It took a while for me to settle into being a mom. I am very Type A, efficient, organized. I had an idea in my head of what it would be like, the things I would do, the baby we would have. And it’s funny to me now, how much I wanted to be prepared without realizing you can never be prepared to be a parent. You go from one day making decisions for yourself to making every decision around this tiny human that just….needs you. Really needs you, in a way no one has ever needed you before. I mean, to stay alive, sure. But much more than that. As parents we become responsible to teach and guide and inspire. We are responsible, literally, for the future. To provide boundaries and simultaneously freedom to explore. To give meaning to a billion things we’ve long thought to be common knowledge: fire is ouch-y. Candy is amazing, yes, but we have to eat other things too. Avoid ingesting gravel (and why). Shoes are helpful in snow. Animals are good, don’t be afraid. But wait, some animals we should be careful around so don’t pet that one. You need money. Here’s some pretend money to learn how to use it, but nowadays money is mostly just electronic anyways so you can’t see it being spent but you have to know it’s being spent and how much. (That last one is a lesson only for the advanced three/thirty-three year old.)

It’s easy to theoretically understand what makes a good parent, but the challenge is in applying that consistently in the everyday moments that make up your parenting life. And your child will grow (spoiler alert), and they aren’t just babies anymore. They are little people with ideas and opinions and personalities. Really strong personalities. You grow together, learning a delicate dance of how to be parent and child. Your heart will swell to a million times its former size, but you have to sturdy it up because the road of a parent can be tough.

Ironically, after it had taken me so long to settle into being a full-time parent of two, I was ready to return to work. We were lucky because we have so much family support, but even with all the helping hands we needed a reliable child care provider. And it is a big thing to consider child care for your little ones. We chose Kids & Company (disclaimer that I work at Kids & Company, my kids attend Kids & Company, and I love Kids & Company). I can talk until I’m blue in the face about nutritious meals, programs, beautiful facilities, schedules, teachers, date nights, webcams, daily reports and on and on. But really when you make a decision to put your child into the care of someone else, it’s a decision that is instinctual and from the heart. It’s hard to let go that first time and share the enormous role of raising your child. And it all comes down to trusting that someone will do it with the same tenderness, care and intention that you put into being a parent.

Why was Kids & Company right for my family? It’s a company built on a foundation of being a place parents can be confident in, and it impacts everything they do. They hire not only for education and experience, but warmth and nurturing. They provide support for teachers so instead of worrying about meals and paperwork or any number of other things, they can focus on stimulating and responding to children’s interests and teaching important life skills and creating amazing things with my children. Things I would never even think of. And there are a million details Kids & Company takes care of because they understand what it’s like for busy parents in today’s world.

I can’t tell you quite how it feels to have both my sons, who like a lot of kids are prone to shyness in their own ways, run to greet their teachers with a hug or happy hello in the morning. And the teachers communicate with us each day so that we know where the boys are at in skills and development, and they know how things are at home and how that might impact their day. It is a good feeling. A really good feeling to pursue my day knowing the boys are somewhere they love – learning and interacting with friends and growing.

Who knows if you ever really settle into being a mom or dad. It’s an overwhelming but wonderful role that so many of us step into, never quite being able to understand where it will take us or how much it can change our world. If you’re looking at child care, check out Kids & Company – if it’s a fit for you like it was for us, it will make things feel that much more settled.

 

Brought to you by Kids & Company.
The Kids & Company mission is to innovate the lives of working families. Kids & Company does this through high-quality, flexible child care, innovative early learning programs and developing a sense of community and support for our families. We are proudly Canadian and have 90+ locations to choose from across North America.