Thursday, November 30, 2006

Daycare vs. Stay at home

There are days when having both of us work from home and being able to keep A-chan home with us is absolutely wonderful. And then there are days when our work schedule gets interrupted and I get really frustrated and almost wish that she went to Daycare. Almost.

I usually plan my "serious work sessions" for during her nap everyday. But the days when she doesn't take a nap (like yesterday) or if her nap is cut short by something, I can't get much done and end up being frustrated and feeling resentful about it. The fact that I get so frustrated is a mystery to me - it's like not-sleeping is a trigger for me to get all upset and it makes no sense. And at the end of a long day of stress & anger & tantrums from a sleepy toddler I end up questioning our decision to keep her at home with us.

Daycare is a necessary and wonderful thing for lots of parents, I know. Yet I just don't like it. Looking back on my own daycare days I am filled with horror. So I feel incredibly fortunate to be able to keep my daughter home with us.

It seems like all the kids I know who are in daycare are always sick. A-chan so far has had only two illnesses in her two year old life and we hope to keep that number to about the same ratio as she grows. That is a huge reason I don't want to send her to daycare. And the added caveat that we know all her bad habits will come from us instead of from other kids is...well, I don't know if that's a benefit or not.

So why am I writing all of this? Mainly to have something to convince myself that daycare is evil when I'm extremely frustrated and tired and grumpy and A-chan refuses to take a nap.

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