I've decided to target childcare centres near work rather than home, which will be easier to manage from a work point of view. It means I won't need to worry about leaving early or getting there late. And I can get there quickly if Zoe is sick. If I got somewhere near home, I'd be able to get to work by 9am but I'd need to leave work well before 5pm to make it back in time to pick her up. But I do need to work out how we are going to get to childcare and work.
I could go on the train as I did before Zoe was born. That would be quicker than driving and also more convenient because I wouldn't have to worry about parking. There's no parking near work and I would need to park a 20 minute walk away from both work and the childcare centre. But I'm not sure if I can manage Zoe in the Baby Bjorn, with her bag and mine, and changing onto a second train in the journey. I think the only thing I can do is give it a try and see what happens.
The mornings seem like they will be ok. I will need to get up before Zoe and have a shower, then get her up at 7am as usual, give her a bottle, get her dressed, then give her and me breakfast, then off to the train station. With all of this, I should manage to get to work before 9am.
But for the evenings, I'm not sure how it will work. I would leave work at 5.30pm, pick up Zoe and be on the train by 5.45pm. Then we should get home about 6.30pm. Then I would give her dinner, bath and bottle and into bed. This would be ok but what worries me is that she is usually pretty grizzly and tired after 5pm and I don't know how a trip home on a crowded train would work. Maybe she would fall asleep. I just don't know until we try it. She would also be getting dinner nearly an hour later than she is used to but the childcare have said they give the kids a snack at 5pm so that would hopefully tide her over.
The other option is that I drive to work, which would allow her to sleep on the way there and back if she wanted to. But I would need to do the drop off, then drive to a park, then walk 20 mins back to work.
As for the childcare centres, I've visited two. The first one is in an industrial estate that is not as close to work as I would like. Its about a 15 min walk to the train station and to work from there. The centre itself did seem fine, if a little old and tired but the director was great. But the one big red flag is that they had no outdoor space. The regulations state that they do need outdoor space, and they have got around this by having a very large room that has all the outdoor equipment, like sandpits etc, but it is just inside, not out.
That isn't such a big issue for a little one like Zoe but still its not so good knowing that she would not get any fresh air at all for those two days a week. That centre, being less desirable in a few ways, of course is the one with vacancies on the day I want. Its also about $20 a day cheaper than the other ones I am considering. The only thing I can do is book her a place and hope that one of the better ones comes up before September. I would lose a $200 deposit if we went somewhere else but at least I won't be fretting that we don't have a place at all.
The second place we saw was much better. The building itself was much newer and fresher and the director was great. I also met the other carers, who were lovely. Zoe had a little play with the toys and was completely happy just sitting there having a play. It did have the outdoor space, separate for the bubs, which is quite important. But its $20 a day more expensive, but with the bonus of being right near the train station and work. They don't have a place yet, and Wednesday is the day that is going to be very hard to get. I just need to keep calling them and checking how things are going and hope that a place comes up. There's two more centres I am yet to see but they also are full and don't have places yet.
But all the directors have assured me that it is too soon yet to know if there will be space in September. Parents only have to give two weeks notice that they are taking their child out, so things are changing all the time. I may go to the least preferred option and then wait for a place to come up in the one I want.
The other factor that's in the back of my mind is if we manage to get pregnant and have another child. I won't be able to keep Zoe in childcare near work once I stop working, because its too far away from home. That doesn't matter but it does mean I will have to start over again with the whole process, once I go back to work a second time. But that's all still purely hypothetical and ages away so just not worth worrying about.
All of this is just such a juggling act, and I'm doing my best not to stress about it. I'm sure it will all work out somehow. I guess this is what its like to be a working mother.
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