Life Update + Tips for Choosing Child Care

A while back I wrote a blog post about being a Self Employed/Entrepreneur Mom and Working from Home with a Baby. I’ve never knew how much love that would get. As fun as it was having her at home (seven days a week with me)- I know that she was getting bored and it was requiring me to take a lot of time out of my schedule to play/entertain her. Which is fine some days BUT when you have deadlines!! Not ideal. I always felt horrible having to have the TV on in the background at times.

After extensive research and moving houses- I decided to get "help". Making sure that she was with the best care. How extensive are we speaking? I mean going to four of the best day cares in my city within 48 hours. Which was insane but literally allowed me to compare them with fresh eyes. We decided on one which was completely out of my traditional ideas of a daycare but she loves it.


HOW did I do it?


I literally got on those Facebook mom groups and asked! I noticed that a few names kept on popping up. After that, I did a search to find out which were the top five with reviews. 

What was important to me on my search?

Atmosphere
How do you feel when you walk in there? I’m sorry to say this but some of them felt like a jail. I just did not get that loving caring atmosphere which is SUPER important to me.

Staff
How are the individuals who would be closely working with your child? I know you’re not able to interview/see everybody on that one time visit but it’s still good to know who some of the staff are within the daycare. When we got there there was a lady who literally took my daughter and put her at the table to sit with the little the other children to socialize while we took a tour. Ava didn’t make a sound- she didn’t complain- she didn’t cry and for me that was it. I knew that would be the place.

Distance
A lot of people don’t think about this but when the weather is extremely horrible- nobody wants to be driving up to an hour to get there. The location we chose is about 4-5 minutes away from our house. I’m able to pick her up and come back home quickly!

Food
Maybe this is just something I generally didn’t know but a lot of these daycares actually provide food for your child. I loved that when I came into the building- I was able to see the menu and see what my baby would be eating on the day she would be in daycare.

As a self-employed mom in Canada, the first thing I felt was major mom guilt. It’s kind a like... "Hey, you’re home. You should have the baby! what’s the point of having her out there if you are already home.. This will give me the opportunity to do things like clean, cook, the most important thing do my work and meet deadlines and also go to the gym. All before she comes home. Probably not everything all in one day... but you get what I mean. I know she's only there part-time but I'm so excited to see her make friends and grow.

17 comments :

  1. Hey Jennifer! You aren't lying about some child care centers feeling like a lil' "baby jail", I'm big on the vibes I get from a place and from people.

    Right now I'm going through the same thing you talked about as far as always putting the TV on, I feel guilty sometimes but it's almost impossible to get anything done if I'm home alone with my son and have to get some work done. I'm also work from home, and it definitely has its challenges.

    Props to you for doing your due diligence and taking a brave step, your tips are helpful sis, much love!

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    1. Melissa - this is my favourite comment ever! Thank you for sharing your thoughts!

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  2. I'm glad after researching the suggested daycare places, you found the ideal spot! Sharing how you narrowed down your choice might help someone else in the same situation.

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  3. I feel you 100%! I work remotely and assumed I’d be able to care for a newborn and work at the same time. Wrong! My mental health took a nosedive until we got an in-home sitter. My husband and I went through a lot before we settled into a decent work/life/home balance. I’m glad you found a wonderful daycare. Thank you for sharing your story! I’ll be sharing my childcare story soon too.

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  4. It’s okay to get help when we need it. I believe it will be a good chance for you to get more work done and also for her to start socialising and just be with other kids.

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  5. I wrote a similar blog post. Choosing a quality daycare is work. I'm glad you have made these suggestions to help working moms move through this process.

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  6. Finding daycare is tricky. With my first it was such a stuggle finding one that was a good fit. Eventually I settled on an inhome nanny once I started working from home and when the kids were toddlers we found a sitter who ran a daycare out of her house that they absolutely love.

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  7. This was so helpful to read! Olivia will be going into full time daycare at the end of April and it's overwhelming at times to think I won't be there with her all the time as well as finding a place that I'm comfortable sending her to all the time. I went to some post partum classes on my base (CFB Greenwood) in the fall and put her in the daycare on base for the morning while I did that. It was the best thing and she really enjoyed it, too.

    Here's to hoping she transitions well into full time! ��❤️

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  8. These are great practical tips and it really is hard to get things done with little ones! Sometimes work from home moms feel guilty but there’s no way to get work done without child care. I love that some day cares provide food now- it allows kids to try new things and see their friends eating it too.

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  9. Great tips for helping other moms find child care options!

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  10. Such great things to think about! Thanks for a well-considered list.

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  11. I remember when I looked at daycare's for my now 8 yr old. It was nuts! I looked at 6 different centers, 6! Spending the time to pick the right center is worth it, he STILL goes for before/after care now (at least till my blog is making enough money to quit my full time job)!

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