[speaker002:] okay do you have you ever had to put your children in in child care Mary Dell
[speaker001:] oh yes I'm an old experienced hand I started back when it wasn't stylish to do that at all my daughter that's seventeen now
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] I worked even when she was a baby
[speaker002:] oh
[speaker001:] and I had private care for both my daughters until they were two and then I was really lucky to have put them in a Methodist day school at Preston Hollow Methodist
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] right off of Walnut Hill and Preston and it was a wonderful environment I I just wish all kids if they have to be put in day school could have that kind of place
[speaker002:] uh-huh uh-huh I see
[speaker001:] so it worked well how about you
[speaker002:] oh well I have uh a nine year old and a six year old and neither one of them has ever been in in uh day care for the reason of of me working but uh they both went through preschool
[speaker001:] uh-huh uh-huh yeah
[speaker002:] and uh we've just been real lucky I think anyway to not
[speaker001:] uh-huh it's not hard to find anything that's part-time so many of the churches have really strong
[speaker002:] right like half day programs uh-huh
[speaker001:] preschool and children's day out but it was a nightmare back when Cheryl was little and this is one of the few churches that did it there were a couple downtown Dallas
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] but they were so seemed cold and impersonal I just couldn't hack it
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] and what I liked about Preston Hollow is that the people that were there when Cheryl was two which was fifteen years ago many of them are still there today so there was real continuity she went back as a teenager and these people that had changed her diapers when she was three were still there
[speaker002:] oh oh my gosh
[speaker001:] so it it was really neat but it was because they had a director that had always done it as a labor of love and she just kept good people and
[speaker002:] uh-huh oh my goodness
[speaker001:] real cheerful place lots of arts and crafts and I'm really glad my kids had it because Plano schools do so little of that
[speaker002:] right right yeah
[speaker001:] that if they hadn't had it before they hit first grade they were never going to have any art or music or any of the interpretive stuff
[speaker002:] uh-huh yeah that is um a big drawback I think in that in the uh public schools out here
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] you know to your lucky to have an art teacher and if you do you get them once a week or something you know
[speaker001:] or pay for it after school our Emily's in the third grade over at Huffman and they started a pilot program where we can pay private tuition so that they can take French and music and art and
[speaker002:] oh is that right I had no idea
[speaker001:] you know I willingly did it but I thought this makes me angry this is something that ought to be in the schools
[speaker002:] oh my goodness
[speaker001:] rather than some of the other stuff they do yeah
[speaker002:] and with our budget cuts I'm sure that's not going to
[speaker001:] well that's the only way they're yeah that's the only way they're going to be able to do it and parents who really want their kids to have any humanities are going to have to do that so in some ways I think the the day schools do serve those purposes
[speaker002:] not going to change anytime soon oh my goodness yeah that's true well even the preschools you know they get so much of that in preschool and then when they hit kindergarten you know it's like wham culture shock it's just
[speaker001:] yeah yeah put the colors away which is too bad
[speaker002:] yeah yeah get the computers out and you know well that's hard it's so difficult for them um
[speaker001:] uh-huh uh-huh
[speaker002:] did you have your children did you say in home in in private care was that in your home or in someone else's home
[speaker001:] until they were two yeah yeah both times they were at our house
[speaker002:] uh-huh so you were able to have somebody come there
[speaker001:] and that was hard too I I lucked out with really good people both times but I know so many people that are never able to find that and I'd practically give my paycheck away to do it so yeah
[speaker002:] yeah yeah did you have a nanny or did you have someone that lived in with you
[speaker001:] yeah well no she didn't live with us uh the first one was an elderly lady who was putting a a daughter through nursing school just purely on babysitting money
[speaker002:] oh oh my goodness
[speaker001:] and she kept Cheryl during the day and then did more babysitting at night and she was neat because she was like the grandmother that my kids never had because both our parents are dead
[speaker002:] uh-huh yeah oh
[speaker001:] so that that was a plus from that respect as well and then with Emily it was a neighborhood friend that kept her so
[speaker002:] oh gosh uh-huh uh-huh I have uh a
[speaker001:] I just cannot fathom putting a little bitty baby in a commercial care center
[speaker002:] uh-huh I was just listening to a program this morning oh well I guess it was on the Home Show but they were talking about uh a new uh oh I can't even think of the name of it I was halfway listening while I was painting um it's some kind of advisory board they've put together for parents and children
[speaker001:] um-hum um-hum
[speaker002:] and they've now moved it to Washington DC and the the doctor that was on there the pediatrician said you know I can't imagine leaving a three week old and taking them to a nursery day care and leaving them there
[speaker001:] yeah oh that would be hard
[speaker002:] you know so um
[speaker001:] well they give a lot more leave I work at NCNB now and our benefits for maternal and and parental care and even for elderly people or
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] are really expanding we have more options now then we did when I my kids were born with being able to take off full-time longer of you can phase your schedule in so that it's not full-time
[speaker002:] uh-huh oh boy that's great
[speaker001:] for up to six months it's really neat I've I've had a couple of assistants that came back just three days a week or they've you know whatever schedule they want from a pay standpoint
[speaker002:] uh-huh uh-huh
[speaker001:] we try to work it with their hours and that helps because you don't have to just wean wean yourself cold turkey and say okay I never get to see my baby for eight hours a day again
[speaker002:] yeah right right
[speaker001:] and the bank has a lot of programs now for child care referrals I've of course it's too late for me so I've I've not tried them to see how effective they are but
[speaker002:] yeah uh-huh uh-huh
[speaker001:] I think we're finally beginning to make progress but just not very fast
[speaker002:] gosh it's amazing
[speaker001:] and for our age group it's too late too little too late
[speaker002:] right right
[speaker001:] but I I do think it's an area that needs to be looked at and improved because more of us are going to have to work two income families I think are here to stay
[speaker002:] uh-huh uh-huh well and I would think you know since big business is supposedly why the government makes the decisions they do
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] you know the the people that work in big business have families they have children so it's only to their advantage that they get these programs going and working and uh
[speaker001:] right yeah oh sure you retain employees and keep them longer that's that was the rationale they gave when they were giving us information about our Employee Assistance Programs that
[speaker002:] uh-huh uh-huh
[speaker001:] well they want us to be happy and wa nt us to be able to cope with trying to split ourselves in fifteen million pieces
[speaker002:] right right right
[speaker001:] so I I hope it helps it seems to help the new mothers not have to come back full-time because that's hard
[speaker002:] oh that's good that's good to know I got a couple of friends that have have found the uh you know a private a private home to take their children to when they're young until they hit the preschool age and they
[speaker001:] uh-huh uh-huh
[speaker002:] usually you know you'll find a a woman that's keeping like six children or four to six children in the home and my future future sister-in-law's mother does that too full-time
[speaker001:] uh-huh well in Plano though the problem is you find and this is what I found with Emily I from the time she started first grade I wanted her out in Plano area
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] and I kept finding neighbors and friends and they'd move she ended up being in a different home every year
[speaker002:] oh too transit uh-huh
[speaker001:] and I finally decided I didn't like that because it was traumatic to her to get so attached to a family and then have them move so this year I I tried KinderCare and then she's old enough to
[speaker002:] and her surroundings too yeah