I’m not going to say it out loud so I won’t jinx it, but it looks like we have a new daycare arrangement starting in February.
It’s a home-based daycare quite close to our house, with kids all from one school, a cook, and two utterly calm and happy dogs to play with. In the late afternoons they head over to the gym at the church just around the corner from our house for some running around and games and stuff like that. Their kid:staff ratios are half what they are elsewhere and the staff have been there forever. They take co-op students too so there’s a good combination of freshness and experience.
The owner is cheerful, open, great with kids (or with Maddy, anyway), and talkative. By her anecdotes she is clearly intolerant of snottiness, disrespect and/or condescension from parents, which is great because we don’t want to have to deal with those folks either and if I start to behave that way I want a good sharp verbal smack. I know exactly the type of parent she was talking about — they’re the ones that annoy me at school dropoffs.
We’ll see how it goes, but all three of us felt it was a huge improvement. Maddy wanted to start there immediately despite being mildly scared of the dogs.
It’s more expensive, of course, but that’s life. They’re also much more flexible. The cost differential will be less of an issue once Maddy starts Grade 1 in September and needs many fewer hours of care. (For Toronto parents: the preschool-to-kindergarten daycare transition only saves maybe $50-$100 a month. It’s the kindergarten-to-grade-school transition that provides serious relief.)
Now I’m arguing with the old daycare, naturally. They feel three weeks notice of withdrawal is inadequate and would like “the next full month”, i.e., seven weeks notice. Arrant nonsense. I called them this morning and if the spot isn’t filled by now I’ll fall off my chair in surprise.
What are these “utterly calm and happy dogs” of which you speak?
And a cook? Can I go to daycare there?
Hey, fantastic news! I’ll keep my fingers crossed that it all goes through smoothly.
And tell them to deduct the cost of the things that Maddy has lost forever at their daycare due to their apathy from the amount that they would like you pay for February… they would probably owe you.
Melle – I’m not so good at dog ID but these are the big slow kind with long whappy tails. If you pretend to be under 12 I’m sure they’ll take you on happily!
Andrea, the position of power in this case is fortunately mine, since I hadn’t yet paid them for this month. So they can take it as our last month and we can then argue about whatever else. I’d be much more annoyed if I’d already paid! I have no intention of screwing them over — an unfilled spot costs them $$ — but really, in this market they’ll be able to fill the spot in much much less than 3 weeks.