Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Drive-Bys and Day Care

I'm in the process of looking for after-school care for the boys.  Thanks to Josh's schedule I only need to find it for two days a week for an hour and a half.  Sounds simple enough.  Except that I'm kind of neurotic.  The boys have never been in daycare.  I have always been able to find a family member or very close friend that could cover any time before I arrived home from school/work.  This is a big step for me.

First I called and asked for a list of daycares in the area, on the bus route, that had quality ratings.  The next logical step would be for me to call and schedule an interview.  But I'm not very logical.  Instead I showered and asked Josh if he would go do some "drive-bys" with me.

Don't laugh at me, like he did.  Seriously, I wanted to drive by each address I had and "judge a book by it's cover" and decide whether or not they were even worth calling.  We laughed as we drove around, pulled some illegal U-turns, and rated each home/building with a five-star rating system.  One daycare got an extra half-a-star because Josh spotted a dog, and Brian loves dogs.  Another got zero stars for having what looked like a junkyard of broken, rusting toys piled up in an unkempt yard.

We narrowed it down and I made all the calls today.  I kept it really simple- told them the days I needed, the ages of my children, snow day/vacation questions, etc.  I may have left out the word "autism".   Important detail, right?  In my illogical brain, I thought I would save that for tomorrow when I go do the interviews.  I didn't want them to prejudge him (how many people have you met who immediately think "a biter", "aggressive", "mean") and when I do say the big "A word", I'd like to be face-to-face, so I can see their expression.  Tells a lot about a person.

5 comments:

dotcomkari said...

Best of luck finding a daycare hun! we tried to look for childcare for Kai last year and it was a nightmare. I think it is best to give out the A word when you are face to face. A lot of people were scared off by the word and did not want anything to do with Kai because of it. Others wanted more money for a "special needs child"..
*sigh* I ended up not finding one we liked. But then again I am so picky.

I hope you find a good one. I suggest taking Brian along so he can see the place before hand and you can see how the people there interact with him. You don't want there to be any surprises when you drop him off and get a phone call an hour later because he is having a melt down or the workers just can not handle him.. so forth.
Just my suggestion.

Good lukc hun

Lynn said...

Good luck with your search...how they react to the big A might be worth a blog post or two!

essbesee said...

Hope you find a place that is a good fit for you.

Dani G said...

such a great point about the perception of just the word Autism. Let us know what happens!!

Christina said...

I don't blame you at all for waiting to discuss the Autism until you are face to face. Finding good care is challenging even for children without it! Good luck!