I used to wonder, before I had a child, how parents knew how to make decisions like when to start a child in preschool or whether to skip a grade if a child’s school recommended it. What gave a parent the ability to make decisions like this?

Monday I picked Emma up at daycare. She was as happy as I have ever seen her. It was 5:30. On the days I am home with her I usually have to break out the baby carrier to keep her from total and complete meltdown when 5:30 hits. On Monday she was happy all the way home from daycare and it really wasn’t until dinner was almost over that she got cranky, and it was a cranky that was completely understandable since she only slept for 40 minutes at daycare.

It made me think that maybe we need to figure out how to get her more time at daycare, and maybe look into enrolling her in an “early 2’s” preschool in the fall (since she won’t be two until December.) I am convinced that her good mood was a result of spending time with other people who are not me. Which is not meant to be an “oh-poor-me” statement - I am thrilled that she enjoys people and doesn’t seem to suffer much from separation anxiety. And I can only imagine that spending most of her time with me could get a little old.

No doubt when the weather gets warmer and we can get out and do more, life will become a little less boring, but it is the hubbub of a group of people that Emma seems to especially like. It seems so clear that an extra day at daycare or a couple of mornings at preschool in the fall might really be good for her.

All of a sudden those decisions that overwhelmed me before having a baby seem much more simple.