ImpostorMom

Boogie starts a new daycare on Monday. It is really strange because I so want him in a new daycare but I have been having all this anxiety about moving him this week. His current daycare is expensive for this region and they haven’t exactly provided the most stellar care. He hasn’t been neglected or abused or anything but rather just one bone headed mistake after another. The list of current daycare offenses is as follows:

1. Didn’t give my 4 1/2 month old son his afternoon bottle because “he wasn’t fussy” meaning he’s only nursed once in 8 hours despite his feeding plan stating that he was to have a bottle when he woke up from his afternoon nap. This happened three days in a row after explicit instructions given on the first day. I mean seriously how hard is it to FEED THE BABY! Of course he simply decided to make it up in the middle of the night. :|
2. Allowed another baby in his room to continue to return to the class three consecutive days with a fever despite having a 24 hour symptom free rule. More than half the babies got sick that week, including Boogie. My husband made a call to the director about this one. Instead of apologizing and explaining why the rules were bent she basically had this attitude of “so, what?”
3. Allowed Boogie to eat a rubber band from another baby’s hair. This happened and went completely unnoticed until he threw up the rubber band and his entire breakfast. Only then did they notice that he had ingested something he shouldn’t have and that the other baby was missing the rubber band from her hair. Way to watch the infants! In addition to this, the “teachers” and assistant director treated the incident as a non-incident. The assistant director actually looked at my son and said “Oh Boogie, you shouldn’t eat rubber bands.” WTF?! He’s 8 months old!

So with all that and the fact that he has had so many caregivers in that place that I’ve lost count, why do I have anxiety about moving him. He is moving to an in-home daycare and I struggled with being ok with having him in someone else’s home. My husband was dead set against it in the beginning simply because he liked the more institutional type setting. The fact that we will be paying less than half as much is ultimately what swayed him.

I trust the woman he is going to be staying with but I worry that he is going to be so unhappy and confused because of the new surroundings. I know that when he gets used to it he will be fine but he has only ever known this one center. It doesn’t help that we are actually planning to move him again when he gets a spot in a local Montessori, our first choice for daycare.

I actually just finished writing out a cheat sheet of sorts for his new daycare provider. When I e-mailed it to her I figured she will either think that I am a crazy, overprotective new mother or that the information will be helpful in caring for my son. Maybe she’ll think a little of both.

Lets face it though, no one besides myself is ever really going to be up to snuff in my opinion when it comes to caring for Boogie. I think that is pretty universal with mamas everywhere.