It’s odd, when your child goes to daycare.  You begin to think of his classmates as his siblings.  I know all of the other babies by name, personality, and disposition.  When I come in to pick up Binja after his day is over, I go around and greet each of the other babies by name and snuggle them.

(I don’t know if this is protocol or not.  Psshaw.)

There is another child in his class.  We’ll call him Ernie, because he has a grin as wide that that lovable muppet.  And because I could name him here, but I would like to hope that every parent who reads this assumes their child is Ernie and works twice as hard to fix the issue.

Ernie is a month or so older than Binja, and is all smiles.  He lights up whenever I come in the room, and LOVES to be held.  He also loves all of the other babies, and will snuggle with them from time to time.  He’s just all around precious.

But Ernie breaks my heart.  His parents are too busy for him.

Now, I know that today’s economy is not kind to the working family.  I know that we all have to pull our 40 hour work weeks (or more!) to keep the family afloat.  I know that we have daycare open for just that reason.

But Ernie often is there in the morning when Binja is dropped off and remains behind when I pick him up.  We have, on more than one occasion, had the staff apologize to us for dipping into our diaper/wipe reserves.. because Ernie’s supply had gone unreplenished for days.  Bryan has walked in on a diaper change with Ernie where the staff was discussing sores from the untreated diaper rash.  And there have been stretches of days where Ernie was sick, but not too sick to send home, and he was miserable and weepy at daycare.

Again, I know that some parents don’t have the liberty I do.  They don’t have flexible hours or easygoing management or the ability to take care of family issues.  I do consider that.

But everytime I go in there, I make sure to give just a little bit of uninterrupted attention to Ernie.  Because I think of him as a brother to Binja, and I would want any parents to feel open to doing the same to my child.