Friday, September 5, 2008

Is Mother's Day Out really worth it? April 18, 08

This Spring I enrolled Caedmon in a Mothers' Day Out program once a week at a local church. I figured it would be good for him to have a little social interaction and to be around other adults besides me and Andy. I also thought I'd appreciate a day that I could get a little more done than just taking a shower and serving three meals! So, Thursdays were going to be my day!

Well, now, I'm really trying to evaluate if it's even worth it. The program lasts from 9-2 so that gives me 6 extra hours, right? Wrong. Here's how it actually works out. Dropping him off and picking him up takes off about 30 minutes. Then, every morning Caedmon has room time for about an hour anyway so that's not really an extra hour that I'm receiving. In addition to that, Caedmon would normally take a nap starting at 12:30 and go until 2:30. So, minus another hour and a half. If you add all that up I end up getting an extra 4 hours of work time, which is still pretty good.

However, what I pay for it is why I'm not sure it's worth it...The program cost $95 a month. Caedmon has missed the last 3 weeks because we were out of town 2 weeks and he was sick 1 week. So that stinks. In addition to that, he comes home sick almost every time he goes...runny nose, stomach bug, etc...and that makes for a long week of recovery for both of us. And the thing that I think is the toughest is that he typically only gets a 30-45 minute nap on those days, so he cries the rest of the afternoon and evening.

Hmmmm...is four hours of peace and quiet a week worth all of this? Evidently it is because I keep taking him! Oh, what young mothers will go through to get some space!!!

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