300 Words: Thoughts of a pretired French Teacher

Finding good childcare in the U.S. is a tough one in terms of cost and also of quality. The U.S. is not like other countries in that we do not have a nationalized system. One of the reasons that MK and I had a slow financial start was because we had decided that we really wanted to have one of us at home for the beginning years of our family. Since MK was in a job that was less than great, she ended up being at home.

We are pleased to say, as a Koerner family, that we are happy, today, with all the childcare. MK and I do a stint of two days or so and for one of our sons’ families, an in-law takes a day. Given that scenario, someone has to fill in the other days, few as they are. One of our sons had a situation where a babysitter had been procured, then at the last minute, she bowed out. That left us with a rush scene trying to find a good, high quality, new one that was not going to break the bank.

MK helped out in the research and one in the Deerfield area surfaced. She seemed nice and had a stellar rating of recommendations. Our daughter-in-law and children visited and it seemed okay. We became involved when her husband, our son, had an accident and had no use of his hand and arm for some time and ended up having surgery. MK or I would go over in the early morning, get the kids up, and either bring them to our house or to the babysitter.

I was not overly impressed when I walked in the house, there were dogs fortunately sequestered in the upper part of the house, and the babysitting arena was totally separated downstairs. I like dogs, but frankly I didn’t care for the doggy smell. Our granddaughter cried each time I took her. It seemed to lessen, you have to expect that with a two year old, but we were all questioning it, as we are talking about a child of an extremely sunny disposition and even though there is some separation anxiety, it should abate quickly. It got to the point that she would see me in the morning when she got up, and cry that I was taking her to the babysitter. She cried in the car and cried when I left her. What really set me off was the day I arrived with her and her brother and saw that there were four little boys besides her (for one lady babysitter), all smaller. We were of the understanding that there would never be that many kids. I then found out that the lady made lunch for the kids upstairs and left the kids downstairs while doing so.

Then we found out that the babysitter wanted to take some kids from a former client who was supposed to have moved away but didn’t. Having the children there was a bad scene and luckily only lasted a few weeks. We were all trying to do our best and be objective, but in the end the kids were not happy and it really wasn’t a good situation. The babysitter would not even greet the kids when they arrived. She apparently was a ‘caretaker,’ able to take care of basic needs but certainly not providing the type of emotionally assuring situation our family wanted.

Luckily, another son had a babysitter in Northbrook that they have used since our first grandchild was born over seven years ago. She was able to take on the two new kids, and was extremely happy to do so. The kids were immediately greeted by Debby and were so happy that they didn’t care that we were leaving. We had overlooked Debby only because she was in the opposite direction of what we needed, but to have good childcare, sacrifices need to be made. Add into this, Debby is very flexible, caring, clean, and has values like ours.

All in all, we are blown away by the fact that the babysitter we ‘tried out’ has the recs she does. What does that say about how we all want our kids to be treated and received