Home is where the monotony is

I have lunch with my best friend Lolo every Thursday. We tend to talk a lot and always get off track. Sometimes, we tell each other to "bookmark" a topic so we can remember to bring it up during lunch. I meant to tell her this one today and ran out of time:

Sometimes I wonder if I'm doing the G-man a disservice by not having him in daycare.

Does that sound weird? I mean, people have been saying the stay at home/work at home mom is the best thing for kids. And I know moms that would love to be at home with their young children. But hear me out on this...

G-man goes to Parent's Day Out once a week for 5 hours. I love our place. I think he loves it. At the least, he has a good time each week. I adore picking him up and seeing his little sheet about what he did that day, hearing he took a nap (one day, I will learn this trick), looking at his craft project and knowing he spent the time with kids his age and had fun new things to explore. Of course, I tell Lolo about his day and probably act as if I personally invented PDO and am responsible for this unique experience.

I recently came out of my little bubble and realized, this is what kids at most day cares do on a daily basis. They play, they do projects, they discover new things, they socialize, they are exposed to great age-appropriate activities. I talk about how tuckered G-man is after his partial day at PDO; her kids must be exhausted after each full and rewarding day.

From a mom perspective, being at home is the greatest. You get to experience each moment as it happens instead of hoping that someone else who keeps the real memory will dole out some magic for you, too. But what about the child? I know I'm not as creative with our time during the day as PDO is. I plan a lot with other kids, but it's not the same. Would he learn faster, grow better if he was in a different environment like day care?

I don't have an answer for this. I get to be with him during every day and at night I'm still near as I work out of the house. I feel so lucky. I hope he feels the same way, too.