{"id":17906,"date":"2019-10-17T10:01:03","date_gmt":"2019-10-17T14:01:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.andiemitchell.com\/?p=17906"},"modified":"2019-10-17T10:01:10","modified_gmt":"2019-10-17T14:01:10","slug":"a-parenting-tip-for-temporary-child-care","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.andiemitchell.com\/a-parenting-tip-for-temporary-child-care\/","title":{"rendered":"A Parenting Tip for Temporary Child Care"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Our local YMCA is about 20 minutes from our house. We first visited when James took swim lessons there over the summer. He <em>loved<\/em> being in the pool (and we loved doing it with him) so when the summer session ended, we knew we should sign him up for the next level. We checked session schedules online and noticed another option he\u2019d love\u2014a gymnastics class called \u201cMe and My 1-Year-Old.\u201d We decided to sign up for a family membership and so far, it\u2019s been more worthwhile than I expected. Here\u2019s the big reason why: child watch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1360\" height=\"1813\" src=\"https:\/\/www.andiemitchell.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/james_at_play_center-3-1360x1813.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-17908\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.andiemitchell.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/james_at_play_center-3.jpg 1360w, https:\/\/www.andiemitchell.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/james_at_play_center-3-300x400.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.andiemitchell.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/james_at_play_center-3-680x907.jpg 680w, https:\/\/www.andiemitchell.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/james_at_play_center-3-624x832.jpg 624w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1360px) 100vw, 1360px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Daniel and I both work from home, so one of us is with James pretty much all the time\u2014and we love it! As two former latch-key kids from a very early age, we are so happy and feel so unbelievably fortunate to be home with him. Still, it\u2019s not always easy to create boundaries around work time, family\/James time, and personal time (I know I\u2019m not alone when I say that as a parent, my perception of \u201cme time\u201d tends to swing between feeling selfish and indulgent). This is why the child watch at the Y has been a blessing. Every day, they offer free child watch to members\u2014a great option that allows parents time to work out or heck, take a hot shower, for up to 2 hours a day. I haven\u2019t worked up to that amount of time just yet\u2014and maybe I never will who knows, but I love that James can play with other kiddos safely while I\u2019m in the gym. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1360\" height=\"2040\" src=\"https:\/\/www.andiemitchell.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/james_at_play_center-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-17909\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.andiemitchell.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/james_at_play_center-1.jpg 1360w, https:\/\/www.andiemitchell.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/james_at_play_center-1-300x450.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.andiemitchell.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/james_at_play_center-1-680x1020.jpg 680w, https:\/\/www.andiemitchell.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/james_at_play_center-1-624x936.jpg 624w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1360px) 100vw, 1360px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>At first, I was a little hesitant (can you tell I\u2019m a first time parent? Ha) and left James for just a short time to see how he did, but he always seemed perfectly happy when I picked him up or checked on him. Anytime I felt guilty or nervous that he might be upset, I reminded myself that before we signed up we took a tour and met with some of the folks who work in the child watch area. The area was clean and safe. I knew that <em>if<\/em> he did get upset, I\u2019m always nearby and an employee would come get me. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So if you\u2019re looking for a short break from time to time, see if you have a YMCA or another similar family gym nearby. You can use the time to exercise, answer a pressing email or two, make a phone call\u2026or sit in the lobby and read a book if that\u2019s what would recharge you. Take care of yourself.  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Our local YMCA is about 20 minutes from our house. We first visited when James took swim lessons there over &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":17908,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"wprm-recipe-roundup-name":"","wprm-recipe-roundup-description":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[999],"tags":[1171,1176,1189],"class_list":["post-17906","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle","tag-baby","tag-motherhood","tag-parenting"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andiemitchell.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17906","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andiemitchell.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andiemitchell.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andiemitchell.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andiemitchell.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17906"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.andiemitchell.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17906\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andiemitchell.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17908"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andiemitchell.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17906"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andiemitchell.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17906"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andiemitchell.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17906"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}