Daycare Roller Coaster

Today has been quite the roller coaster in terms of my feelings about daycare.

Before this morning I had mostly been looking at daycare as a necessary evil--the only feasible way for Joe and I to get all of our work done this semester. And there was the little voice in my head that kept saying it would be good for Nicholas to be around other kids and to learn that the world doesn't revolve around him (goodness knows we're not able to teach him that--I'm too weak). But I wasn't relishing the idea.

But this morning we took a tour of a daycare center a mile from our apartment and I really liked it. Like really liked it. Granted I was more excited about the 12-18 mth room, but the 7-12 mth room was good too and I really liked the head teacher in that room. And Nicholas was very interested in both the other kids and the toys in his room. He tried to go play right away. I liked it so much that this afternoon I was figuring we'd do 3 days a week in February and full-time in March and April.

But then this evening I began remembering the realities of the job market and wondering if my time is better spent with lots of Nicholas-Mommy snuggle time instead of sacrificing every minute to perfect my dissertation. Not to mention that with the uncertainty of next year's paychecks we really can't afford to spend any more money than necessary on daycare this spring. And so I'm back to thinking 2 days a week of daycare just so I can teach my class. My guess is that what we'll end up deciding when we have to make a decision on Tuesday will be based on what we learn about jobs between now and then. . . . That, and my mood.