After two sleepless nights about the Thai childminder, I threw in the towel and rang the agency to cancel. The problem was in the finer detail. Sure, she plied me with mango, but she didn’t appear too keen to lock her front door or to put Ella on reins if they were walking to the park (insisting she would be fine holding her two year old daughter’s hand). When I rang her back to check things out, she also told me there was only a bed for Ella to sleep in (which is useless because she’ll get straight out of it). When I insisted on a cot, she solved the problem by mentally turfing the 13 month old baby out (and into the bed) or suggesting I buy her an extra cot but told me not to tell the agency, as this was against the rules. I had the impression that she didn’t respect other people’s wishes and that, despite having recently set up her business, she wasn’t intending to follow guidelines, and that’s just not for me.
So we’ve cancelled the arrangement and gone back to the beginning. I slept remarkably well afterwards.
Today I made a list of nurseries from the yellow pages and rang them all (about 20 in total). 50% would not take children below two years of age. The other 50% had waiting lists varying from eighteen months to over two years. Three laughed hysterically and one quoted a waiting list of “well in excess of six hundred children”. I finally came across a nursery with places, but they charge $80 per day, which is the highest rate I’ve seen. We went to look at the place this afternoon and chat with the director. The nursery seems nice; spacious and well-equipped, with a large outside play area, and the director is British so was pretty honest with me. We can enrol right away, so looks like Ella will be getting more of what she needs and I’ll be getting some time and space and might be able to work after all.
Tonight I’ve waved goodbye to the hire car. We’re trusting Illawong Jack to get us to the north shore tomorrow so we can collect the Honda and after that, the world’s our lobster.
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2 comments:
Have you tried your local Occasional Child care centre? The one near us charges $10 an hour. It is run by the council and has all the correct facilities. This service is ideal if you have an appointment or just need a bit of child-free time. You ring up a week in advance of when you need the child care. It is run on a first come-first-served basis, so if you ring at 8 in the morning, you are almost guaranteed to get the hours you want.
hey tokyo girls thanks for the hint. We were in Mosman today - I thought of you
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