Shuffling the Kid

We have major construction happening on the main street in our city. They've closed down an overpass/bridge that has been a major artery for decades. A new highway will replace it, which will mean demolishing several buildings. One of these buildings includes a Mom & Pop restaurant, which catered to the military folks...large portions for great prices. Next door to this cafe is my youngest daughter's daycare (and oldest daughter's back-up care on days I work in Salt Lake during the school year and summer). Destruction for the sake of progress.

The department of transportation, lovely government entity that they are, informed the daycare director that they would be able to "work around" the daycare. This care center goes from 1 year to 12 years old and also buses students to school. The director was pleased that they were so willing to work with her. Yesterday, I arrived to drop off my youngest, only to find that the director had been given her marching orders. She's got 30 days to haul her cookies out of there so they can knock down her building. She was not even given enough to relocate the center. This is a nightmare!

We were so happy to have found a place that, not only had first rate care-givers, but only charged a minimal fee when my kids were there. Most places charge regardless and the fees are usually exorbitant. I was crushed to hear such awful news. I then became depressed because I knew all those great teachers would be out job-hunting in this god-awful economy. I talked to the assistant director for about twenty minutes, who had spent the last twenty years of her life being the "grandma" to the kids. She is single and will now have a house note with no way to pay it. Ugh!

I went care hunting, yesterday and, due to the current daycare's reputation, other care facilities in the neighborhood (who wouldn't normally take newbies) have been good about accepting new/overflow students to compensate. They are also interviewing the teachers who would otherwise be out on the street. I felt better, but still ended up crying about it to hubby.

We found a new place that I found pleasant and supportive, is in a great location and just received a massive grant for building and playground improvements. The cons? They charge nearly double and charge even when Indy isn't going to be there. Oh, well. The other option was an in-home daycare scenario. Indy would have been the oldest and the owner has her own family and two roommates living in the house. Red flag! My mother was also leery, due to all the scary stories you here about other family members coming over and doing horrible things to the children. That put me on edge, even before I toured her home.

The new place for the youngest only takes up to age 5 years. The babe was not happy and I'll still have to figure out what we're going to do with her during the summer and on "school out" days. Ugh! This is the downside of not having our friends here in Utah. I know these things wouldn't even be an issue or if they were, not nearly as stressful as it's been. From Sorority sisters hooking me up to high school friends playing "catch all" when hubby and I need to get away. It would be so sweet! There's no way in hell I'm moving back though so, I'm stuck with shuffling the kids. I'm sure this won't be the last time. I just hope we always find safe and affordable environments.