Friday, February 3, 2012

February is a month all right. The book I'm working on.

When the wife and I had found out we were gonna have an offspring, all the usual stuff happened- the crying, the eyes bleeding, ice cream, a hike in the woods.

The search for a suitable daycare provider and the subsequent happenings were notable, in that there was very little available in the way of guidance for a coupla first-timers save for the advice of our friends who already had kind in daycare. Here and there we found fonts of good advice but for the most part we were on our own to learn things the hard way.

A year or so ago I thought somebody oughtta write a book about getting into and surviving daycare- not for the kids, who are immediately fine, but for the parents.

A year later nobody's done a thing about it so I'm working on it. It's been a fun process and I've got a way to go yet.

So here's my question to you, stranger: what subject matter would you want to see covered in such a book? What experience did you have at daycare that was so bewildering you wish you'd had a heads-up? I've got my list, but I'd like to make the book something really useful and entertaining for as many people as possible.

So please leave me a comment if you've got one. Thanks for glistening!

2 comments:

Beth said...

something I still can't figure out: what the heck you're supposed to do when your kid is sick. and the whole scenario where you still pay the same exorbitant amount of dough no matter how many times your kid can't go due to a booger/a warm forehead/a bug. In my case, I have saintly grandparents who cover sick times, but what if you don't have that?

Grant Wentzel said...

Yep, sick kids and back up plans...

And how do you know what "sick" means to your provider? We've had day care situations that assume that a faucet-like snotty nose and a severe case of pink-eye is just normal kid stuff, and others that send them home if they "seem a little warm".

Tricky to navigate such things, especially as the stress of the kids doesn't leave everybody feeling too rational sometimes.