I need to share a feeling that I didn’t know was so important to me.
It’s a new school year and Covid-19 aside there’s been a lot of changes. I’ve been a working mom for my daughters entire life sometimes even two jobs at a time. One thing that I’ve always had to have is a Day Care or Day Home service for her before and after school. Any parents out there that use child care can understand that with Day Homes’ and Day Care‘s there comes a lot of added stressors with using the service. Like do the kids get along? There are sometimes struggles in a Day Home around a variety of situations. For example the argument about the toys being the childrens’ personal toys versus the Day Homes toys. They also have to learn a whole other social dynamic on top of their social dynamic at school. I’ve been lucky enough to have some amazing Day Homes and amazing Day Care providers that really worked hard to have fun activities, balanced schedules and exciting things for the kids to look forward to. However there are some things that just come along with having your child in a care program that you cannot avoid. One of the situations you often deal with is sickness. When my daughter was older I moved her from a Day Home to a Day Care. I swear she was sick easily twice as often as before, she must have been sick almost every six weeks with some kind of cold. I understand she went from 6 children going to 2 schools to thirty children going to 4+ schools, but it was a lot to manage that amount of illness. The colds typically wouldn’t be too serious and she would get over them fairly quickly however it was inconvenient that she was sick so often.
This year we live in a different community and my daughter is attending a new school that was just built. Super exciting! I started my Day Care search early to make sure I got one with good hours that didnt interfere with my early morning work schedule. While I was looking around to switch her day cares, I received an email from the new school that they are going to provide a ‘Before and After School Program’ right out of the school! This program would have teachers running it and structured age-group oriented activities. Included with the program was designated homework help time right after the bell. (Uhh hello additional tutor for no extra cost?!) The program is slightly less of a cost than an external Day Care too (Second win!) and I was pretty excited for the first time I would be able to take her to and from school every day.
We are now a few weeks into the new school year and taking her to and from school is honestly one of the best parts of my day I didn’t realize how important this ritual would become to me. I love being able to wish her a good day as she goes into the school and I love getting to hear about how school was fresh right from her leaving the building. I also noticed without the added dynamics of the care centers she seemed to be in more of a lighthearted mood when I would pick her up. Even with Covid-19 going on I really think that having the program at the school has a lot of added benefits, especially for the older children who need a different kind of structure and care than younger ones. Of course the schools are working hard to keep everything clean but even if they didn’t have the extra precautions I would be interested to see how often she would be getting sick with the decreased exposure of more children in a small place. The school program gets to use the gym, the playground, the tarmac, and even the art room. The children also help clean up when they are done…which isn’t new to child care but it does support the school custodial staff I’d imagine.
I don’t know if its the school atmosphere, or what, but the fact that my little girl is a lot happier, done her homework when I pick her up and I get to wish her a wonderful day as I drop her off at school just makes so damn happy! I didn’t think I would ever be the lucky mom that gets to take their kid to school, but now here I am getting to experience it the last few years before she heads off to school by herself.
I guess through my excitement I also ask why is this not a thing at every single school? Seriously? This seems like a no-brainer to me to offer some type of program like this out of the school. This one specifically is run by a third-party company and if this is a new thing maybe they struck gold! It just seems like something that would make perfect sense as a support to the community and support to the parents who work full-time or who have to work eight hour days, and has school like structure! I’m just thinking out loud but this seems like a completely untapped potential for a Day Care service. Anyone? Hmm? I’m giving you a buisness partnership idea parents like me would swoon for!
Thanks for reading!
