Imagine coming home to diner, homemade, piping hot, and ready to eat. The house picked up, the kids tired from playing hard all day, but happy. The cloth diapers in the wash.
Two days a week, that is now my reality. I am the luckiest woman alive.
We hired a nanny to come to the house two days a week, and it is one of the best decisions I have ever made. Ever.
Our previous routine was to schlog the kids off to daycare MWF, hauling them sleepy-eyed out of bed and cranky, and still in their jammies, into a cold car. On T&Th, the same thing happened, but we split the kids up, taking Austin to preschool, where he would spend the entire day, and Wes to daycare. The two places were about 20 minutes apart, meaning we both had to be on duty. Every day, come 5 p.m., we had to race out of work in order to pick the boys up by the 5:30 daycare close time. The evenings were a mash of rushed dinners, tears, and frantic packing for the next day. Austin was exhausted by his full days at preschool, where he didn’t really settle in or nap. Wes was exhausted by being woke up so early – he would happily sleep till 8:30 or so if left to his own devices!
Lyndon and I were both at our breaking point, and decided we needed to make a change.
On the days we have the nanny, Austin now goes, for just a few hours, to the local school preschool. Sure, it isn’t as fancy as the previous place we were hauling him to. There is no toddler yoga or dehydrated veggies with humus for snacks. They eat goldfish, and probably drink juice that has *gasp* added sugar. He doesn’t get to play the ukulele. He loves it. When I ask him why he likes it so much better, his response was “my other school was exhausting.” Can’t argue with that, buddy!
The other three days, they are at daycare. But somehow, the early mornings aren’t so bad – it is only three days a week!
Our only regret (interesting, the same regret I have about switching to cloth nappies) is that we didn’t make this change earlier.
This sounds wonderful. Just great. I’m so glad you’re happy!
Ooooh, a nanny…I am completely over the moon jealous! I’m glad you guys have found something that works for you!
It is wonderful! And miraculously doesn’t cost much more than what we were doing previously…