New Day Care (Ups and Downs)

This week is my son's first week of day care. I felt guilty as anything Monday morning when I did the first initial drop off. It was a new environment, he didn't know anybody and he was used to being spoiled by having one on one adult interaction all day. I was nervous too as I was afraid of "what if he bites", "what if he cries all day", all of those "what ifs". I prayed it would be a good day, a good transition...a better place. I am moving towards to knowing that this move really is for the best.

I am happy to say that while the "down" part of this whole experience is the morning drop offs..thats it. My son does not want me to take off his hat or coat as a means to try and keep me with him. He clings on to me for dear life, which makes me feel completely awful when I have to physically (after a lot of time has passed)remove his tiny little grasp and hand him off to the teacher with him wailing "MAMA!!!!!!". Yeah...I feel GREAT about that...not. Needless to say...I've cried just about every morning on the way to work.

This morning was a tad bit better, not because of my son's predictable actions of crying for me when I hand him off, but the teacher who made me feel better. She told me that while it does take a little time for him to calm down to remember its a transition phase and he has a GREAT time after he figures out that he can play with the kids as well as some of his already favorite toys. She told me that she has been doing day care for 16 years and this is normal behavior. I knew that, but getting that extra encouragement of "your kid isn't the only one" is nice. She also told me that during story time she makes sure that my son sees the key word (i.e. dog) in the book and points to the picture. She told me the speech therapist would be doing this with him. I knew that this would be one of the things the speech therapist would do, as I do this as home too (pointing at pictures and words and sounding them out), but it was also another added relief of "hey this lady really wants to help my kid." I teared up with her comment as I finally, finally, FINALLY feel like there is a teacher that not only takes care of my son but genuinely and awesomely is trying to HELP my son. For that I am truly thankful and feel really blessed.

So while there are still things that stink about day care (the drop offs)...there has been a lot of positive moves. Obviously I'd rather be financially capable of taking care of my son myself, but if it has to be this way...at least I feel encouragement by an outstanding facility and wonderful teacher.