The Daycare Puzzle

I never really thought much about daycare before I had a child. Every once in a while, when I would think of my future expanding family, it would cross my mind. I'd hear a friend or family member discuss daycare and listen to their situation, but after that conversation ended I wouldn’t give it a second thought.

Things charged a little bit when I became pregnant. The alarms weren’t quite going off at Defcon one per say — it was more like a nagging question popping up in my own head once in a while. This time, it was completely unprovoked, no trigger conversation necessary. I'd be walking or watching television or working and pop! "Daycare." It would scroll across my mind like the CNN ticker, and I'd start to consider my options. My family needs me to work, and I knew we couldn’t afford a nanny. I was going to be staying home for six months after giving birth, but what then? I'd glance down at the size of my belly and tell myself I’d think some more about it later.

Well the bigger my belly got the more I thought about it, and the more my anxiety grew around it. What was I going to do?! I didn’t know the first thing about finding a daycare. Do I do an online search? Look in the yellow pages? I didn’t have any friends with kids in the area whom I could ask.

And then, we went on our babymoon. My husband and I honored the time when our family was just the two of us and knew that it could be a while before we took another trip alone together. We decided to go to France at the kind invitation of our wonderful friends Lara and Philippe who have extensive family there. We were staying at their cousin's home and we accompanied our host to her son’s daycare to pick him up. Having daycare on my mind I asked her about it: "What kind of hours does it have? How do you feel about the type of care your son it getting?" And finally, "How much does it cost?" She was thrilled to answer me, stating how well the hours work with her work schedule and how much she likes the quality of care there, and that they charge one Euro a day.

Let me repeat that for the cheap seats in the back: ONE EURO A DAY. Now the Euro has been strong for the past few years compared to the US Dollar, it's true. So to be fair, with today's current conversion rate, that’s $1.41 US Dollars per day. Take a moment and breathe. It's shocking isn't it? Don't forget to close your gaping mouth, I forgot to close my mouth for a few minutes when I saw that number and I wish someone had reminded me.

That’s right my friends, apparently the wealthiest country in the world has some work to do. This was a real shocker to me, an unexpected jolt to my system. Imagine not having to spend all those hours worrying about my daycare situation. What would I do with all the time and energy left over? Well, there’s always plenty to do, but that’s beside the point. With all the stress that comes with transitioning into motherhood and all the stress the tough decision that must be made, imagine if this one was just taken care of for us? For just one Euro, or $1.41 US Dollars a day?

Well, maybe it is just in the imagination phase currently, but that didn’t stop John Lennon and I don’t think it should stop us. We’re women, we do it all don’t we? We take care of ourselves (sort of), our families, our relationships, our companies and so forth. Who accomplishes more than we do? No one! It’s time we start thinking about how to solve this issue, as it doesn’t appear like we’re going to be handed a solution. If other nations can figure this out, then so can we!

Author: Amy