Childcare Update

Okay, so I don't even know what to call the people who watch Ada. Right now it is a "babysitter" because I think "nanny" is more of a professional who does this for a living whereas babysitter is more temporary. Either way, whoever is taking care of my child is only temporary as I found out last week that sitter #2 who comes on Thursday is no longer available, and sitter #1 who comes on Tuesdays and Wednesdays is done as of September 10th when her semester starts back up. So here I am, still juggling the sitter crap. Which again makes me really thankful for my boss and my job and how flexible things are in my life right now because I couldn't do it without that... and I get by with a little help from my friends. Sorry, couldn't resist. :) But really, I do. I have friends that are willing to cover for me in a bind and that is really helpful since grandmas Ba and DD are over an hour away.



So what am I on? Plan F at this point? Daycare didn't work, hodge podge grandma coverage was temporary, the nanny interviews failed, sitter one will be okay for a bit, sitter two is done, sitter three comes Friday, so I guess this is Plan G since I know sitter three is temporary because I'm trying to help her find a job in Human Rights here in Chicago - Anyone know of anyone looking for a new grad wanting to get into Human Rights work or general administration work at a University??? I'm thinking these younger "sitters" aren't taking this as seriously as I'd hoped, which is to be expected since they are "sitters" and not "nannies". At least they are giving me notice instead of dropping the ball completely.



From my experience so far, I'd have to say maturity goes far when dealing with infants. And if I were a nanny/baby sitter, I'd only take jobs where the kids are one year or older and aren't sick. It wouldn't be worth it for me to deal with an infant that screams all day because they are teething. I once babysat for a little girl, just a few months old, who had an ear infection and was asthmatic. Her parents had just adopted her and I was shocked that they would leave me with her when she wasn't feeling well. But they did. She screamed the whole time and her older sister kept saying "This isn't normal, you should call my parents." So I did. I called them about ten times during their movie and they were pissed. Then they went on to tell the other sitters how awful I was because I couldn't handle their baby. I vowed at that moment never to do that to a sitter. And I have a lot of guilt now that Ada is teething because I can't predict when she'll have a screaming fit and when she won't. But at least I leave them with 5 teething remedies and a fresh bottle of infant Motrin so that



And not only can I not get this daytime baby coverage all smooth and stressless, but I can't find a sitter for a saturday night this week. I'm going to have to try sittercity.com and let you know how that goes. We'll see.



I still can't complain as I have a friend in Colorado who is having a mess of a time with her sitters and has given up going out altogther until her regular sitter comes back from summer vacation. So it could be much much worse. And I'm lucky that I live in a city with great mom networks, great friends, and so much to do. Chicago rocks!



Moral of the story: Childcare is a neverending battle so you might as well look for the humor in it all, learn as you go and hope that your child is learning all of the good things and none of the bad from each person who cares for her.