So Hubby snapped a picture of Darius this morning, while preparing to feed him his breakfast cereal.
Since he started childcare for half-day in mid-March, I had been bringing him to the CC at 8 plus just before the official lessons start and bringing him back again around 12pm.
It took the toil on me however because it was tiring travelling so many times in a short span of time. The transport costs were also getting quite high with me having to top up my EZ-link card almost every two weeks. So we came up with a solution of him going to the CC earlier with Hubby who would be going to work. Then, I would only need to make two trips to fetch him back, instead of four.
He used to wake up at 8am in the morning when he didn’t have school. Then, he had to wake up at 0730hrs when he started school. Now he had to wake up even earlier, at least 1 hour before at 0620hrs for Hubby to be able to reach his company by 0830hrs. Even so, this made him late as he is supposed to start work at 0815hrs. Therefore, we might have to adjust his timing again once Darius gets used to this.
I pitied him actually but we do not have a choice. It takes half an hour for us to go to the CC as we do not have our own transport. The CC is actually IN the vicinity but the buses we have and the buses they have are not connected. I had been thinking about it and searching but there just isn’t any good CC nearby for us. The nearest one will only accept 3 years olds. The second nearest has a waiting list of a few pages. Right now, we are still thinking whether to pull him out temporary for three months and put him back again when it’s September and I’m starting work. The supervisor allowed this temporary measure as long as we keep the deposit with them since I stated my valid reason (i.e. not starting work, the place too far for us).
It’s funny that because of having to go to work so I could be more ‘useful’, we are creating a whole lot of inconveniences and expenses. Yes, we are useful indeed in contributing to the economy now. We are chalking up new bills on:
- Childcare expenses.
- Medical bills (because he will fall sick due to having low immunity from tiredness, being around sick children): For a record, he’s rarely sick. He has only been sick for four times in his life so far and two of them were due to the enrichment classes we attended when he was 10months old. And one, just last week, when he started CC.
- Transport: We do not have to buy a car because Hubby has company transport right at the MRT station waiting for him which he only have to take a bus from our house. Now, he has to take two buses to go to the CC. Then, take another bus to go to another MRT station to take his company bus. That’s three buses.
So in the end, we might have to buy a car to drive him to the childcare centre because the distance/waiting time for three buses is making us late for our work. That’s another extra expense which was unneccessary in the first place.
- Food: What do we eat when I start working? I can’t cook then and we would be back late. So we would have to eat outside and outside food is much more expensive than cooking at home.
Sigh!
So did I make the wrong choice in choosing to work? Well, I don’t regret it since it would help me bring some allowance back to my own family.
BUT I wish, things could be easier. If CC teachers are paid better, there would be more CCs around. If places in CC are given to those who need them more (not because they are there to learn things because staying home with a maid and grandparents is too boring), I would have found a place for Darius near my place. If cars are not so expensive, we could have bought one to bring him there no matter how far. If only bus transport is so convenient and every place is connected easily that we would not need a car. If there are no waiting times for each bus.
We can only wish…
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Aww, poor Darius. He doesn’t look sleepy; he looks like he’s really sleeping sitting up.
You’re right, working does create more expenses & inconveniences. But not working is simply not a choice for most of us… I suppose I’m very lucky as my mom stays with me & cares for Hana while I’m at work. Hope that you, Vincent & Dar will eventually settle into a routine that works for everyone.
Good luck!
Hello Catherine,
It’s fast how much Darius has grown. My son’s 2 days younger than Darius. We have been considering sending my son to childcare too, however, I decided to teach him at home for the time being. He attends a weekly playgroup session too. But it will be a matter of time, I will need to further expose him.
Good luck!
Lucky you, Mama peanut and so glad to hear you feeling blessed abt your mum’s help. Some people even complained when help is given to them so freely. I wished I could show them how blessed they are, compared to us who have none.
oh well… let’s see how it goes
Hi Cat,
understand your frustration as I struggle with that when trying to find some possible arrangement when I need to return to work and just not long ago, went thru another round of searching a CC as the nanny would want to stop caring for Dylan when he hits 18 months or so. It’s a lot more consideration for us as I am taking care of him alone most of the time until my hb finds a job to come back to Singapore.
We ended up choosing a super ex CC after taking into account the cost of convenience (walking distance from home which means it’s hassle free even on days when we are on leave but still need him in CC to run errands), a fun-filled, meaning curriculum with a full suite of enrichment courses, CC environment, quality of teachers, etc. The extra cost seems alot at first but when we factor all these in, we then realized it’s not that much after all.
Like u, I face the challenge of deciding what to get for dinner now once he moves into CC next year as there aren’t anyone at home to be cooking dinner. I m not looking fwd to get Dylan eat outside food on a daily basis and hence, am cracking my head for ideas!
I am sure Vincent and yourself will manage out well and with a good routine in place, Dar will adjust and get used to it.
Take care.
Now COE very high, even 2nd-hand car prices also shoot up.
Just share with you, one of my friends told me before that it takes at least 6 months for a child to build up his/her immunity at CC. So if you withdraw Darius from CC now, he’ll need to re-adapt back in Sep when you return to the workforce. ^ ^
Hi Chloe, thanks for sharing. I’m thinking maybe tingkat?? ha, not sure whether that’s more nutritious…
Mrs Sze…yar, that got me thinking too. Whether I should let him build up the immunity now and chalk up the bills OR let him do it later when we have to take leave to take care of him, causing more inconveniences and more expenses. That’s why I have a big headache as I’m worried about taking the wrong step again.
Yes..I think owning a car is somewhat a dream still.
hi ,
its tough to work and send kids to cc.
haizz .. imagine how about raining day ?
and if take school bus, that will be another expenses.
and falling sick is so heart pain .
kids sure fall sick once attend cc.
and have to seek parents help .
not sure if ur place have 858.
they have new route,
so it might be easier as there is a lot of cc near those scc .
i tried a few company tinggkat … its quite disappointing.
in the end really no choice , have to rush back to cook for my kid , then just buy back for ourselves.
Nikki, you are so right.
Rainy day would be very tough for us. So far, we have been lucky and had not encountered it. Hope we wouldn’t have to….
we don’t have that bus unfortunately. In fact, I sometimes lament the place I live in and wish I could move. Why is it so ulu and out of the place??? For the cheaper price was it worth it? 0(T_T’)0
Really? No tinggkat is good? oh dear. We hadn’t tried it before. Not sure how it would be.
Wow.. you are SUPER in rushing back to cook.
Hmm, I think I would need to find a way to do that too if we are sick of outside food. It’s also never as nutritious as homecooked.
yeah , i understand how u feel on the place where u live .
haizz , if its only for husband and wife, i think anywhere we stay is ok.
but once u got a kid, really …. we will think of everything that is convenient to the kid 1st ..
i encounter raining when i brought my child back home and i really almost faint … oh my god .. its so argg …
)
carrying the bag , my bag, umbrella plus my child … my hand almost broke …
haizz , my place also got no vacancy for cc , so i had to take a bus but now i think i really cannot handle and had to let go and let her take school bus , so luckily now i got extra time to cook
maybe u can tried magic cooker .
just prepare soup and cook in the morning, then put in the magic cooker. then once u reach home, just cook a vege and rice will do …
home cook food is really still the best …
now we are only facing the childcare issue.
my colleague left her child outside the student care if she cannot make it on time by 7pm to fetch them …
so poor thing …
haizz , don’t dare to think too much ..
hope u can find a best solution too
)
do u know there is rebate on transfering bus ??
for example , if u take 859, then on the way back u take 856, then the 856 is only 0.19
but if u take same bus (859) back, then have to pay $0.69
so i always have to wait for different bus and sometimes wait until i sweat under the hot sun .
))
but …. its worth it la, coz can save 50cents per trip ,
so one day is 1 dollars and one months $20
hahaha !!!!
Hi, a couple of frens and relatives tried tingkat. Usually it does not taste that nice cos very little and the food is usually cooked many hours before delivering to your home.
I buy ‘economical rice’ for our dinners. Can choose different kind of dishes. I just cook my own rice or porridge as we eat brown rice.
I stay in Toa Payoh and there are many ‘economical rice’ stalls and I visit different stalls. They are not expensive. In fact, if I were to buy and cook, it would have cost more.
I usually buy 1 veg, 1 meat or fish and another dish like toufu or steamed eggs or potatoes and I usually pay around 5 – 6 dollars for 2 persons portion.
Can try ‘economical rice’ as at least you can change your dishes or eat other stuff if you want. With tingkat, you will have no choice even if you don’t feel like eating.
You can also do a stew or soup in a crockpot, then when you return home, it’s done.
Like Nikki said and from what I hear, so far, nobody has liked tingkat.
Good luck.
Wow.. thanks so much for the advices Nikki and Don! (^_^)
After reading what you wrote, yar…the ‘magic cooker’ and ‘economical rice ‘method sounds so much better than tingkat! I hadn’t used the magic cooker before..got to start reading up.
Yes Nikki, I did notice the rebate of $0.50 when I switch buses but didn’t think much about taking the same bus back cos there’s only one bus along the route. If I have to think of saving money, probably I can try another bus on a different route which is longer. But probably it wouldn’t be much of a difference too.. cos I still have to transfer to another bus and not sure whether there would still be rebate.
A —> B (0.19)—->fetch—> C(0.19)—–> A (still got rebate?? or full fare).
Now I’m doing A —> B(0.19) —–fetch—> B —–> (0.19)A