Kris Marcum, Cottage Grove (WI)

My husband and I are a two parent household, both working full-time outside the home. We have two boys, one is five, and one is two. They are the best of friends and share a love for playing with super fast race cars and monster trucks, riding bikes, reading books, and sneaking cookies and treats. They attend a child care center in Cottage Grove, where they each started when they were infants.

COVID was really interesting because it gave us a taste of what it’s like to try to work when your children are also at home at the same time. It’s impossible. We were fortunate that our child care center was only closed for two weeks due to the pandemic. Child care is everything.

Linda’s chid art work

When we found out we were expecting our first child, we knew it was really important to start researching child care early. But we were blissfully ignorant in not realizing how early. We soon discovered that we didn’t have much of a choice, and it was more about picking from what few options were available at the time that we needed care.

The most interesting part was what happened when I was expecting for the second time. The child care center was the first to know about our upcoming child. I called them right after we came home from our very first prenatal appointment at the doctor’s. I planned to take an extended maternity leave (6 months) from work, so I was asking for a child care spot a total of 13 months in advance. And they said, “You’re still on a wait list…”

It was incredible, because at the time the waitlist for the infant spots was only open to staff and parents of existing children at the child care center. It wasn’t even open to the public. So, to know that early on for a date so far in the future, it was really surprising to hear that the demand was so high, and that there was a chance that we may not get placed. Thankfully, our youngest did get a spot.

It’s very expensive to have two young children in full-time care; the cost is twice our monthly mortgage payment. While the cost is very expensive for a family, it is actually quite inexpensive when you break it down on a per-hour basis. The child care facility has costs, insurance, and overhead as well, so quite a bit is taken off the top before the money even starts to cover staff wages. It is very expensive for a family, but the teachers aren’t lining their pockets with those dollars.

These teachers are not glorified babysitters, they’re teachers. They’re educating the kids. It’s amazing to see my children come home and to see the new concepts they are learning. During COVID our child care center began offering their own private 4K program; it was amazing. I could not be more supportive of that program. It was the biggest year for my older son’s learning and development that I’ve seen so far. And I could see it, not only in our son, but in the children of other families as well. I could see it when the kids interacted with each other; they were really making connections from what they learned in school to the outside world.

Child care has truly helped my kids stay healthy. I think a healthy child is more than their physical health, but their mental health, and their emotional health. I know when I drop my children off each day that they are going to a safe, secure building, with teachers who have passed a background check and have training in SIDS and CPR. They have a set routine that includes healthy meals fixed in-house, with a schedule that balances active play and rest. They learn how to get along with their friends and how to resolve conflict. My children are nurtured, cuddled, taught, empowered, and loved by the staff at the child care center. It means the world to our family to have a child care center that really places value and importance on all of these areas.

Sometimes it feels like child care is undervalued by people who are either no longer in it, or have not yet experienced it. The value that child care offers to working families can’t be measured. Without child care we would crumble. They say it takes a village to raise a child, and the teachers at the daycare center and the parents of the other kids who attend, are without a doubt our village. We must make child care more available and affordable to other families and communities in Wisconsin so they can make their village too.

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Interview and writing completed by Danika Laine Brubaker. A collaboration of Kids Forward, Supporting Families Together Association, Wisconsin Head Start Association, and Wisconsin Early Childhood Association supported by Voices for Healthy Kids policy campaign and the American Heart Association.