Another Day, Another Nanny
7/09/10
I know I can’t expect a 25-year-old Oxford-educated woman to be my babysitter forever, but is more than 4 months too much to ask? Apparently so.
I knew that I could never get Baby Y into a state-sponsored day care group - the waiting lists were more than two years long around here. I had already signed up with some private day cares when Baby Y was sporting in utero gills and he is still - at 9 months out of the womb - on waiting lists. (Did I mention that private day care costs more than $1000 per month?) Since I still do not have a full time job, I can’t justify - or afford - a full-time come-and-go nanny. My only affordable option is a “Tagesmutter” - literally, “day mother” - who takes care of 5 or 6 kids in her home, and is heavily subsidized by the state.
And, so, off to the relevant government agency I go.
The childcare agency that I needed had “office hours” between never and never:thirty a few time a week. When I arrived, the very nice lady was quick to tell me that there were only two Tagesmutter within a 5 kilometer radius of my house, and it was too bad that I did not live out in the country where Tagesmutter sprout like wildflowers.
I dutifully wrote down the names of the two women in my loosely-defined neighborhood from a bulletin board. (A real live bulletin board! With pins and colored papers and everything. When was the last time you saw a bulletin board not outside of a third grade classroom?)
I contacted one, but she is on vacation. Of course. And so, onto another waiting list I go.
02/28/2011