Today a future reality became present one, momentarily, as my wife and I briefly toured the daycare that will house our son at the beginning of next semester. We entered through the doors, took off our coats and hats, abandoned our stroller, and walked into the room for the babies who cannot yet crawl. While my wife and I knew the day would come when our son would need to be in daycare our visit today made that future reality much clearer.
My wife and I are not excited about the prospect of daycare. We’d much rather have our son with at least one of us throughout the day while he learns about the world but educational and financial realities make that possibility impossibly difficult. While I’m working my way through a Ph.D. my wife is paying most of our way through the monthly bills.
Truth be told, though, this is the best daycare in the universe. We know some of the people who work there and they know us. It is literaly on the campus where my wife works. It is no more than 100 feet from her office and she’ll be able to visit and feed him three times each day without disrupting her work schedule. But this is not enough to quell some of our discontent.
Everything in life, though, is a tradeoff. My wife and I both agree that obtaining a Ph.D. and being employed (hopefully) as a professor in the future (anybody looking?) is the best situation for our family and our lives together. We’re hoping to be able to work something out for next year that would involve me taking care of our son during the day (while studying) until my wife gets home and I can go teach an evening class at night. I can already hear some of you giggling: “Study for Ph.D. tests with a toddler!? Good luck buddy!” Perhaps this, too, will be impossible. What makes me know we’ll succeed is that we’re willing to try. Dreaming and trying are a part of life… and we’re still living!