To day care or not to day care

That's the question, right? At 8 months, and counting , we wonder a lot about day care. When we drop off little Autumn, and she waves bye to us, we wonder. Should we be figuring out a way to stay home more? To play with her more? Or should we carry on with working, and really taking advantage of the morning, the evenings, and the lunches we have with Autumn.

I'm sure that across the world, people wonder about day care. In countries outside of the US, the decisions are a little different. In Canada, for instance, you get the first year off. Rhona would still be home, and this post would be totally different. In the US, it's 16 weeks. We were fortunate to extend the time home by a few months, but she's still there. In day care.

It's easy to rationalize this away. How many people honestly remember things from the time they were under the age of 2? I have a hard time remembering stuff from when I was 5. So, she's getting socialization experience, and meeting other babies from all kinds of races.

But. And this is the biggest but. We're missing certain things. Like her first piece of art, which we saw on the wall of the daycare yesterday. What if her first word is said at Day Care?

It's my opinion that the best thing we can do for Autumn is ensure we're happy. We both have jobs we enjoy, and there's a lot of dancing and laughing that goes on at our house. We're not rich, but we're certainly not poor. And notwithstanding the way the middle class is being wiped out in this country, I feel like we'll do pretty well most of our lives. Money doesn't buy happiness, but not having money certainly can lead to a struggle. So that's one less struggle.

Leaving day care. Dropping her off at day care. And wondering if there's something we're missing. That being said, I'll pick her up this afternoon. And when she sees me, she'll smile a smile that takes up most of her little head. Her eyes will light up. Her arms will flail. My heart will melt. And I'll think, she's happy here, and she's happy when I take her out of here. What's not to love, right now?