's conveniently located, which is all I really want out of a daycare. Safe and easy. During the tour the woman was really trying to sell me on their creative curriculum and theme days and diversity nurturing and all that jazz; which is all well and good, but I'm perfectly content if they just feed him, change his diaper, and give him a few blocks to bang together. I'm not so sure his diversity needs to be nurtured at age 0. Plus, is it just me or is there a much bigger push on parents now to constantly be providing their children with developmental stimulation and activities? Like if your aren't playing Baby Einstein for your child by four months, he's going to end up with the special kids in kindergarten and never recover. It reminds of the old Chris Rock line, "What ever happened to just being bored?" It's a good question. I think "just being bored" can be good for a kid, because it teaches them to entertain and think for themselves. I mentioned this to S, and then I launched into a 15-minute jag about how as a kid I could entertain myself for hours with just a legal pad and a pencil, and her response was, "Yeah, but you're weird." Touché.
Oh, another thing to follow up on, the couple I mentioned in the previous entry who never emailed us back about the share finally emailed us back. They apologized for the delay, and said they hope we find a family. That was it. They still didn't even explicitly tell us, yes or no. Again, I have to ask, what the fuck is wrong with people? I mean, it's obvious from the context (not to mention they're putting up new posts seeking a nanny on the same list serve we found them on), and we'd written them off long ago, but still, quit being so passive and inconsiderate. You don't want to do the nanny share with us. Fine. Just say that, preferably when it might still be useful information.
Anyway, now that we've decided to go the daycare route S and I have to figure out how to manage the nanny situation in the interim. I think next week we're just going to have to tell her that we're probably putting Lil' S in daycare at the end of the summer. Our contract says we only need to give a month notice, but withholding this information until the last possible moment seems like a serious dick move. Obviously, the worry in telling her now is that she'll find a different job the next day, and then we won't have any childcare lined up for a few months (although, she has to give us a month's notice also), but it still seems like the right thing to do. I've found you can't really go wrong with being completely upfront from the get-go. Karmically it feels the cleanest, and it often works out practically to your benefit as well because your forthrightness is appreciated and returned. Hey, maybe honesty really is the best policy.**
Alright, that's about all for this entry. I made a list throughout the week of about ten things I wanted to talk about in this entry, and I got to approximately zero of them. I shouldn't have clicked that Facebook link. Oh well.
Until next time...
*I drive by the shady daycare almost everyday, it's on a somewhat busy street, and the thing that bothers me the most about it is that the parents don't cross at the crosswalk with their kids. They'll wait for a red light so that traffic stops, and then they'll walk between the cars. For God's sake, you're leading a two-year old child, take the extra fifty paces to the crosswalk! Now, this is the parents, not the employees of the daycare, but still. It doesn't reflect well on the institution in general.
**I once came up with an idea for a crossword puzzle where it was going to be puns on tenets, so, for example, a clue would be -- Honesty is the best policy? -- and the answer would be -- TRUEMANDOCTRINE. Get it? Another is -- Nihilism? -- and the answer is -- NOTTHEORY. It's a pretty good idea except those are the only two I could come up with, so maybe it's not such a great idea.
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