Child Care Homes and Centers; Where Do They Belong?

In the past year I've been involved in two situations where a neighborhood rallied against a child care in their area.  One was the preschool where I work, and another was a child care home and friend of our school.  In both cases, arguments were made against the child care being in a neighborhood.  As a longtime preschool director, this quite obviously did not sit well with me.  While in both cases the city ruled in favor of the child care, it still left me wondering...where do people expect these children to go?

When I was a child, my mom stayed home.  It was both a choice and something she had available to her at the time.  This was the early eighties; my parents were not rich but were certainly not poor.  We lived in a safe California suburb, had two cars, and my mom picked up part time work typing for the business that employed my dad to help with the monthly income.  She was able to stay home until I went to school, at which time she went to work part time.  In my generation this was much more common. 

Today I run a preschool with 40 children.  Almost every single family that attends our center has working parents.  They work not because they want to drive a Lexus or go to Paris for the summer; they work to pay their incredibly high Bay Area mortgages, their health insurance premiums, and to give their families a good life.  Sure, some of them make more than others, and some less.  But the majority of these working parents are working out of some sort of necessity.  I myself, while I love my job, do the same.  I could not pay all of my bills and stay at home, I simply couldn't afford it.  Fulfillment aside, I need to work like many others.

I'd like to ask...where should these children go?  In our case it was suggested that we open a center in an office park.  It hurts my soul to think of children at two, three and four years old being cooped up indoors for the better part of the day (especially in our Mediterranean Bay Area climate) with little to no outdoor play and involvement in nature.

This isn't a case of a hippie dippy saying all kids should be tree huggers.  This is based on fact; studies show that children learn through hands on experimentation.  They learn through play.  They learn about their world by EXPERIENCING and being IN their world, not by watching it on TV or looking at it through a window.

I respect the fact that people enjoy their quiet.  As I type this blog I am sitting outside in my backyard on a gorgeous spring day enjoying the sounds of nature.  I hear birds chirping, and the breeze rustling the trees behind me.  I also hear cars driving by, airplanes in the sky and the occasional lawnmower.    It is by no means "quiet" in my backyard, yet it is still quite peaceful.  I'd rather be here than inside on my couch despite the fact that my neighbor has some type of generator running next door, creating a droning buzz.

In life, in a society, we all have to make concessions for the greater good.  Silence may happen in the rural mountains of Montana, but here in the burbs we have noise.  We also have traffic.  Your neighbors have children, and your neighbors have incessantly barking dogs.  We all learn to work with one another and to coexist...that is how it works.  

I'm proud of both the City of Walnut Creek and the City of Concord for making good choices and supporting the right of quality child care providers to exist in neighborhoods where children actually live.  I'm proud of them for supporting children and their rights to spend their time in a big backyard with play equipment, animals, and birds chirping instead of in front of the boob tube.

To the NIMBY's, (not in my backyard)...I ask you...where would you like us to put our children?  My son will be two in December.  I'd love to know by then if you have suggestions.  My plan was to take him with me to preschool where he will be stimulated and busy and learning and OUTSIDE.  As evidenced by his laughter while running around the backyard and playing happily in the dirt, I think he will have a great time. 

Leah Rosenthal-Kambic

Director, Kid Time, Walnut Creek CA