Day Care Dilemma

My husband and I recently made the decision to put our Mini Monster (aka our 20-month-old son) into nursery school. With responsibilities in both our jobs growing, the timing seemed right. My partner works a traditional 9-5 type job and, as most of you probably know, my schedule is a bit more… unconventional.

If you know what I mean

I have my part-time day job where I work with children facing developmental, behavioral, and/or cognitive delays. And I have my work-from-home job of writing both for my blog and other publications. Then there’s my 24/7 job: being a mom. Even though I love my somewhat hectic life, sometimes it can take its toll.

We all have our moments

Obviously the deciding factor in enrolling our child into nursery school wasn’t so that mommy could have the opportunity to pee alone. But it was definitely a nice perk. Honestly the main reason we wanted our son to go was for him to be more social. We don’t have too many friends with children his age, so this was a nice way to ease him out of his social freak outs.

*Reenactment of our son around other children before enrolling in nursery school

Yet the one thing I was consistently warned about still caught me by surprise: sniffles. I don’t care how healthy your kid is, how much sleep they get, or what spirits you pray to, it seems inevitable that your child will eventually catch a bug from someone at daycare/school. Like clockwork, my son got the tell-tale runny nose his first week in and it has yet to fully clear up despite my best efforts. I still try to prevent spreading germs as much as possible, though.

Dean knows what’s up

Since I’m still so new to this whole nursery school scene, what do you guys think? Are the “sniffles” something that just go away on their own? Or do you pull them out at a certain point to let their immune system recover? Let me know what you think, because I’m pretty sure we’re depleting the forests with our recent uptick in Kleenex usage!

Where Did My Baby Go?

It’s like I blinked and my tiny, squishy baby turned into a tall, independent man. You might think my son is 18 but he’s really only 18 months. But he might as well be a full-grown man because that’s how it feels to me. He doesn’t want to hold my hand or cuddle as much as he used to and his features are becoming more defined and less cherubic. I know that all of this growth and development stuff is totally normal in biological terms, but that doesn’t make it any easier on my heart. I still want to be there when he needs me – even if he thinks he doesn’t.

Toddler = Hulk

Obviously I know that it’s healthy for my son to be testing boundaries and asserting his will. Just like I know it’s probably creepy that sometimes I watch him sleep because he’s just so stinking cute it hurts. But maybe that’s what being a mom is. Logic doesn’t make sense and our senses don’t seem logical. I love that he’s getting more independent – the whole “able to hold his own neck up” thing is cool – but is it so wrong that I want him to stay a baby, too?

Why doesn’t Hallmark have a card for this?

My little man is almost done with swim class and is getting ready to start day care in just a few, short weeks. While I swell with pride when he learns something new and I have fun shopping for pint-sized backpacks and lunch boxes, part of me is scared, too. Daycare will be the first time he’s been away from me with people I don’t know. That’s not to say I don’t trust this place to take care of him, but there’s still a great, big unknown. What if he hurts himself while there? They don’t know our special boo-boo song! Will he survive without it?

But they don’t know the boo-boo song!!!

But at the end of the day, I know that this parenting gig is about him not me. I don’t want to be the hovering mom who deprives her son of learning how to be resilient on his own. I want to be the mom that lets him explore and make mistakes but isn’t ever too far away for a hug. So for now, I’ll stop worrying about life passing too quickly and focus on the here and now.

But I may watch him sleep for just one more second…