I have a lot of cousins who currently live in Akron, Ohio, and when I was younger I used to mock them for still being there. Some chose to go to college in the area, others never went to college, but they all chose to stay in that city even when they were old enough to explore and know that Akron is not really the place to be. Sure LeBron James is from there, and there is a fancy golf tournament played there every year, but it just isn't that great of a city (my apologies to those of you who live and/or visited there and loved it).

But I can admit that in the past month or so, I have seen one of the benefits of them staying in Akron, or just staying close to lots of family in general. Childcare. The wife and I are currently on a mission to find childcare for our unborn son, and it is a bitch. I know we live in DC and all, but that is still no excuse for the closest childcare spot to our house to be charging $2600 a month (and yes you read that right). There have been some other nice places that aren't as close to our house that are charging anywhere between $1200 and $1900, and while that's not quite as bad, that still seems expensive. The nice, affordable places under a grand have extensive waiting lists with a few exceptions, and the wife and I have pounced on them but we've yet to lock anything down. We still have plenty of time between now and March or April when our son would actually be entering daycare, but we are still feeling the pressure.

If either one of us lived closer to our families, we could just leave our child with them (after a careful search for a competent, sane family member of course), and we could ask them to do it for free. Of course we would offer money, and they would say, "Oh no, you don't owe me anything", and then we'd try and offer again, and they would refuse our money again, and then we would rescind our money offer completely, and there would be a win-win situation on our hands. The family gets to see our genius child grow, and we get free childcare.

But as it stands, neither one of us really lives close to our family..her family is an hour away, and it really would not be very convenient for us to drop the kid way over there and then get to work in a timely fashion. And my dad is an hour away, but I can pretty much guarantee that he will not watch the child until he's potty-trained (can't blame him there, those are my rules for babysitting as well). The wife and I are in the process of devising a list of bribes to get our respective mothers to retire and move here, but we've yet to come up with the right offer. The dance continues...In the meantime, if any of you wonderful people reading this blog know of anyone/anyplace in the DC area, where we can take our child without worrying about creepy behavior or people, please let me know. There's a luxurious vacation to Akron in it for you.