For Julie…Thanks for being a fan 🙂
We all know that daycare is expensive. It’s a fact of life. It’s right up there with taxes, bad hair days and death, it’s expected and a known fact. Let me repeat, daycare is expensive!
We recently moved to a new home and couldn’t be happier. Unfortunately, we had to leave our current daycare lady behind, thus starting the task of finding Rowan a new place to park during daylight hours.
After interviewing with some high-end daycares that pride themselves on all organic snacks and chi meditation instead of naps, I was at a loss. These places were great; and I’m sure Rowan could benefit from the meditation sessions, but under no circumstance could I afford them.
Just when I thought I’d be writing an email to my supervisor explaining that I would be working with my child attached to my back, I came across a Craigslist ad for an exclusive school for little ones. The best part was the price! I couldn’t believe it- I told myself there must be something wrong with the school, so don’t get too excited. I called the number and set up an appointment. The next day I headed over there with a knot in my stomach, if this place turned out to be a dud, it was back to emailing my supervisor about how to get around child labor laws.
First impression was great- the school was clean, the teachers were nice, the owner was extremely open to my questions…there was just one thing, a little bit of an elephant in the room…
The teachers…don’t speak English
The children…don’t speak English
The owner…speaks broken English
Yep; I had found the Hispanic only school. The school for Hispanics by Hispanics…
Now most people at this point would thank the owner for their time and move on. I on the other hand, still couldn’t believe that this place was so cheap, clean and had such nice-looking staff- minus the fact that we can’t communicate with each other, this place is great!
Okay fast forward two months…They still don’t know how to pronounce Rowan, so they have created his cubby with the name tag “Ro-Juan” – It means Lil John in English. They often report about Ro-Juan hitting or biting the other children. When this comes up- Yolanda, the head teacher, will start acting it out. She pretends to bite or hit when she tells me about Ro-Juan’s day at school. Sometimes, if it seems like it more explanation is needed about Ro-Juan’s behavior, her and I will talk slowly into Google Translate…
We have yet to be invited to any birthday parties and during the class picture for the fall semester they made Ro-Juan stand all the way to side, he almost blended in with the cream-colored walls.
Most people compliment me on being so open minded and progressive “He’ll be bilingual, that’s great for today’s world!”
“Well…” I say, “He’s learning something and that’s all that matters.”
Motherhood Updates 