Given my work schedule and the obvious benefits of interaction with other children, I felt it was time to put my son in daycare. But I had no idea that it would be so painful…for me!

Now I’ve gone round and round in discussions with friends and family members who tell me that putting your [first] child in the care of someone else is always hard, and that the first few weeks will be hard on both me and my child, but mostly on me. And I think their right – just bringing him into the building starts the water works and I can still hear him crying as I leave. I know that he is just getting used to me not being there with him and adjusting to being around new people and other children in a new environment, but it doesn’t change the fact that I’m having a hard time adjusting to leaving him there crying because I know he’s upset.

All of this gets me thinking of at-home nannies or services like Nannies for Hire. I’ve heard good things about these services, and a friend of mine recently used Nannies for Hire to find someone to come to her house and watch her two little girls three days a week and says it was a great find. But I don’t want my child to miss out the interacting with other children his own age and in turn develop the social skills needed in the future.

So I suppose right now it’s just a waiting game – will my son be the one to adjust and start making a swarm of baby friends or will mommy be the one to break first? Well since I’ve decided that I will give this whole “daycare thing” 6 weeks to work itself out, I guess we’ll all find out in the new couple of weeks…