The adventures in soon-to-be parenting continue. Mr. Cob and I are in the midst of trying to find daycare for our little bun. Yes, I know, I'm not due until November - another 23 weeks, and then I get 12 weeks of maternity leave, so we won't actually need childcare for another 35 weeks (I can add, yay math), i.e. the end of January/beginning of February (assuming the little one arrives "on time"). But since I've been public about my "condition", multiple people have told me to immediately begin our childcare search.
Mr. Cob and I are both attorneys, and both put ourselves through law school, which means we have student loans (luckily UGA law is extremely reasonable and our loans aren't nearly as much as many other law school grads, but its still substantial debt, although good debt). And we both have great jobs, that we like, so one of us quitting our job to stay at home with Baby S isn't really an option - we would have to sell our house and downsize, move to the suburbs, and completely change our standard of living. I'm not saying this isn't an option forever - once Baby S gets here, I may totally change my mind and decide that continuing to work is not what I want to do, in which case we will reevaulate and go from there. But for now, I feel very strongly about continuing my career (as does Mr. Cob) and I believe we can raise a well-adjusted, loved child and both be attorneys. (This is my hope, anyway - stop smirking at me.)
So with that decision to both continue working, we need to find some childcare for Baby S. The obvious two options are daycare/school or a nanny. From what I've heard, nannies are more expensive than daycare, so for now we are focusing our search on daycares - although, from the looks of it, decent daycares start at around $1000/month, so its not cheap. Ideally, I'd really love to find another couple of working moms who live close by and do a nanny-share, but until I can manifest that perfect scenerio, we're getting our name on waitlists at as many daycares as possible and hoping for the best.
Today we are going to tour the Canterbury School in Morningside. It has been providing childcare to Atlanta residents since 1954, so it has to be doing something right. Their mission is:
Canterbury School is dedicated to providing a superior quality early childhood education to our young children. Canterbury’s emphasis is on providing small class sizes, intellectual stimulation coordinated with child’s play, child-centered activities based on experimentation with materials of the child’s own choosing, and a nurturing environment that promotes self confidence, respect for self and others, and life-long learning.
We are already on their waitlist, so hopefully we like it. We shall see.
Other schools we'll be looking at are The Phoneix School in Oakhurst, the Frazier Center (which is inclusive childcare for children with disabilities and children without disabilities, which we've heard is a great school - also, given that Mr. Cob grew up in a school system of inclusion, we thought this would be a great option) and Primrose Academy - and any other suggestions anyone may have. So bring on the suggestions! Or let me know if you know of a nanny wanting to take on a new baby in February!
So here's to another search - hopefully it goes better than our church search...which we kind of abandoned for a bit...oops.
I know a Grandma that would love to help out!
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