Pondering Daycare...

I has been almost 2 months now since Sara started daycare one day a week.

The idea being giving her a place to socialize with other children and help her get past her clinginess to me...I can not even leave her in the living room with her father or sister so I can shower without much screaming and gnashing of teeth.

Also to give me one day a week to myself to work at my doll business without interruptions.

Well she is getting the benefit of the socialization with other children (and adult workers) and that is great, but it is taking her awhile to settling in to being dropped off since it is only one day a week...and is even harder when she has been sick and has skipped a week all together.

Of course being the over protective parents that we are, we worry about how she does through-out the day...yesterday afternoon when we went to collect her, the children were outside playing and since we did not want to interrupt her "outside" time, we took the opportunity to sit off to the side in a separate play area and observe her from afar...I am pleased to say she was having fun with both the carers and the other children...

But it did seem she was more comfortable with the adults than the children and I could not help but wonder if she would maybe bond better with the other children if she was at the daycare more often...I expressed this thought to David and he agreed that it certainly would be something worth exploring..

Plus the fact that so far the one day a week has in no way afforded me time to spend "working" because we end up using the time to do what needs to be done around the property and NONE of my Sara free time so far has been spent in my studio...and lets face it, in our current economy I can not afford to see my once profitable business simply slip thru my fingers..

Sooooo, starting next week we are going to see how two days a week at Daycare works for the entire family....This is a big step for me as I really do not like the idea of a child being "raised" by the daycare system, but with no cousins in the area to socialize with or Grandparents close enough to help with these separation issues, I am not sure we have a choice but to try this...and it is not like I will be dropping her off at 6am and leaving her there until 6 in the evening...It is just a few hours, a couple times a week.

Then of course is the question of cost...can I make enough money sewing doll clothing in just one day to cover (absorb) this extra day each week?...But as I said to David, if it is what is right for Sara then I will just have to do everything I can to make sure we can afford it.