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Child care
August 11, 2011
Study: Most preschool sack lunches are improperly packed
Think you know everything about packing a safe lunch? Think again, say researchers at the University of Texas.
A recent study, which will appear in next month’s Pediatrics journal (and is currently online), shows that more 90 percent of sack lunches prepared at home and sent with kids to preschool were kept at unsafe temperatures.
The study was an outgrowth of a nutrition research project designed to test the effectiveness of a program to teach parents to pack better daycare lunches. As part of the study, the researchers checked the lunch boxes of 700 preschool students (ages 3 to 5), measuring contents, temperatures and nutritional values.
They found that while 45 percent of the lunches studied had at least one ice pack, 39 percent had no supplemental ice packs. Even including lunches with ice packs, 88 percent were at room temperature. Fewer than 2 percent of lunches with perishable items were found to be in a safe temperature zone, while more than 90 percent (even with multiple ice packs) were kept at unsafe temperatures.
The temperature readings were surprising to the team, which included a number of registered dieticians, said the study’s co-author and postdoctoral student Sara Sweitzer. (Lead author Fawaz D. Almansour was unavailable for comment due to the fact he’s just become at new dad.)
“When you pulled out the non-perishable items, 97 percent of items were outside the safe zone two hours before lunch,” she said.
She’s quick to add, especially for those who remember that insulated coolers and ice packs are fairly recent additions to a school sack lunch, that they are not suggesting that children are getting ill at record levels. But food borne bacteria does grow at unsafe temperatures and that queasy feeling your kid has been complaining about or that touch of gastrointestinal distress, could very well be the result of improperly cooled food, she said.
“We are not suggesting that these kids are winding up in the emergency room,” she said. “But there are some easy things that parents can do to help keep food cool longer — after all this is Texas,” she said. The best storage temperature is below 40 degrees Fahrenheit for cold foods and above 140 degrees for hot foods. Between 40 and 140 degrees is the “danger zone.”
Her recommendations
— Use two ice packs, not just one. A frozen teething ring or juice box will not be enough to keep a whole lunch cold.
— Consider placing the lunch box itself in the freezer the night before, especially if you are packing a lunch that morning. A cold container will help the ice pack do its job.
— If sending hot food, be sure to prepare the Thermos or other insulated container. Fill it with boiling water and allow to sit for a few minutes before filling with hot food.
— Separate perishable and non-perishable items and place ice packs strategically around the items that need it. This includes cut fruits and vegetables. Once the skin is broken, bacteria can start to grow. “But on a scale of one to 10, I’d still be more concerned about the turkey and dairy,” Sweitzer said.
The goal is to keep food in the safe zone for as long as possible, especially for smaller kids whose immune systems are not as fully developed as their older counterparts (though the advice is good for big kid lunches also.)
“There is a two hour window, where food can exceed the recommended temperatures levels and still be considered safe,” she said. “But if you pack a lunch at 6 a.m. that means that it needs to stay chilled until 9: 15 or 9:30.”
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December 2, 2009
Returning to work: A practice run
Today is the last day of my maternity leave.
The last 12 weeks have really flown. I’m not entirely sure where the time went. With my first baby, three months felt like an eternity. With Elizabeth, not so much.
This morning was our practice run for day care. The whole family got up, dressed, fed and out the door on time by some miracle. It was a joint effort, since Ayanna, the toddler, informed me that she wasn’t getting dressed to go to school while I was nursing the baby. Dad took over, dressed the toddler before heading to the office himself, thus avoiding a major throwdown.
Dropping Elizabeth off this morning was not nearly as emotionally draining as it was with Ayanna at the same age. I’ve been preparing for the better part of a week — labeling bottles, weaning her for daytime formula feedings (The breast pump is my enemy and has failed to actually pump any milk.), setting aside extra clothing.
The lack of angst probably has something to do with the fact that she’s going to the same school as her big sister. We know most of the teachers at the center and have visited the infant room many times. There is relief in the lack of unknowns and just a small bit of anxiety over finally seeing what our new reality is going to be like during the work week.
Ayanna seemed pleased that Elizabeth was going to school and even tried to carry the car seat which weighs nearly as much as she does. As a consolation prize I put her in charge of carrying Elizabeth’s bottles, a job she performed with gusto.
After I dropped both kids off, I sat in the drive-thru line at Starbucks — mostly because I could without setting off Elizabeth’s howls at being stopped for more than 60 seconds. I loitered in the grocery store, comparing prices for the new items that we’ve added to our grocery list over the past three months (soy formula, Cetaphil lotion, indoor food for our fat cat.) And I am now typing this blog without keeping one ear open for Elizabeth’s cries.
It probably also helps that today is just a half day for her, as will the rest of this week.
But it is still strange. And I expect next week to be even stranger as I transition from half days to full days at the office — praying that my milk holds out in the evenings and hoping that sleep deprivation hasn’t killed all my non-mom brain cells.
But then, soon enough, it will all be normal. Crazy and hectic, but normal.
Permalink | Comments (2) | Categories: Child care, Maternity leave, Work place
August 14, 2009
Day care hunt made easier with database
In the two years since I started writing for this blog, more and more people have been asking me about how to find a good day care in this town.
I usually sigh and then tell them it’s not an easy task, and it’s better to start as early as possible, especially for infants. Then I point them to the state’s database so they can check out the possibilities for themselves.
Now the folks here at Statesman.com have put together a searchable database that takes you directly to the state’s information. It even lets you see the most recent inspection summaries from the state for all the legal day cares providers in our five-county area. It includes centers as well as home providers.
As a bonus, there’s a way for readers to leave reviews for others to read and consider as they choose care providers.
Check it out here. Happy hunting!
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July 16, 2009
State launches parent survey on child care
The state agency responsible for licensing child care providers is looking for parents to participate in an online survey about their child care choices.
The Texas Department of Family and Protective Services is reviewing its minimum standards and wants to know what is most important to parents when choosing care (price, offerings, convenience, special services, meals, etc.)
The survey takes less than five minutes and is anonymous. It also allows several opportunities for parents to elaborate on the multiple choice questions. After taking the survey this morning, my only gripe is that I wish that the survey gave a way for parents to differentiate their location by size of city, not just by region. The experience of choosing child care is very different in Austin as compared to Lockhart.
There will be public testimony on any proposed rule changes and the survey will be posted until Aug. 31, says Chris Van Deusen, spokesman for the Central Texas office of DPRS. The agency is particularly looking for input on reactions to rule changes that might affect affordability. The results will be posted on the website later this fall.
To take the survey, click here.
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May 1, 2009
The last day-care payment! Yeehaw!
We paid for our last month of day care today. It’s been two kids and eight years of writing checks for anywhere from $1,200 to $600 each month.
This month already feels like it’s going to go by way too fast and it’s just the first day. On Tuesday, I’ll register my daughter for kindergarten. Then there’s a field trip and a preschool graduation. Field day for my son, a class party and the waning days of second grade. Sometimes I just want to freeze time to let me absorb all the changes hurling towards us. Other times, I wish I could speed things up and get on with it already.
People have asked me what am I planning to do with all that extra money each month. I’m not delusional. I know it will get absorbed by other things: vacations, summer camp, school clothes, after-school activities, vet bills.
What did you do with the money you once spent on day care? Did you ramp up the college fund? Give more to charity? Or did you even notice a change?
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March 19, 2009
Navigating toddler transitions
Ayanna is switching classes at her day care this week.
Unlike the last time she changed rooms, I’m looking forward to the change. She’s not a baby anymore. She’s obviously much older and bigger than the other kids in her old class. Selfishly, I also suspect that she will nap more regularly if she has more challenging things to do in the mornings.
The reality of making the switch has meant chaotic evenings at home this week. She’s doing really well with her new teachers and classmates, and seems happy to be with the older kids. But the stress is clearly seeping out at home.
Last night she had an uncharacteristic meltdown in the middle of the Mangia Pizza parking lot, complete with flailing and crying on the concrete. The previous night she ran around the house non-stop, buzzing with toddler babble, perhaps trying to tell us about her big day. Even that was punctuated by a mini-crisis about every 30 minutes.
The best analogy I can come up with is that it must be like when a grown up starts a new job, even if it’s at the same place. Everything may go well, but by the end of the day you feel strung out and exhausted.
Research suggests that while day care transitions may be traumatic for toddlers, kids usually return to their pre-transition behavior within three weeks.
So we are coping. I skipped an outing last night that would have pushed her bedtime back some, in an effort to keep everything else as normal as possible. I also let her run around a bit to let her burn off some toddler steam.
How have your kids managed a change in classrooms or day care situations? Any tips?
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March 5, 2009
The grandma factor, or non-factor
Today the New York Times decided to take on the subject of grandmas who choose not to dote and bake chocolate chip cookies.
After reading the article “When Grandma Can’t be Bothered,” all I can say is wow.
I feel sorry for the grandmothers portrayed in the story, whose daughters apparently expected them to provide free day care and entertainment for their kids at a moments notice. If you’ve got that kind of relationship with your in-laws or mother, fantastic. But it takes a lot of nerve to expect your parents to drop their lives because you chose to have kids.
Distance and expense keeps me from seeing my mother as much as I would like. She’s an avid and award-winning quilter, so visits also revolve around her production and show schedule. The point of the visits are for Ayanna to get to know her grandparents and learn to enjoy their company.
My mom was a stay-at-home and military wife. She put a lot of her hopes and dreams on hold to provide a stable environment for my brother and I. She adores her grandkids, but she’s got a life too.
I’d never dream of expecting my mother to introduce Ayanna to kids in her neighborhood to entertain her during a visit, as one person interviewed suggested. Our visits are to spend time with family, not to set up playdates.
My in-laws live in town and while they do babysit for us occasionally, my father-in-law is a professor with a regular travel schedule and my mother-in-law is trying to make a go of her own business. Expecting either of them to completely rearrange their lives for their grandkids is absurd.
Of course, there are instances where grandparent day care arrangements are mutually beneficially and enjoyable to both parties. One of my co-workers mother-in-law is her day care provider and all involved are thrilled with the arrangement.
But expecting your mom to close off her options because you want to exercise your own is probably not where you want to put yourself 30 years from now when you become the grandma.
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January 14, 2009
Study: Day care not cause of obesity
Finally some good news about day care.
According to Wall Street Journal writer Sue Shellenbarger, University of Washington researchers took a look at obesity rates in kindergarten and what kind of care kids had for pre-school. Only a few types of care are linked with higher obesity rates:
Informal daycare by relatives, friends, sitters or neighbors correlates with a higher chance of a child’s being obese by kindergarten, compared with children in their parents’ care, says a recent study in the journal “Pediatrics.” Care by grandparents, in particular, was cited, perhaps because grandparents may tend to be more sedentary, or to indulge their grandchildren with snacks or TV. But time spent in child-care centers and family child-care homes wasn’t linked to weight gain, says the study by researchers affiliated with the University of Washington, Seattle.
I totally believe this. While shopping for daycare for Ayanna, one of our big criteria was making sure even the youngest kids got time outside and on the playground. Licensed daycare also have nutritional guidelines they must meet if they provide meals, so kids are less likely to snack on carbs and Cheerios all day long.
Our other big sticking point was limited TV time. Our current day care has no television time and that is fine with us. It is easy to park kids in front of the screen, especially at meal times to ease the chaos, but that means they aren’t moving around as much.
Permalink | | Categories: Child care, Health
December 11, 2008
State makes changes to day care database
Since I posted my item yesterday morning about choosing a home day care, I’ve been corresponding with Chris Van Deusen, spokesman for the regional office of the Department of Family and Protective Services.
He let me know that the state has made some changes to its daycare database to make it easier for parents to decipher what violations in care are a big deal and those that are not.
Here’s what he had to say about the change:
On Nov. 1 we introduced weighted standards. Each standard we review now has an assigned weight (High, Medium High, Medium, Medium Low, Low) based on the risk to children.On the website, parents can now see the number of violations by weight that an operation has had over the last two years. One of the problems under the old system was that it was hard to discern how serious violations were.
A day care might have had 23 violations, but there was no way at a glance to tell whether they were minor paperwork problems or very serious health and safety concerns. You could always go read each violation (and you still can), but this gives parents another tool.
I took a look at the revisions and I have to say it is much easier to make heads or tales of the information. When I was hunting this summer for new care, I had to dig pretty deep into the site to even get an inkling of what the violations were really about.
So, I looked up Ayanna’s current day care, which has been evaluated since we switched. They got nailed for incomplete immunization records, which is considered high risk. (That explains the notice that went out to parents last week to get the records up to date.)
The also had a couple in the medium high category — a few uncovered outlets and the nap time set up in one of the rooms prevented staff from seeing all the kids at once. Both items were fixed on the spot.
So, even if you aren’t in the market for new day care, it’s definitely worth your time to see the latest inspection reports. And the new format means it won’t take your entire lunch hour to figure it out.
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December 10, 2008
Reminder about choosing a home day care
We reported in today’s newspaper about a day care provider in Round Rock who left four kids under age 3 alone while she ran errands. The woman also had two kids in car seats with her.
This was not one of the underground day cares you hear so much about. Edel Sum was listed with the state to care for three kids and had passed the required criminal background check. She had been operating the day care since February.
Sum has been charged with four felony counts of abandoning or endangering a child and faces up to 80 years in prison if convicted. She remained in the Williamson County Jail on Tuesday with bail set at $20,000.
There are plenty of great in-home day cares in Central Texas, but it is up to parents to be vigilant if you choose one. Although nothing is fool proof, parents should interview any provider carefully and do some additional research on state requirements.
“Listed” is not the same thing as “licensed” when it comes to day care providers. State regulators do not make regular checks at listed home day cares unless there is a complaint, but you can look up how many kids any provider is eligible to care for.
Too many kids per adult should raise alarm bells for parents, whether it is an in-home day care or center-based care. Parents should also find out what the day care provider’s backup system is, if the provider should have to leave the house. That person should also pass a background check.
Here’s a primer on how the state defines each category:
Listed Family Homes
People who must list with the division are those who are compensated to provide regular child care (at least four hours per day, three or more days a week, for more than nine consecutive weeks) in their own homes for 1-3 unrelated children.
After receipt of an application and licensing background check clearances, a certificate is issued. The listed family home caregiver must be at least 18 years old. However, there are no minimum standards, orientation or training requirements for listed homes.
They are not inspected unless a report is received alleging child care is offered subject to registration and reports of abuse or neglect are investigated.
Registered Child Care Homes
Registered Child Care Homes provide care in the caregiver’s home for up to six children under age 14; they may also take in up to six more school-age children.
The number of children allowed in a home is determined by the ages of the children. No more than 12 children can be in care at any time, including children of the caregiver. The application process requires that a registered child care home provider complete an orientation class and receive clearances on background checks.
A registration certificate is issued after licensing staff completes an on-site inspection to ensure minimum standards are met. Registered homes are inspected every 1-2 years and if a report is received related to child abuse/neglect or standards deficiencies.
Licensed Facilities
All types of licensed facilities have published standards they are required to follow and are routinely monitored and inspected.
The application process requires that the licensed operation provider receive orientation and background checks are conducted. A license is issued after licensing staff completes on-site inspection(s) to ensure minimum standards are met.
Licensed facilities are inspected at least once every 12 months and to investigates reports alleging violations of standards or child abuse/neglect. Licensed Facilities include day care and 24 hour residential care.
For a complete list of state certified day cares of all categories, the Department of Family and Protective Services has a database searchable by zip code.
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September 20, 2008
Breaking up with day care is hard to do
Moms ask a lot of day care providers. Keeping little people happy, healthy and loved is no small task.
In this blog I have groused about the difficulties in finding good day care in this town. Knowing all the bad that is out there makes it that much harder to pick up stakes and move, especially when you’ve been happy with the care your kid has gotten.
It was Ayanna’s last day are her day care on Friday. We have moved to another part of town and needed to have her closer to the new house.
Three of the women there, who work in the infant and toddler rooms, have been there since we dropped her off for the first time at three months old. Ayanna never so much as had a diaper rash. And every time I stopped by she and her buddies seemed to be having the time of their lives. A working mom couldn’t ask for much more.
My co-workers and friends will tell you that I’m not a demonstrative person, but I cried walking out the door. E., one of the teachers, told me to stop or else I’d make her cry, too. I couldn’t, so I just left and tried to get together in the parking lot while I buckled Ayanna, who was a little perplexed by the happenings, in the car.
I’m sure the new place will be fine, and Ayanna would have changed teachers in a few months anyway, but I have to confess they have a tough act to follow. I never worried about Ayanna’s well-being once while at the old place. And to a working mom that is worth your kid’s weight in gold.
So to all the day care workers out there: Thank you for putting up with us mamas and, more importantly, thank you for loving our kids.
So tell me what YOU love about your day care.
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July 30, 2008
Hunting for daycare can be tough for out-of-towners
The last time I complained about the day care situation in Austin I got yelled at by readers. Essentially the sentiments by some of our non-parent readers were “You had a kid, you figure out what to do with them.”
So I’ve been checking out local daycares (I’m not completely altruistic, the comparison shopping has also been for my own daughter.) Anyway, virtually every center I visited close to downtown is full, not just for the fall, but waiting lists have already started for January. The situation is slightly better further out, but often the hours aren’t long enough for the the downtown commute, staff turnover is uncomfortably high, the rates are uncomfortably high or there’s some other factor that sets of my mom alarm bells.
Admittedly I’ve only been looking at centers. Home-based day cares abound and they tend to be less expensive, but they also tend to have less regulation by the state. And the few that I did check, are also already full for fall. So it’s a trade off.
So then I wondered, what on earth to parents do when their job moves them here from another city? They pick child care pretty much blind, is the answer. I was talking to one transplant in Southwest Austin, who didn’t want his name used, who moved last week from Knoxville. He and his wife had already signed his two children — ages 1 and 3 — at the only place he could find space, and now that he was here was asking anyone who had kids if they knew anything about the center.
I was reading the latest by Leslie Morgan Steiner, who writes the “Two Cents” column for Mommy Track’d. While I disagree with some of her underlying premise about differences between black mothers and white mothers, the item does speak volumes about the choices available to single parents or those families on tight, working class budgets.
Sometimes despite their instincts, parents are forced to put their kids somewhere, anywhere, to keep working, and pray that something better and affordable will come along.
What did you do for day care when you first moved to town?
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July 2, 2008
Snowballs in July
As a single person without a child I was my own self-contained island. I rarely got sick, and when I did it usually wasn’t bad enough to warrant taking a day off.
Now that I’m a mom, I’ve been introduced to the concept that one problem can quickly snowball into many problems. Snowball A: Last weekend Ayanna and I were supposed to drive to Dallas for a mother-daughter trip to meet some of the other moms I’ve been corresponding with online. My husband was going to get some alone time and I was going to do some much needed mom-bonding.
Thursday, the day before we were supposed to leave, Ayanna came down with a stomach bug. My vacation day became a sick day and we stayed home. By Sunday evening I was sick as well, which meant on Monday (the day I was supposed to fill in for my boss who is on vacation this week) I was unable to eat or stand up for long periods of time. Snowball B: This morning I arrived at daycare to drop off my daughter to find the door to the baby room locked. It seems that the early morning teacher overslept by accident, leaving several moms in business attire sitting confused in the front of the daycare with small children in tow.
Rather than sit indefinitely since aforementioned boss is still on vacation, I piled Ayanna back in the car and took her to work, where she tried to eat the felt pens until I got her some eggs from the company food mobile. She ate noisily. I didn’t get much work done, but I did manage to take her back to daycare in time to make my 10 a.m. meeting.
Frankly, oversleeping can happen to anyone and isn’t the normal state of being for this particular teacher. I guess I can take solace in the fact that my snowballs are still fairly contained, in that they affect me, my husband and my immediate co-workers and not a dozen families and their co-workers.
Thank God for small favors.
Photo: Associated Press
Permalink | | Categories: Child care, Parenting, Work place
June 20, 2008
Breaking up with your day care
One of my co-workers broke up with her day-care provider today. It’s a decision she struggled with for months. Now she needs replacement care, and is having to get it via plane.
The center she used was a God-send when her son was an infant, but teacher turnover and troubles in the rooms for the older kids has left her with an uneasy feeling about the quality of care.
The trouble is that breaking up with you day care requires a lot of advance planning. She already had her son on a list for a fall spot somewhere else, but after weeks of leaving her son with essentially strangers, she decided she had enough.
So, she’s flying her mother in from the East Coast to care for her son for the month of July. Until then her husband and her will flex their schedules to keep the homefront covered until reinforcements arrive.
Have you had to suddenly leave your day-care provider? What did you do in the gap until you found a new one?
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April 3, 2008
Austin stay at home dad on 'Today'
On this morning’s “Today Show” Matt Lauer made a startling discovery — there is such a thing as a stay-at-home dad.
The lengthy segment kicked off with a trip to suburban Austin to meet Rick and Meghan Lucas and their two kids. Rick cooks, cleans, takes care of the kids and “even takes the kids to playgroup.”
Much of the buzz on the blogosphere by moms and dads alike has been one of annoyance. The phenomenon of dads as the primary caregiver has been on the rise for several years and even though the “Today” folks brushed at the idea of stereotypes Mr. Mom, they still used it as the tagline for the video link in their MSNBC article online.
Lauer goes so far to ask how should men prepare is they wind up staying at home. Duh… same way as women do. Seriously, if stay-at-home dad’s are looking for more resources check out www.rebeldad.com … he’s got a ton.
The sit-down session with Lauer also featured Aaron Rochlen, an associate professor at the University of Texas who studies men’s gender roles, including stay-at-home dads. Putting in a call to him, so maybe he can tell Mama Drama more in the coming weeks about his research.
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February 27, 2008
The cost of Austin day care
Finding day care in this town is a challenge that requires an upper-level understanding of parental calculus.
You put location, quality, cost and hours of operation into a hopper and pray you get a good result that produces the least amount of worries and won’t break the bank.
We just got hit with an $80 increase in the rate for our 9-month-old daughter Ayanna. Ouch. The explanation: An internal marketing study.
After a good deal of ranting on my part to my husband, in the end we will stay put. Her care providers are good, the location is convenient and the pick up times mostly coincide with our work hours.
To make myself feel better, I decided to look up what the averages are in Travis County. According to the folks at the United Way who put together a report card on child care for 2007, average full-time care for an infant at an accredited center is $844 a month. The average cost drops for older children to $657 for a 4-year-old.
The report card writers make a point that daycare rates are higher than a year at the University of Texas.
Of course, cost varies dramatically across the city. The closer the center is to downtown, the more it will cost. And of course, better deals can be found at nonprofit, church operated centers and licensed in-home providers. In parenting circles, I’ve heard of some folks paying as much as $1,300 a month. Double ouch.
What kind of rates are you seeing this year?
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February 15, 2008
Summer camp: memories for kids, sanity for parents
For working parents, once a kid gets to be school age the thought of summer can cause parental migraines as early as February.
Summer nannies can be pricey, and not all child care centers offer a summer option for school-aged children. And sometimes older kids just need a change of pace when the weather is good and homework abates. And you have to plan quickly, since slots at camps often go quickly.
Enter summer camp and the Statesman’s annual Camp Guide. The choices in Central Texas are dizzying. There’s something for virtually everyone. There’s a camp for children with diabetes (a boon for parents trying to avoid high-carb camp lunch fare), there’s traditional fun camp, soccer camp, robotics camp, rowing camp, magic camp, and don’t forget horse camp.
My friend Lisa’s 7-year-old daughter adores horses. She’s got a whole stable of toy horses to play with and loads of books about horses, too. Last summer, Lindsay’s big treat at summer’s end was one week of horse camp. She groomed, fed, rode and cleaned up after her equine friends at the Rio Vista Farm in Eastern Travis County. She even got to paint — yes, paint — a horse.
At the end of the week, the parents were invited out to a horse show by the kids. Not the same as a pony for Christmas, but pretty darn close. Months later, just a mention of horse camp brings a smile to her face. In fact, she loved it so much, she going back for spring break camp.
What camps have your kids particularly enjoyed?
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October 6, 2007
Waiting list woes
Today in the American-Statesman’s Raising Austin column on F1, mom-to-be Moira Muldoon writes about the long waiting lists at some day care centers.
Most new moms probably experience the same.
Eight years ago, I thought I was being proactive by putting my then-yet-to-be-conceived child on the waiting list at my temple’s child development center. It seemed a little crazy to me, but I was told everyone was doing it. I also was advised what months were best to have a child born in to get into the day care.
I followed their plan. Two years later, my child born in January, needing care beginning in May, and I still did not get to the top of the waiting list. I was heartbroken. Then in a mad scramble I looked at other day cares, put my name on a waiting list and waited and waited and nothing happened.
I finally found a place on a co-worker’s recommendation. This day care doesn’t keep waiting lists. If you call up and tell them what month you need care, they’ll tell you whether or not there’s a place for you. They avoid playing the waiting list game entirely.
Four months after my son started, he finally moved up the list at my temple, but he was happy where he was, it was less expensive, with more flexible hours, so we stayed.
Then when I was on maternity leave with my daughter, I got a call that my son (then 3) had moved up to the top of the infant-care list at another day care. It was three years too late.
Those lists didn’t work for us. Have they worked for you?
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September 20, 2007
Look at a Book
Lately JP has wanted to bring things to day care to share with his friends. Might be a Thomas train or his sunglasses. Yesterday he made me so proud. He wanted to bring a book. It was “The Wheels On The Bus” by Paul O. Zelinsky. It has moving parts and is fun to read. There are things to count and great pictures.
The whole way in he was singing the song as he turned the pages. It made my heart sing.
“Come on Mommy, sing with me!” he encouraged enthusiastically. I did.
When we got to day care, he all but leapt out of my arms and ran into school. His class was on the playground. Some were playing and running around but another group was reading with the teacher. Jake walked proudly up to Miss Lucia and showed her his book. From what I understand it was a big hit. One of the pull tabs was ripped by an overzealous playmate but Miss Sarah taped it and all was well.
Books are so important to a kid’s life. I read and was read to and the same with my husband. We read to JP as well. He loves his books and I love when he chooses to look at them over playing with other toys.
I am looking forward to when we can read longer books together chapter by chapter.
Do you read to your kids or take them to library story times? Where are some good ones?
Permalink | Comments (1) | Categories: Books/DVDs, Child care
August 23, 2007
You have a WHAT?
Sometime before JP was born, my neighbor from across the street wandered over and asked me if I would consider him as a child care option when I went back to work. I could have a manny.
He had been an elementary school teacher and was taking a break from teaching. He thought he might want to start a home day care and wanted to start with one baby to try it out. His wife gave him the go ahead to try it.
I was nervous but intrigued. I called all of his references who went on and on about how great he is with kids. I did a backgrouund check. All clear. But would a man take care of my baby as well as I would? Without a woman’s instinct, could he know when the baby needed feeding, a nap or diaper change?
After three months, I took JP over to Mr. Mark and headed to work. I was plenty jittery. I am sure I called more than once. I left detailed instructions on JP’s schedule. I hoped he would follow them.
As time went on our manny would send me pics and movies of JP while JP was in his care. He took him to his mother-in-law’s nursing home (where JP became a favorite). I got pics from when he went out to lunch at Luby’s or spent time at the play area at Lakeline Mall. JP went more places with the manny than with me! His wife even snapped a pic of JP asleep on Mr. Mark’s chest (a typical daddy thing at our house). At eight months, Mr. Mark suggested they do swim lessons at the YMCA. Sure, I said. He taught JP baby sign language. He took him to the doctor when I could not leave work. It was great.
Mr. Mark took care of JP from 3 months old to 10 months old. I would have had it go on but Mr. Mark got another teaching job and decided that being Mr. Manny was fun but didn’t pay so well. I was sad.
Now Mr. Mark and his wife are still a big part of JP’s life. They watch him for me sometimes. We also just go over to visit. I take him over and he marches into their home with all the confidence he has at our home. He quickly forgets about me and runs to play. They are as much family as we have here in Texas. I would not have traded those months for anything. JP was loved and doted on as much (maybe more) as my husband and I would have done. It really eased my new mother mind to know JP had one-on-one care.
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I want a nanny
Or at least in my dream world I would have one.
A nanny could …
Make the 100th bean-and-cheese taco for my son’s lunch.
Make sure the kids are fed before I get home so I don’t have to whip something up at 7 p.m.
Referee the fighting over some stupid toy no one will be interested in five minutes later.
Make sure they get put to bed on time on nights when I have choir practice or a meeting for the nonprofit group I’m president of.
Watch the 100th viewing of the new “Ben 10” TV movie.
Fix all the broken toys … the Transformers that lost their arms, the Legos that fell apart.
Check their homework before I get home and have it done while they still are awake rather than trying to do it at 9 p.m.
Take them to the third birthday party of the weekend.
Be the one sitting on MoPac Boulevard during rush hour twice a day while driving the kids to and from school.
Go back-to-school shopping on tax-free weekend.
Take them to the grocery store.
Read the 100th round of Mercer Mayer’s Little Critters series of books.
But no nanny could love them the way I do or put up with their crazy quirks like I do.
What would you like a nanny to do for you?
Permalink | | Categories: Child care
