Tolbert Travels

I wanted to reflect on the childcare choice we decided to go with for the 23-24 school year and how we got here. Prior to getting pregnant, I had no idea how pitiful childcare options were in the United States. Childcare for ONE child is about half of my entire salary. The waitlists are also too long, proving that more options are needed for parents.

Where did we begin?

We toured a local church day school in the fall and where told they would have an opening most likely due to the number of children moving up to the “Infant 2 Room”. They charge $950 a month and follow our district school calendar. It’s a beautiful facility with shaded playgrounds. The tour we received was thorough and educational. We found in January 2023 that they did not have an opening after all, so I panicked slightly. This was our #1 choice to get into because we want him to go to preschool here. I was disappointed, but God had a plan all along.

Other Places….

We got on the waitlist at our church day school ASAP, though this was not our first choice due to the distance from our house (20 mins.). The pro though is that our church charges less at $850 a month. The con of this option is the new school year would not begin until 9/5/23 and we both go back to work 8/7/23. Their calendar also does not follow our school district calendar which is annoying for planning purposes! Anyways, I was told by the day school director at our church that there was not going to be a spot in the infant room even for members. We were back to square one. I was feeling discouraged. We toured a local daycare that charges $1,050 a month without the option to not pay in the summers since we are both educators. Eh. We walked out and decided Elias would not be attending it. So many kids, so many germs. Pitiful playground, zero shade. If push came to shove one of us would stay home with him and we would just be poorer we decided. We both want to keep working as of now though. We are furthering our degrees and need constant income.

BREAKTHROUGH:

On a random afternoon my friend, Terri, texted me and said she saw a friend of hers post that she was open to taking an infant for the following school year. She only watches kids less than 2 years old due to her house setup and I was immediately interested. I had already looked into a few “in home care” situations and nothing had worked out. This woman, Emily, though had a student in our class and two other children in our school district. She also only watches 2-3 children at a time and is located a total of 3 minutes from my school and about 5-6 mins. from our home. We drove to her house and sat on her couch and talked. Before we left that afternoon, we let her know we would love for her to watch Elias. I almost cried. We both felt so at peace there and knew this is where we wanted him for his first year. God opened this door for us and I’m so grateful. The con is for more 1-1 attention the price is higher ($275/week so $1,100 a month), but the pros far outweighed it. We love that she is flexible and will only charge us for the days we use, so every two weeks we will pay her for the days we drop him off. This is huge since we are teachers and have a unique schedule.

Then, on March 7th, 2023, I get an email from our church’s day school saying they would like to offer Elias a spot in their infant room for the fall. We had 24 hours to let her know. We were surprised! I let her know we had already lined up childcare for this upcoming school year after she made it sound like it was such a long shot but told her I would like to stay on the waitlist for future years.

We have so much peace about our childcare choice for the upcoming school year. When he is older, we are more open to other options, but for now we really want him to have more 1-1 attention while we can afford it. Emily loves to baby wear, so he will be cuddled and loved on all day long. So grateful! 

If you’re in the trenches of locating childcare, you feel GREAT about we get it. We were just there. My advice would be to hold out hope and trust that whatever happens was meant to be.

Signed a relieved & grateful mom,

Miriam