Child Care

Every parent has the struggles of finding appropriate child care for their children so they can work.  What happens when you have a special needs child?  I have seen a lot of families struggle to get some much needed adult time but are unable to rely on anyone to take care of their child.  This problem still is not much out of the ordinary for me because Christopher is still a toddler and all toddlers need child care if both parents work.

However, Christopher attends a special needs pre-school and it is only half day.  How is a parent supposed to work a 9-5 job and get their child to and from school?  Fortunately the school does offer transportation for the kids in the special needs pre-school, where they don't for the regular pre-k.  I stressed over this last fall as I prepared for Christopher's transition.  My full day sitter is located out of state so there was no way that was going to work for the school transport.  Finally I located a neighbor (parent of one of Allison's friends) to watch him after school.  She is less than 1/2 mile from us so the transport was able to pick him up at home at an early 7:30 am and drop him off at the sitters before lunch.  This sitter just told me that she will not be continuing after this school year ends.  And its back to square one.

We have found a prospective sitter (through a friend of mom's).  Unfortunately she is not 1/2 mile up the road so we can't get pick-up and drop-off transport.  We will have to drop Christopher off at school in the morning and the van will take him to the new sitter's.  I guess it is worth it because she has agreed to keep our current financial arrangements. (We do get a pretty good deal).

I love that the school is continuing his education since Birth to Three ended and that there is a Pre-K program in the county but these half-days are very tough.  I'm not sure how people manage it.  I guess they do it just like we are.

I wonder who will be getting up 4 days a week to get Christopher to school by 8 am.....