okay um
i have two children and they're older now but um i found it very difficult to find good child care when i was looking for a place to for stay while i taught school
uh-huh
and um
i wanted when they were very young when they were babies say till they were about two years old i preferred that they had an individual take care of them in a home and that's what i looked for and i was lucky enough to find one right across from my school and that worked
well that's good
yeah that worked out real well but when they got older i wanted them to be in a school type situation three i think they were both three when they started where they could learn to interact with kids and and be around kids their own age because i think that's
um-hum
that that would prepare them for school also it's real important that they do that um that they get that preparation for school
yeah yeah
uh-huh
so but i had i have switched schools several times because i did i really didn't care for what was going on at that the school i wanted them to learn to play i didn't academics forced on them at an early age
yeah i um that that's oh oh you mean you switched schools for the kids uh-huh
yeah for the school for the kids yeah
well well i'm just recently married so i don't have any children though we plan on having them soon but i think um
uh-huh
okay
i think um that i that that's probably one of the biggest difficulties uh i think um i'm lucky though that um
my wife will probably not have to work while our children are under four or five yeah because because i'm a college professor so and that's also and it's nice for me because um
wonderful
oh great
most of the time you have so much flexible hours so that i could probably work two or three days a week and then one or two evenings so that if my wife does um does go back to work part time um
there probably will be a possibility that i could stay home two days that she would go to work and that i would have to teach at night
oh that's wonderful
yeah so it will probably workout real nice for us uh i think we're very lucky because just my job sort of builds in flexible schedules
i can even teach on Saturdays and and things like that yeah um i do know that my brother and his wife have a terrible time finding uh child care and one of the things they made in um uh real
oh great
they're number one priority was that um they're children didn't have to leave their home so they um um my sister-in-law is a uh
oh that's wonderful too
um a clinical speech pathologist so she is also i guess her most recent position after she returned back to work
she applied for a director's position and and got it so i guess she's very well qualified for her field i guess and even though she took off two years for um
i guess four years all together it would be three years how old's Kayla three yeah i guess she took off three years all together um
for because i guess they have a four year old and yeah and my nephew's two almost two so i guess she took off three all together and then when she decided to go back to work um
uh-huh
she was able to find good position and pay for somebody to come into their home
oh that's wonderful
yeah i think they were really lucky there but i think they've lost this woman she will she will not continue and and she won't do it in the summer because her kids are home from school
oh dear
sure yeah
so i don't know what they are going to do
oh you know that's an ideal situation but not many people can afford something like that
um-hum
yeah i think i think they they're both they were both professionals unlike me they're um they'll my they were married
my brother's five years younger then she is so she was probably twenty seven when they were married so she already had had gotten bachelors and masters and established herself in a profession in a practice almost um
sure
uh-huh
um where you know he then they waited a couple years and and he got himself pretty far along i guess they didn't have kids until he was about twenty seven twenty six so by that time she was so well
established you know i guess it made it a lot easier but uh i think the longer you wait the easier the easier it is if you have that
sure
oh i do too
that professional occupation where you can change
oh yeah but they're they're are just so many people out there that aren't that uh lucky um
yeah
no yeah that's right that's true yeah
because i'm a single parent and i uh you know my husband and i ex-husband and i got a divorce um when the children were small and so i uh was a teacher i uh still am teacher and it was really difficult to find affordable child care that was that was
um-hum
um-hum
that was what i wanted where i could have piece of mind and when i taught school and i knew my kids were being taken care of yeah and plus i
yep yeah definitely
we're safe yeah
i uh wanted them to get something out of it i just didn't want it to be a day where they went and slept and ate cookies and
um-hum
that's it
yeah that's you know that's so important i um
i i guess
it's so funny now with schools you know they don't take kid into kindergarten and when i guess when they're five and sometimes they flunk kindergarten now and they don't let them into kindergarten unless they can
right
count to ten and they know their ABCs and i think that's so funny because um
i don't i don't know if i want school's very important i'm an educator myself and my wife teaches and i it's a very important part of your life and i hope to read with my kids but i don't know if i want my kids to go to school at four
or three you know i can see that that when you make that point
i agree with that
well the thing is i teach fifth grade and i i can see very readily the kids that didn't never learn socially how to get along with other children and they're the ones that are having problems not only getting along with the other kids but academically because
yeah
uh-huh
um-hum
they were not they're should be there's to many things in their way and so i want my i wanted my children and they did learn to get to get along with other people
yeah
yeah
uh-huh that's a really important point
yeah and i mean i feel a lot of maladjusted adults and i bet if we trace back to their early childhood we could see some
yeah
you know times they didn't get to play or be with other kids their own age really learn how do get along with people
i think that's really that's important i i've seen the same thing i i think you're exactly right because you know i've gone out or before i was married i went out with a girl and you know um
boy after you know after about two months i realize this girl really has some deep set emotional problems and i bet and they could be traced back to just not being uh you know being moved between
uh-huh
day care centers when she was one and two and three years old and never always being a bit snippy and spiteful i bet you could trace all the way back
i bet you could too because it you know kids have to learn how to get along with other people and if they don't they just don't turn out to be really you know good adults or
um-hum
that's true
successful adults i should say you know really
uh-huh
but uh it is a big problem and you know i have lot of friends right now that uh have young children and they
daily have problems with with whoever is taking care of the child or th ey switch a lot which is not good for the child either
um-hum
yep that's true yeah that's really true uh
so you need because you need that consistency when they're young like that and it would be ideal like you you hope when you have children your wife gets to stay home i would have have given anything if i would have been able to stay home with my children yeah you are
um-hum
yeah i i think i'm i'm very lucky um because of having you know flexible higher education provides a flexible schedule
right
especially i teach a computer classes so it's it's one of things where i'm paid a little bit better then a History or an English professor and i'm also um you know they have vocational type courses on weekends
oh great
um-hum
almost everywhere and you know you can take you can teach two three hours classes on a Saturday which means that you know whole week's worth of courses so that lets you be available three days during the week
oh that's wonderful
oh that's good
you know so you be will home with your kids i you know it's really funny is that i i picked this career when i was in college because uh i think with my commitment to family and um wanting to spend more time with my children
you're very wise
you know because my dad had very um nine to five type job with uh forty five minute commute into the city and a forty five commute home so by the time he got home he was so tired and
he was all rung out from the day and i think he he missed a lot of um our up bringing you know my mother i i came from a family that that my mother stayed home until we started school um
sure
uh-huh
um and i i don't uh it's funny i don't think she had to work until we started school i think teenagers become much more expensive
oh don't they though that's what i have right now thirteen and a sixteen year old oh it is they really are expensive yeah
for it
it's probably costing you a fortune
my goodness if if you want them to be able to drive the car the insurance bill the um
exactly well and they most of the area where we live in most of the kids have cars so
oh
you know right now i'm looking for a little truck for my for my son so that you know an older older older truck so i can afford it but you know
um-hum
yeah
i i just look forward to him helping me out because i i for years just car driven carpools all over the place and
carpools uh-huh
yeah my parents did a lot of that
and it will be nice just to be able to have him say will you go to the store will you take
his sister somewhere or something like that
that's right yep and just to save you trips to and from you know uh ball games and athletic events and activities at the school yeah isn't that something how you know you think about child care and it lasts along time
right exactly
right
that's right
it does forever
it it lasts a long time
and then when you get through with your own you've got grandchildren so it's not ending is it you think we've talked a long a long enough time
well normally they come in uh
oh they come in see this is the first time i've done this
oh oh cause they'll come in in ten minutes normally and stop us
oh in ten minutes you have to talk that long
well you don't have to but they they um you go the length and sometimes if it's a very busy time period you'll go about seven minutes
uh-huh
oh
depends on how old the tapes are at that time
i see
uh-huh
i see are you from the where are you from
yeah
this is Baltimore Maryland
oh my gosh i'm from uh Plano Texas which is which is outside of Dallas
yeah well most of most of the people i talk to are from Texas
yeah because that's where TI is that makes sense
uh-huh yeah and i've discussed i've discussed um
