It's good to have options...

I'm finally starting to feel like all is not lost and that the world isn't coming to an end because of this daycare fiasco. It's really due to a bunch of things-- it's been a full week now, enough time for me to cry and yell and freak out and be really, really angry. I feel like I'm now able to turn down the volume on the whole insanity factor and instead just focus on getting it taken care of.

The even better news is that we saw a great family daycare this evening. It's in Brookline, which means that it's a little further away from home, but it's EXACTLY on my way home from work, so that's great. I actually go to work a different way because of traffic patterns in the morning, but it's not that big of a deal. The woman who runs it has 2 daughters and has been doing childcare for years and years. Her home is small, but it seemed really cozy, and Chickie was clearly happy-- he took off exploring and checking things out. She seemed to really like him, and she said that she'd love to take care of him, so if we want the spot, it's ours. It was really night and day from the place we went to yesterday... family daycare means having a much deeper relationship with the provider, and that's something that I really like. The downside is that family daycares CAN have less structure, more kids to one provider, and if the kids' age range is large, the kids get stuck doing least-common-denominator type stuff where everyone is contained but no one is really appropriately stimulated. Hmmmm. But really, as an astute mom friend pointed out to me, what are kids in daycare for? To be cared for and nurtured, and yes, stimulated, but it's not like they have to do freaking mathematics by their first birthday (I think her exact words were, "It's not like, 'Look, you're one; have an abacus!'"). True.

I have since heard more good things about Arc-en-ciel, so I guess there are about 100 sides to this story. The only way to know is to just go there and find out for myself...

Ultimately, it's going to come down to a fit issue, especially since I see big benefits and drawbacks of both center and family daycares. But at least I know there's one place I could send him... this woman seemed really great, and she seemed super laid back about the stuff I was stressed about. She said that one of her daughters was a picky eater and didn't use a spoon for months-- um, I can relate to that...