Many things have been going through my mind today on the subject of daycare. It started with seeing a new group on facebook called Noah’s Road. It’s a site dedicated to raising funds and awareness for a baby that was shaken by his daycare provider and now has seizures and other physical issues because of it. Tears came to my eyes while reading about this poor little boy who’s not much younger than Miles. How anyone could call themselves human, let alone a daycare provider and physically harm a baby is beyond me. The whole thing just solidifies my feeling that (beyond family) no one is trustworthy when it comes to taking care of my child. I’m sure that these people felt fairly good about leaving their baby with this person and look what they got.

The next issue that has been on my mind is the spread of ear infections, pink eye and respiratory infections in daycare settings. Yes, Miles has had a respiratory infection in his 8 months kickin’ it on the outside. Of course every baby is going to get sick once in a while. However, a friend of mine that has had her son in daycare 2 days a week for the past couple of months has had to deal with 2 ear infections, 2 colds and pink eye! That’s just crazy. I know that interaction with other children is very important to a child’s development, but how does that work if your kid is too sick to interact because somebody else sent their kid to daycare with a contagion? Miles is a very sociable boy as it is, and thanks to a big family on both sides, he gets a good amount of interaction with adults and children. The key is that we get to choose who he sees and when. If we know that someone is sick, we keep him out of range of their hands and face until they are better. You don’t have that choice when you are dropping your baby off and are gone before the kid with the fever and runny everything shows up.

I make it a point to make his days interesting and diverse. We have music and play times. I introduce new learning toys. We go for walks all over town and I drive us to different towns to give him a change of view. I stop to talk to people in shops so that he sees me being social. I read to him and teach him new signs for words we use every day. When everyone is healthy we have play dates. His development is right on schedule with most other babies in his age bracket. He hasn’t said any words yet other than “mum”, but other than that, he’s all good.

I just can’t see paying up to $1,200 a month to pay someone to get my kid sick and teach them how to play with other kids. That’s something I can do myself just fine, thanks. First of all, we can’t afford it even if we wanted to send him to daycare. I’d really just be working to keep him there. We’re hoping to have at least one more child and there’s no way that we’d be able to pay for that. If I was a single mom and I had no other choice, obviously I’d have to do it. Thankfully, I’m not. I have nothing but the utmost respect for single parents and really don’t know how they keep it all together. I have a hard enough time only having Kofi home in the evenings and on the weekends. They deserve more than just a Mother’s or a Father’s day once a year. They deserve Single Parent’s Month, where they are lavished with gifts and hugs from everyone they see. They could choose one of the months that has 31 days, so they could get as much out of it as possible.

Anyway, that’s what has been on my mind today. I’m sure that there are some fantastic daycare centers and nannies out there. I just feel better knowing that no one is shaking Miles or rubbing him up against some little snotty faced, pink eyed kid.