Hey friends, Happy Friday! Sorry I have been MIA most of this week, but when you get 3 feet of snow dumped on you, you just want to stay inside and cry all day. I’m kidding…kind of I spent Tuesday and Wednesday at home with Ashton and yesterday I was trying to get caught up on all the work that was piling up so I didn’t have much time to write, that’s really my excuse! But today is a new day and the weekend is so close I can taste it…and I know you all want to know what is keeping me up at night, right? No, I’m not trying to find an answer to world peace or cure a terrible disease.
What’s keeping me up at night is preschool. Start laughing now, this post just gets more ridiculous as I go on. Currently Ashton is at a phenomenal home daycare where I know he is loved, safe and has a good group of friends. Our daycare provider is truly one of a kind, how we got so lucky, I will never know but I am thankful. However, come September it will be time for Ashton to move on to preschool. I have known about this for a while and started doing research months ago, but suddenly I’m getting emails from the places I have inquired about saying enrollment starts in February…like in just a few days. Que the panic.I have a spreadsheet that is far too embarrassing for me to share with you, further showing that I am a bit crazy that I have a preschool spreadsheet. Who does that? Yeah, me! However, this is my dilemma. My town has a public preschool but it’s on a lottery system for 2, 3 or days, half or full day. Its super cheap and I like the idea of Ashton making friends with the kids he will go to school with for a few years. However, what they call ” full day” is a joke. In what world is 9-2 a full day? Certainly no job I know of and if you know of one, please send it to me so I can apply! Our town preschool also dropped their extended day care in the morning and afternoon and now it’s only available for kindergarten and because Ashton was born in February he won’t be eligible for kindergarten until he is 5.7 (you have to be 5 by December.) So, if we wanted to send him to our town preschool, we would have to hire a nanny to come to our house in the morning, bring him to school for 9 am and then pick him up in the afternoon and bring him home and wait for us to get home at 6 pm. That probably isn’t an ideal situation for a nanny nor do I really want Ashton in a car with other people (yes, I’m THAT Mom.)
So, where does that leave me other than losing way more sleep over this than is probably necessary? We have appointments over the next few weeks to go visit 3 private preschools that will work with the hours we need and that also go year round, since that was another problem we faced with public school, the ridiculous amount of vacation days they have and then the summers off. Ashton is too young to go to a summer camp right now (and even if he was old enough, the hours are an issue too) so again we would be looking at a nanny. I’m not averse to a nanny per se, but as an only child, I really like to have Ashton around other kids as much as possible. Plus, he loves being around people.
I’m already stressing about these appointments and how to make the right decision about where to send him. Education is so important and I KNOW it’s only preschool but of course I want to make the best decision for Ashton. There are so many studies that show that the first 5 years are the most important years of their lives and if they start to struggle with school at an early age, the chances of them liking school and doing well in school goes down significantly. Talk about pressure! I find that I get myself so worked up about these big decisions, so scared that I am going to make the wrong choice and it’s going to have a negative impact on him for the rest of his life (I told you, I am not rationale right now and not sleeping!) I know I am not the first person to send their kid to school or the first to deal with these issues but this just seems like SUCH a big deal right now, in this moment. So my friends, this is what’s keeping me up at night. Parents out there, please tell me I’m not the only one who worries about this stuff so I feel a little less crazy!
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Question of the day
Anyone else with little ones stress about things like this? Any words of advice? Things to look for?
What are your plans for the weekend? Super Bowl parties? Who are you cheering for?