I mean, really, what do people do? I can't be the only person who's ever been in these circumstances.

People put their kids on lists before they are even born. Em is on 2 others that she has been on for over a year and they still haven't called, but I refuse to take her off just in case.

You have to spread a wide net. Childcare-hunting is like job-hunting, you can't assume that one application suffices. You apply everywhere you can think of to get that one slot. Infants are harder to place than toddlers.

Aren't you a member of a church? The mother's organization/nursery staff may well know of somebody appropriate.

Susan, check the U's HR site. I think they have info in addition to the packet they give you.

People put their kids on lists before they are even born.

I don't have a time machine!

I mean, I can't be the only woman who's tried SAHM/work from home and thought, you know, this isn't working. And you can't place the child before you have a job, because until you have the job you don't have money!

ARRRRRGHHHHHHH!!!@!!!!!!!!

I don't have a time machine!

Sillyhead - you shouldda registered for one!! *g*

Take Betsy's suggestion about the church people, look on Craigs List.

CHeck your church and see if they have a program, if they don't ask what they recommend. Talk to other Moms, call other churches.

I see two churches close to where I live advertising day care.

CHeck your church and see if they have a program, if they don't ask what they recommend.

The one problem with this is that the church is on Queen Anne while potential work would be in the U District. And getting from QA to the U District is very, very tough.

My church has a daycare (well, a daycare that uses the building), but it's in a different neighborhood from where we live and from UW, and it'd make the commute obnoxiously complicated. Did I mention the Catholic church near my house won't take them till they're potty-trained?

I'm looking at the UW stuff, and asked DH to look into some of the stuff where you have to have a current ID to access it.

Part of my stress is that it's not easy to search out these places, even when you pay the money to sign up for a service that's supposed to help you find places, which I did yesterday.

OK. Just called another center director about setting up a tour. She's sending me info and having me call back next week about a time, since the only day she was free this week was Thursday, and that's my interview. I asked what people in my circumstances do, since all the centers have waiting lists, etc. She said hire nannies (which I'm guessing is prohibitively expensive) or find someone to do nanny share with.

Fuck. My life is fucked beyond fixing. Fuck fuck fuck. This is never going to work.

(Yes, I know, i'm doing it again.)

Anyway, I'm going to step away from this soon. I need to write my pages for the day, and finish a freelance job I've already been paid for. Tomorrow I'll talk to my neighbor and maybe some of the other SAHMs from church, see how they'd feel about being paid the going rate for in-home care until something crops up.