Daycare Owner
She grew from childhood playing with other children to an adult career, starting as a teaching assistant, eventually owning a day-care center.
FAMILY BACKGROUND
EM was the youngest of five children. Her father was a laborer. Her mother was a housecleaner. Neither her parents nor any of her four siblings attended college.
CHILDHOOD THOUGHTS OF AN ADULT CAREER
The parents of EM each worked hard outside their home so in that sense, they were both role models for going to work every day to help support their family. EM enjoyed playing with neighborhood kids her own age and liked to organize games for younger children, but she can’t recall during her childhood, picturing herself as an adult with a full-time job.
SCHOOL DAYS
EM liked going to school and participating in classroom discussions with her teachers. (Later, family members described EM as “always a good conversationalist.”)
Initially, EM struggled to learn math, so she asked her teacher for extra help until EM was able to understand the basic math concepts of multiplication tables and division involving carrying numbers forward. Much later, as a senior citizen in her 90s, she wanted to learn the latest in technology, asking for a Twitter account “so I can tweet” and also for “my Facebook.”
EARLY JOBS ARE NOT A BINDING CAREER COMMITMENT
EM’s first adult job was working for ‘The Quartermaster’, a supplies branch of the Army, sewing patches on military uniforms.
CAREER OPPORTUNITY – FREE TRAINING PROGRAM FOR AN INTERESTING CAREER
When EM was married and had several children, she stayed home until her children were school age. EM then participated in a program at the School District of Philadelphia, which provided her with free training to become a Teacher’s Assistant, leading to consecutive jobs at different schools, as a teaching assistant, for several decades, before she decided to retire (for the first time.)
‘KNEW’ AND ‘NEW’ CAN BE A GOOD COMBINATION
EM’s retirement lasted only one week (!) before she realized that she still had energy to work outside the home after taking care of her children and housework. So, what should she do? After several decades of working, she KNEW the kind of work she both enjoyed and felt comfortable doing being around children. So, during her second week of (premature) retirement, EM decided to continue working with and around children, but this time, in a NEW way: opening a children’s’ summer day-camp, which was successful in a small way at first, soon building trust for child-care within her community while at the same time, giving EM the opportunity to learn how to run a business involving taking care of other people’s children.
Eventually, EM turned her camp experience into a 12-month child-care (also known as ‘day-care’) center, which she operated successfully for several more years until this time, fully retiring.
RECOMMENDATIONS BEFORE COMMITTING TO A CHILD CARE CAREER
Before enrolling in any program to earn either a Certificate or a Degree in childcare, you should:
- Self-assess – Ask yourself and answer honestly such questions as: Do I like interacting with children individually and in groups – understanding that like adults, kids can have good days and bad days, sometimes veering from fun to annoying during the same day. Am I patient? Am I willing to change a diaper, wipe a nose and be sneezed at in close range?
- Volunteer for at least several weeks in a day-care setting to experience the realities of dealing with children, their parents, and day-care staff.
CAREER CHALLENGES
Editor’s note – Most day-cares now require being licensed by local or state government agencies which oversee child welfare. License requirements may differ from area to area but usually involve:
* a minimum number of employees with a certain level of education
* first-aid training for adult staff, including basic life-saving equipment
* maximum number of children who can be enrolled at the same time
* minimum facility square footage per number of children enrolled
* basic health standards involving food and bathrooms
* best practices for dealing with childhood allergies and emotional / behavioral issues
* standards for supervision of the children
* minimum insurance coverage
* periodic, unannounced, inspections by government representatives
* prompt reporting of any injuries or abuse which occurred within the day-care center or elsewhere
CAREER SATISFACTION
In addition to watching children grow in height, EM watched them grow in self-confidence while they learned to focus on tasks and share with others.
Many of EM’s day-care students who went on to college and began successful careers, would return to visit EM, who was easy to locate since she had lived in the same home for 60 years. They would often tell her “Because of you, I went to college!” and EM would be so proud to see them and talk about their life journey after leaving her daycare center several decades earlier.
