So this last week taught me that being a mom means forking over a quarter of your income to childcare and pretending that it doesn't feel like a knife jabbing into your stomach (Add insult to injury...it's my post baby stomach).
We are blessed. Let me start with saying that. We are sooo blessed. Not only do we have everything we have but Ryan has also just gotten his Canadian residency, so he is here legally and is allowed to start working!
Having said that it means we will also be needing child care in the soon future. I was all bright eyed about finding the perfect place for my little angel, but within an hour of calling around I was starting to feel like someone in the Universe was watching me, pointing and laughing.
My two options were:
Option #1: Go to the Provincial Listings for Licensed places and being put on waiting list. "Luckily" we had already done that. We have been on waiting list for approximately 8 months now...ugh. This will get us a lovely price of around $25-$30 a day, making it $500-$600 a month.
Option #2: Go to a private child care facility, where they can charge anywhere from $35-$40 a day. This gets you a lovely price of $700-$800 a month.
I don't even want to give the annual budget for that, because it hurts too much. Let's just say that we are going to have to start travelling to the tanning salon for tropical vacations and purchasing Mac n Cheese for Italian date night. Perhaps I am exaggerating a bit, but it is quite a shocker when this reality does hit you.
I panicked for a few minutes. Ryan panicked for a day...he might still be panicking. I mean the last thing someone wants to do is look for "bargain" on child care, right? It's like buying a Groupon for skydiving, it makes you a little nervous. You kind of want the best quality of service when you're a thousand feet in the air and throw your body out of a plane. Like that, childcare to me is something I don't really want to skimp on. My child will be in this daycare more than they are with me, so it's pretty important that it totally rocks!
So I guess we just have to embrace the new reality but as I walk around a supermarket or the mall, I feel like $ signs are floating from children's heads. We have found a couple places that have an opening and look like it would be worth every cent, so I'm trying to be very postive about this. But is there any advice out there? How do you cope with handing over your baby and your bills?
There has got to be an old Canadian lady who worked in a daycare for years, is not retired and wants nothing more than to watch him all day long! Screw it. Bring him back to STL, my dad needs a job.
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