Miss K goes to day care

So today was a pretty big day for Miss K and myself, and one that I have actually been dreading for quite a while now. I have previously voiced my objections on child care in this post, however lately Miss K's clingyness is starting to cause concern. I understand that it is a phase that all children go through several times over, but it isn't one that I want to nurture, because I feel that showing children that the world will still go on turning even if mum isn't within reaching distance is important.

So today when I was given the opportunity to go to a discussion by a local speech therapist about helping your child develop their language skills, and there was free child care offered on location, I figured I would kill two birds with one stone and test the waters as far as child care was concerned, while making sure I am doing everything in my power to help her language at the same time. Luckily for me I must have chosen the perfect day for this, because she took to it like a duck to water. We were in the room for no more than five seconds before she zeroed in on the drawing table, and insisted I let her go immediately so she could go investigate. She didn't even notice when I left the room to make myself a coffee, so I took it as a good sign and made my departure while the going was good.

I must admit I was only part paying attention to what the speech therapist was saying some of the time, because every time the door opened I braced myself for someone to come over and tell me my daughter was screaming the house down, and I needed to come and take care of her straight away. And while that did happen for some of the other mums, Miss K didn't give them an inch of trouble it seems, because I got to sit the whole way through the talk. I couldn't believe it. I rushed back to the child care room as soon as the discussion was over, hoping to find a happy little girl, and imagine my surprise when that's exactly what greeted me when I opened the door. She was off in the corner playing with a doll's pram, and didn't even notice me walk in the door.

Now as is the case with child care, I have no idea what she got up to during that hour and a half, except that she kept squealing (as she does when she's super excited. I forgot to mention that to them, so my apologies for anyone who went home today with bleeding ear drums.) and she soiled her nappy too, which was great, because that's one less poopy nappy I can add to my final count when we finally get rid of the nappies. Now while I should be glad that I had the opportunity to have an entire hour and a half to myself without there being any problems, I can't help but hate the fact that there is a whole chunk of time there where I have no idea what my little girl did. I don't know what she saw, what she did, what made her happy, what might have made her nervous, there is just one big blank space for an hour and a half today, and the fact that I'm thinking like this tells me that maybe I'm the one that wasn't ready for this all along.

But given the positive reaction from Miss K, I'm thinking that maybe it's time to start letting her go out by herself a little more. The place we went to today actually runs card making courses each week, with the option to leave your kids in the child care area while you go off and make something pretty. I know the classes are pretty cheap, as is the child care, so I'm thinking it's time to start doing some stuff just for myself now. Of course I would get this revelation right at the end of the term, so I have to wait until after school starts back in the middle of April to actually do anything, but that just gives me three weeks to make up for the hour and a half I missed today. That's not crazy is it??

Well that's it for me today, except to point out to all you lovely people today that there is yet another button on my sidebar today, I have decided that with the closing of Google Reader coming up soon to move to Bloglovin, which seems to be the most popular choice of other bloggers to date. If you haven't moved over yet, it's pretty easy, and you have the option to import all of your current blogs over when you make the move. So for all my Bloglovin friends, the button is now there for you to press, if you're with another blog reader, and this causes some issues, let me know as I'm thinking of also including an email subscription option as well, I just need to know whether it's worth cluttering up the side bar even more. The option is completely up to you guys, as this is really all for you.