I got a phone call from Baby L's daycare Tuesday saying he had three loose stools within an hour, therefore he needed to go home, per their rules. He has no fever, he is in good spirits. In addition to that, he would not be allowed to return on Wednesday, for fear that what is affecting his tummy may be transmissible to the other children. Sure, I could guess that makes sense. However, Monday, they fed my child baked beans. Baked freaking beans. No wonder his guts are torn up!!
So, needless to say, I picked my child up from daycare and we went home to watch the live adaptation of Grease that was on TV not too long ago that I recorded. Baby L loves the music and he loves dancing to it. It's freaking adorable.
So, onto the reason for this post, I suppose. I've been thinking about daycare a lot lately. I mean, it is ridiculously expensive. When my pregnancy was close to being over, we did our due diligence with researching local schools, checking out a few different places, trying to budget money. We ended up with one that is close to work, so bonus for when I wanted to visit my newborn on my lunch break. Said daycare was a smidgen more expensive than others, but seemed totally worth it. The teachers were articulate, they wore shoes (which seems pretty much like a given, but we learned that .. no, not so much.), they even had a uniform of sorts with all of the teachers wearing a smock. They had structured classroom schedules and would give us a little report at the end of the day tallying how much your child ate, how many times he pooped his pants, etc. Pretty legit place. We've been using them for close to two years now, and I have come to the conclusion that I am in the WRONG industry. They HAVE to be making money hand over fist in that place. Not even counting the weekly "tuition" that we have to pay, but they nickel and dime the ever living crap out of us. (see what I did there, with the "crap" joke??) $50 "supply fee" due every August, oh look, if you are a teacher and want to not bring your child in for the summer months then just pay this "reservation fee" and we will gladly take Junior back in August, but oh hey, this "reservation fee" isn't going to go towards the tuition once he returns, it'll just go into our pocket. (Granted, I'm not a teacher, so this doesn't apply to me, but you can get the picture.) "Oh, it's Thanksgiving coming up, so we are going to be closed Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday also for good measure. What's that you're thinking? Oh, you think you'll only have to pay 2 days worth of tuition, well, that's hysterical for you to think that, because you're wrong!! You still have to pay us for the entire week!!"
It's a complete racket! They even had the nerve to send out an email last Christmas saying they couldn't afford to give everybody a Christmas bonus, so if every family just donated $50, then they could provide everybody with the raise they deserve. Bullshit!! I'll give my son's teacher a coffee mug with a candle in it and call it a fucking day! I'm not forking over ANOTHER fifty bucks, when you are probably laying out crisp $100 bills on your pillow every night so you can sleep on them.
Basically, daycare has me over a barrel. I work so I can help pay our bills. If I didn't work, we would lose half of our monthly income (duh). One of my checks covers a month of daycare. So, one of my paychecks goes to bills. This is with one child. Add another into the mix, and I would basically work to put my kids in daycare. I don't want money to interfere with my dreams of having another child, but holy fucking hell, daycare is expensive. Can I be a stay-at-home-mom? Probably. I'd like to think I'd be June Cleaver, but we all know I'd probably become Lorena Bobbitt.
I need to win the lottery. The money kind, not the rock kind. I have enough rocks, thank you.
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