Mistakes

I have been feeling that I made a big mistake of starting Winston in daycare at around age 2, ever since he started daycare. Maybe part of the reason is that this place is not exactly that great. Initially the selling point is that it is supposedly bi-lingual. I figured that this way I could ease him into an all-English school later, if necessary.

First of all, he was bored to death at this place, as he is the oldest in his group. Second, the place is so small and the yard so tiny that in terms of physical exercise he is getting perhaps a fraction of what he used to. Third, he has only been able to attend half of the time, because the rest of the time he has been sick at home with either a terrible cold or a severe case of stomach flu, which he still has even at this moment! Now that another preschool has an opening in July, I have decided to switch him there. Of course, even if the hygiene condition there is better, he will still catch more upper respiratory infections there than if he is kept at home.

When I make mistakes, I feel awful. That feeling can in turn cloud my judgment and somehow lead to more mistakes. Today under my watch, Winston fell from the kitchen counter. I should never have allowed him to stand up there, and obviously should have been holding onto him if I did decide to indulge his fascination with kitchen cabinets. All this happened while I was absent-minded due to the search for part-time help.

Should I keep him at home? Or should I continue to send him to daycare? I wish that there could be a right answer out there.

At the end of the day, perhaps as one of my friends said, any of these choices is fine for his sake, while perhaps none of them is perfect. Maybe seeking the "right answer" in reality is a pursuit of perfection, which in itself is a mistake.