School vacation — again. It's another week the kids have no obligations and I have more, like setting up (and paying for) child care and toting them from Milton to Wilton and back each day. Why choose a sitter a good 25 minutes away? As working moms know, finding someone with whom you are completely comfortable leaving your children all day can be stressful. Once you find that caretaker, you don't let them go — even if they live a bit farther away.

When we first moved to the area in 2003 so I could take a job as the news editor at The Saratogian, I sought out a sitter in the classified pages of the paper. We only needed someone for a couple hours a day for the time in between our shifts. My son was 3, and my daughter had just turned 1. Though I took many phone calls from interested folks, Michele was the first and ultimately the best.

After my son started school and I moved into a daytime gig, Michele and my daughter bonded in a big way, with just the two of them spending their days together. I have to admit a bit of jealousy over the fact the two of them seemed to have the most wonderful times, all while I was at work. But having worked throughout the years my children were small, I came to realize the value of our day care providers in my children's lives — especially Michele. She's taken them to doctor's appointments when I couldn't, taught them lessons in being respectful to adults they meet when they are out with her and given me plenty of good advice, as both her children are grown. She's become like a member of our extended family, someone who loves our children dearly. I'm so grateful for having someone like her in our lives.