I wrote this for my business blog... but I wanted to share it with you guys too.
I know, right? If you know me, you might have expected the words, “I own a business” to come out of my mouth. But I bet you never expected it to have the word “babysitting” in the middle. Yep, it’s true I own a babysitting referral business. It’s certainly a far cry from my regular line of physically demanding, dirty, country traveling, mountain climbing, firefighting line of work. Not too long ago in October of 2009 the way I look at things changed. I brought into the world a little bundle of amazement. There was an ad campaign out a while back, I think it was Gerber, that said “a baby changes everything.” They weren’t kidding. My son has been the most wonderful and at the same time, most stressful thing I have ever endured in my life thus far.
Once we got past all of the early parenting hurdles and learning experiences such as jaundice, weight gain, crying, colic, doctor visits, crying, breast feeding, diapers, switching to bottles and crying, there came the time to buckle down and commit to a daycare situation. I am sure every working mother feels the same guilt I did and still do. My ace in the hole was my mom who had just retired teaching. It was her first grandchild and she was eager to be able to care for him when she could. I knew I couldn’t burden her with full time care while I was at work… that would make her crazy, especially since she has others on the way. We figured out a way that she could do part time. My husband and I staggered our days off so it only ended up being a couple of days a week. Then something we didn’t see coming smacked us right upside the head. Mom was diagnosed with cancer. There is not enough preplanning in the world that can prepare you for that. Of course mom’s experience is a whole other topic that I will share later. She is doing really well.
We finally had to take the step that so many other parents do… start our baby in daycare. I reached out to everyone I knew to find the best place I could take him. The community I work in is very small, so the options were few. No one had a suggestion that they felt great about, at least not a location with any openings. Long story short, we finally semi-settled on a professional licensed daycare with an independent location (not in a home). I took my son there for I believe a total of 3 times. Within that time there were a number of small issues and intuition that added up. The final straw was an evening when I picked him up and he was in distress. I walked in to a room of uncontrolled toddlers running around and no adult in sight. My son was in the corner screaming, strapped down in a swing and it was obvious he had been crying for some time, he was delirious and had nearly lost his voice. I could tell there was something more going on with him than a swing disagreement. When the “adult” finally came in the room, chasing the children she was clearly outnumbered by, she had a look of surprise when she saw me. The woman who was tending to the children had been left there alone for the late shift. I had never seen her there; I didn’t even know she worked there. It turns out she was someone I had gone to school with… she is not someone I would have ever left my child with. Knowing that there was something out of the ordinary going on with my son I began to go throw out the basic questions. Did he have his nap, have you changed him, did he eat any solids, how many bottles? The previous times I had taken him for a few hours, they had given me a form that showed diapers, number of bottles what he ate etc. She had no answers for me. She said she wasn’t there earlier in the day so… she wasn’t sure about any of my questions. I went to his diaper bag to look for the form. It was in there and had some basics filled out, but there was nothing entered for food with the exception of “one animal cracker.” None of his formula had been used and his bottle was in it, empty and clean. The food I had provided was unopened. It had crossed my mind that they may not have fed him all day, but I couldn’t accept that a professional day care would make a mistake such as not feeding a baby. Come on, how basic it that little detail? She couldn’t recall if he had eaten since she had been there. I informed her that she needed to make some phone calls to the other care givers and find out if they had fed my child that day. I quickly made him a bottle which her ravenously sucked down. Long story short, they had given him no food and not one of the three bottles he was used to have in that time frame. According to the long conversation I had the next day, his feedings were merely overlooked due to the caregivers switching out all day. Every day I brought him I verbally laid out his basic needs to the caregivers and it was also detailed in his initial paperwork. You can imagine how upset I was as a mother. Sure, he wasn’t physically abused but I could not grasp the fact that they just flat out forgot to feed him.
It hit me that evening as I was talking to my husband; I had no idea who all was actually working there. I didn’t know their backgrounds or character. I hadn’t even checked. I didn’t know how much experience they had. I simply assumed that a professional place like that must be legit. I figured whoever ran the place must have been as diligent as I would be in finding people to care for the children. I didn’t even think to ask if my son would change hands through the day. I thought that whoever I dropped him off with in the “infant” room was who would be caring for him the entire time. It was my rookie daycare inexperience that blinded me from these sort of obvious situations. I found out later that the gal who was left in charge of my child that evening was not favored for many reasons I won’t mention. I was informed that because of the low pay and lack of applicants they had no choice but to keep her due to the number of children they wanted to maintain at the daycare. That is certainly NOT an acceptable situation to me or my husband. I later talked to a few other parents who had similar experiences there which helped verify that it was not merely my new paranoid parent feelings. I know this is not the case with the majority of daycare centers. There are some wonderful places out there. I just happened to run into a not so favorable one that helped guide me to a new chapter in my life, SeekingSitters.
The very next day I was sharing my experience with a friend and co-worker. I never even thought to ask her about childcare as she doesn’t have children yet. She was appalled by my story and quickly suggested a local in home preschool/daycare. Turns out I have known the owner since I was a child. It has been a godsend. I can drop him off and go to work knowing he is in wonderful hands. Thank you Vicky and Shining Stars! Of course for all of my irregular childcare needs I turn to my SeekingSitters team.
This experience has driven my family to provide a service that we can offer with pride and confidence. We provide parents with babysitters that they can feel great about. The ability to have someone care for your children in your home and feel secure in doing so is a wonderful thing. With all of the screening, interviews, reference checks, etc. that we do it all comes down to one thing. Would I let this person stay alone in my home with my child? If I can’t say yes with 100% confidence there is no way I would send that person care for someone else’s children.
Whoa… I am sorry this post turned into a bit of a testimonial. Once I got started I couldn’t stop. As you can see this experience has meant a lot to me. So, yes... I own a babysitting business. Sometimes life takes you in the most unexpected places. I say, “bring it!”
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