Adventures in Child Care

Had a bit of scare last night trying to figure out our child care options, what with our daycare provider announcing out of the blue last week that she was skipping town for a few weeks to “invest” the money from the sale of her house. (To my cousins, BTW, making it that much more annoying because I’m sure this wasn’t just a sudden decision.) She was being vague about when she was coming back so we decided to find someone new instead of bouncing the kids around for several weeks until she did. Easier said than done, of course.

A full-time nanny wasn’t a realistic – nor, to be honest, appealing – option, and finding a new daycare comes with its own set of problems because of India’s therapy which either requires the therapist coming into the daycare for two hours/day (not an option with the current one) or someone picking her up to bring her home for her therapy two hours/day. Craziness all around, and it was like a black cloud rolling in as the hassles of living in NY seemed to grow larger by the moment. Played with our budget to figure out how much of a pay cut I could take (Salomé’s job pays better, has cheaper benefits and pays overtime!) to accomodate a shorter workday and was surprised by how much room we had. Turns out that taking out that loan to pay off our car and credit cards when we were house-hunting left us better off than I’d realized and it wouldn’t be all that tragic. Of course, I’d still have to make the necessary arrangements at the current job or find a new one with a flexible schedule, so it’s still not an ideal situation. But at least it’s one option, which is one more than it seemed like we had last night.

Speaking of India, she had her Occupational Therapy evaluation yesterday and passed with flying colors! First good news we’ve had since she was diagnosed. Then we got more good news today as our case worker found her a spot in a school starting in September that she’ll be able to stay in even after she ages out of the Early Intervention Program. We’ll still have the scheduling issues to deal with but at least that’s one huge hurdle potentially out of the way.

Written by Guy LeCharles Gonzalez

Guy LeCharles Gonzalez is the Chief Content Officer for LibraryPass, and former publisher & marketing director for Writer’s Digest. Previously, he was also project lead for the Panorama Project; director, content strategy & audience development for Library Journal & School Library Journal; and founding director of programming & business development for the original Digital Book World.