well that sucks.

Song of the Day:  Lana Del Rey - Summertime Sadness

This morning I decided to make sure I had all of our ducks in a row for Elliot's 4k open enrollment in February.  We absolutely love our current childcare and they offer a 4k program - awesome right?!  I was looking at the availability and such with wrap around care for the program and realized the center was open until 5:30.  This have never been a problem, and the kids are picked up at 4:30.  I decided to look at the class schedule out of curiosity, when I realized that grad classes are offered one day a week from 4-6:30.  Every single one (that I need).  And one that I need in the spring semester is from 5-7:30.  Greeeaaaaaaatt.  Lets also add that we live 40 minutes away from school.  

So lets think some hypothetical situations:

1. The kids go to daycare/4k near home instead... doesn't matter, all the daycare's in our town, even the one we really liked and considered before, are all closed by 5:30/6:00.

2.  We hire a nanny.  .... said nanny still has to be able to take Elliot to 4k (which could in either town), and both Elliot and Caroline have really loved the social interactions they get from daycare.  And, I'm not sure about the field placement schedule, so I don't know exactly when we would need a nanny for.  I also like that centers are super reliable.  If a teacher gets sick, it's up to them to find someone else.  

3.  We do some kind of mix between daycare/4k/nanny.  With also having a field placement and with Elliot being in 4k there's still a chance that the kids could go all day without seeing either of their parents.  Pretend that I stay home with them all day - I'm still not home in time to put them in bed, and they really like the school they're at now, so I would really like to keep them there.  

4.  Our old daycare from last year is open until 7 (I think).  Now that I have something else to compare it to, I don't want to send our kids there again.  The quality is just not there.  Elliot especially has flourished so much since he's been at our new place, and it seems selfish to put my own education above theirs.  

5.  I just don't do grad school.  Career dreams shattered.  No big deal.

I know I'm being melodramatic about this, but I just don't see an easy solution.  I guess I just assumed that the schedule would be similar to what I have right now, and that we could continue with our current childcare arrangement.  Our kids already only have one parent most weeks, and I don't want them to barely see either of us during the week.  This would be a lot easier if we had family closer.  So I guess option 6 is moving near family and going to grad school at another college.  But that lends to a whole other set of hypothetical situations that include Kyle finding a new job and us selling our house, or not - and that seems even more stressful.

Needless to say, I've gotten nothing accomplished since I found this out.  Instead I'm just trying to figure out what we should do.  So now I'm also way behind on my school to-do list.  Ugh.  Completely overwhelmed.