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When my son was 3 months old, we decided to let a really nice neighbor young lady watch him in her home, instead of going the day-care route.

I got off early one Friday, and arrived at "Marge"'s house to pick up my son. After knocking on the door a few minutes, with no answer, I let myself in, thinking "Marge" was tied up and couldn't come to the door.

There in the living room was my 3 month old baby, asleep in a baby swing, with his pacifier in his mouth, and a piece of TAPE across his face, holding the pacifier in place.

"Marge" was not in the house. She was next door visiting with the neighbor.

Needless to say, our relationship ended right quickly with "Marge".

We had to go the day care route after that. But at least I knew there was more than one person there to monitor what was going on.

Thank God, my son is now healthy and happy at 12, but I will never get that picture of him in that swing out of my mind, and the horror of thinking that he could've choked had he spit up.

Sorry for the long post....

I'm so sorry to hear about that lousy babysitter you had for your little one. After my ex left my daughter and me I had to return to work and considered having a nice woman from the neighborhood watch her, rather than send my 1-year old to a "corporate" type daycare.

In the end, after TONS of research, I chose a Christian daycare/preschool and have been happy with it. My daughter is thriving, has lots of new friends, and the staff is wonderful.

Unless parents find a real one-in-a-million babysitter, I'd say check out local churches that provide daycare. In my research I've found many that are truly excellent and not at all cost prohibitive.

You never know what you are going to get.

My son began attending a little neighborhood preschool. One day I went to pick him up. I couldn't find him. The teachers told me he was in the sandbox, playing. I did not even know there was a sandbox...it was either fairly new, or I had just not noticed it.

So, I go out to this sandbox, and there he was, playing in the sandbox with another kid...they were using little shovels to SCOOP THE CAT POOP out of the sandbox and into a bucket. I grabbed him, and went up to the owner to let him know (at this point I didn't know if maybe this was a one time thing, and maybe I should notify him that there was cat poop in the sandbox).

He apologized to me, with great consternation, saying that the early morning teachers are supposed to clean the sandbox of the feces every morning, but sometimes they forget to do so.

I just looked at this man in astonishment, trying to process the fact that he knew that neighborhood cats were taking a dump in a sandbox used by little children, and didn't have enough sense to cover the dang thing at night.

He told me they would go and buy a cover, but that was the last day my son spent there. We walked out and never returned.

Man, what a horrifying image. It's amazing what passes for common sense these days. She TAPED his pacifier to his face? I can't get over that.

We lucked out with the greatest baby sitter on earth. Her father is a former cop (and my hubbie's best friend). She's been watching our daughter since she was three months old.

I'm planning to join friends on a two week trip to Europa this summer, and felt so uneasy about letting my daughter stay with her grandparents (my parents are dead, hubbie's parents are Boston socialists...) We decided to hire our sitter as a temp nanny for the two weeks I'll be gone.

I feel safer with this 17 year old girl watching my daughter (whom she loves as a little sister) than I would her grandparents watching her. How sad is that?

By the way, I'm glad your son is doing well. Any word on whatever happened to Marge?