PARENTING: Ready for the world: It takes a village...or does it?

The old saying is at least partly right. It may not take a whole village to raise my son, but a lot of folks sure have a hand in his continued progress. In fact, it’s a good thing he's so young, else he would be really confused by the whole deal.

As I’ve written here before, my wife and I decided that I would stay home with Jackson when he was first born. She was newer in pursuing her current career than I was in mine, so it only made sense. Plus, she couldn’t teach from home, but I could write.

But of course she didn’t go back to her school right away. After the little guy came into the world in May 2006, she took the summer off.
So at first Jackson had two parents at home with him.

Then Momma went back to work, so I was home with him by myself, save for scheduled breaks from the educational calendar.

This went on for about 18 months. That’s when I realized it was getting harder and harder to get any work done during the day. My boy was no longer a baby who took frequent naps and who would simply sit quietly in his baby carrier if an important phone call broke up the day. (This was also when I began to despise anyone who would ask me such inane questions such as, “Now that you’re not working, what do you do with all that time on your hands?”)

So with much trepidation, the Hunley family entered uncharted territory: The World of Daycare.

It’s a subject that calls for a whole column or more on its own, but all I want to say here is that it’s been a wonderfully enriching experience for Jackson.

However, we signed him up for only three days a week. So that was the schedule Jackson got used to for six months: Monday through Wednesday with Miss Donna, and at home with Dad on Thursday and Friday.

Previously scheduled surgery entered the picture recently, though, so Jackson is now back at home full-time with yours truly for a while until his substitute caregiver, Miss Kerri, arrives back in the area from her sophomore year of college.

He’ll hang out with her — the youngest and hippest of all of us — for a few weeks until he heads back to Miss Donna’s.

Confused yet? Jackson surely would be if he wasn’t just 23 months and 24 days old. It would be especially befuddling had all these changes hit him after he got used to a stay-at-home mom, as his parents and countless others of our generation did.

My wife and I have made these moves out of the necessity of maintaining work lives while giving our kid the best possible care.

And I share them with you not because I think you need to know our childcare history but to offer this notion: The more caring people one can surround the child with, the better. We didn’t start out with this idea in mind, but I’m glad that’s how it’s worked out. It’s good for Jackson to know that his parents love him so much that they’re with him as much as possible. But it’s also important for him to know that he can get by when we’re not around.

See, the thing some parents forget is that this child-rearing deal is all about preparing your offspring to live their own lives — unless you live in some cult or commune that involves many more members of the outside world.

A village for us? Maybe not. But certainly several residents of that village.

Fredericksburg resident Jonathan Hunley is a columnist for Media General’s Stafford County Sun, and father to a nearly 2-year-old son.