So there are day care centers and then there are day care centers.

Today was visit two to another (and, in fact, only other) day care center near our house. After my first visit a week ago to Another Place to Grow, I felt pretty depressed. 7 infants in cribs in a room with two 20-somethings just made me feel bad. It smelled like diapers and the staff was just sorta doing their job, but nothing extraordinary. To give them a fair shake, it was nap time when I was there in the infant room, so only one kid was up, but the care provider who had him in her lap was more interested in talking to her co-worker than with him. Maybe it is a different environment when everyone is up and rolling.

For the record, we aren't sure yet what we are doing about day care, but wait lists are long and it doesn't hurt to be on them. There is a possibility that Ben has some flexibility in his schedule to maybe be home while I work. Both grandmas are possible options for partial days as well and I could do some teaching on the weekends. In any event, I feel a lot of pressure to be both a mom and a person who is intelligent and has something to contribute to the professional world and want to do both without giving anything up. Well, that ain't gonna happen. I know that much...

Anyway, today I visited with Arlington Infant and Toddler Center. We'd had a recommendation from a friend for this place so I was intrigued to see it to contrast last week's visit. Here there was a staff that was engaged with every child. Even though the kids were 3-10 months old, they spoke in complete sentences to them, hugged them, engaged with them and played. Nap times are done on the child's schedule, not everyone herded at once into the crib room. The director knows all the kids names and while it made my visit over an hour long, she stopped to talk with the little ones throughout the center, calling them by name, asking them questions and pointing things out. She showed me every single classroom and the staff all introduced themselves without prompting. She shared her educational philosophy about the importance of teaching the kids to talk, to problem solve and to engage as citizens in the world - they do field trips to nursing homes, the fire station, the post office etc. It doesn't hurt that the person who recommended me happens to work for YoYo Ma and when I mentioned I knew Cecelia's mom, the owner just said, "oh, so you must know YoYo as well. His kids went here and we just love him." I told her I'd met him at a few Harvard events, but he certainly wouldn't know me from Adam.

What I found interesting was not only did I think that I'd feel far better about taking my 3 month old to this place, but I found myself wanting to work for her. The energy and passion she has for what she does is so evident. She's been at the center for 27 years and her staff has good retention as well. I found myself thinking, hmmm, it could be fun to get certified in something like kindermusik and do that and yoga with kids while my own are little....

There's one more place that is in another part of town, but we'll go to the open house and then maybe investigate some home day care centers and before you know it, have to make a decision.