Child Care Lite: Try the Gym

When my daughter turned one, I thought it was time to start thinking about life beyond our little ranch home. Other kids. Other caregivers. Some kind of childcare.

For work-from-home moms like me, the thought of childcare is intimidating. When I decided to quit my newspaper job, I thought I wouldn’t have to worry about finding the right childcare center. But, like so many aspects of first-time-momdom, I was wrong.

At some point, I started to feel like my daughter, Celia, needed room to groove without Mommy, Daddy, or Nana hovering close by.

I started listening when other mothers at the playground talked about PMO, Parents Morning Out. Such programs generally operate in churches and offer the option of dropping off just one day a week.

A church within walking distance had a new PMO program, but it got terrible reviews from parents. They recounted horror stories of an ancient caregiver changing a toddler’s diaper in the crib and feeding another toddler on the changing table. When a child wailed for his mother, the caregiver rattled the loudest toys possible in his face.

Other PMOs got great reviews, so I thought I’d check them out.

My husband, Jason, only had two words to say when I mentioned PMO. Not now. Since when did parents who made the choice to have one stay home with their child start looking for daycare-as-socialization opportunities at age one?

I promised to hold off, but I still had a nagging feeling that Celia needed some mom-free playtime.

Then Jason mentioned joining a gym, something we avoided for years for fear we would pay for a service we wouldn’t have the discipline to use. Jason’s knees were bothering him, and he needed some low-impact cardio equipment to keep the love handles at bay. Though I walked a lot with Celia, I wanted to firm up my arms, abs, and butt.