Parental Strife: Round One Million

Sorry for the radio silence. Our calendars have been filled to the max! I usually reserve this space for funny and happy things, but sometimes life makes this challenging. Sometimes we have to be sad! I mentioned a few weeks ago that we lost our nanny very suddenly. The events which lead up to this were heartbreaking, shocking, and stress-inducing. The transition has been incredibly taxing for our family, especially during this time of year when I do a lot of freelance wedding work on the weekends. We have been overwhelmed trying to get childcare figured out while attempting to show up to work sans Bebe, and the brain can only be so creative when a person is spread too thin.

It's funny how after you have a child, suddenly the most important person in your life (behind family) becomes your childcare provider. It seems a little backwards that you can't function as a person without someone else to watch your child, but that's just the way the world is for the working parent. And people who don't have kids do not seem to realize how important childcare workers are, so they put their information on Care.com and/or Craigslist, go through the interview and background check process, then inform the employer they are only interested in being a nanny for a week to make some extra money before they move to a different city. In conclusion, this process gave me hives and acne, and I seriously considered finding a witch doctor to summon a pox on these ladies' families.

We have spent so much energy finding a nanny, rather than putting Everett in a daycare, for a couple reasons. Firstly, getting a nanny has been cheaper for us than sending Everett to a daycare because we share the nanny with another family, which cuts the price in half. Secondly, daycares are petri dishes, and no one can argue that fact. Finally, many nannies will run errands for you, clean your house, do the dishes, make dinner, and take your kiddos on an unlimited amount of field trips. So for a fraction of the price, you have a 2/1 ratio of attention (as opposed to 12/1), someone cooks and cleans for you, and your child gets sick less frequently. Who wouldn't choose this? The only problem is getting the right fit for both families, but once you find that perfect person it is WORTH it.

And the good news? We found her! She's a friend of a friend, and both families feel she will be perfect.

Walking back to work from our interview with her, I felt a huge weight lifted from my shoulders (yes, I had to take time off work to interview all those duds people). I glanced around at my surroundings and noticed, for the first time in weeks, the gorgeous flowers thriving in the Spokane summer sun. I had to stop and stare at the colors. I had been so stressed over childcare that my vision was literally fogged. There was all this beauty and vibrancy around me, and I could not even appreciate it because life was so topsy-turvy.

So here we are today, emerged from the rabbit hole, happy and healthy, seeing colors once again! (However, if the new nanny calls me tomorrow and tells me it won't work out, I will vomit everywhere.)

BUT, now let's focus on happy things! And how could I not be happy when I got to hang out with some of my favorite people this weekend? And our house is finally getting in order. And I had time to garden. Everything's coming up ME!