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Parents deal without daycare
Published Friday, September 5, 2008
NATCHEZ — At Woodhaven Corp., Sesame Street played on a small portable television, toy blocks and a small fire engine littered the floor and 18-month-old Lehmann Novak waddled around the office.
Lindsay Novak’s office was transformed into a playpen, when she had to bring her son to work after Hurricane Gustav caused First Presbyterian Church’s day care to close.
Lindsay, the office manager at Woodhaven, sends her son to First Presbyterian Church’s day care.
“It’s really just been a hassle to try to keep him occupied and get my work done,” Novak said, as she chased Lehmann around the office.
“You answer the phone and hear Elmo screaming in the background.”
Taking Lehmann out of his regular routine has also been difficult, she said. Especially with him not getting regular play time that he gets at day care.
“Toddlers normally don’t do that good when you get them off of their schedule,” she said.
But he did manage to entertain himself, most notably with Sesame Street.
“The portable TV is an incredible invention,” Novak said. “It’s a life saver (for) mom’s sanity.”
And Novak was not the only parent who had to deal with a loss of childcare. Many of area’s day care centers closed because of the storm, even though parents had to return to work.
Grace Child Development Center, a part of Grace United Methodist Church, closed Monday and plans to reopen today, director Jan Huff said.
“I had one (parent) call me about 6:40 this morning asking if we were going to open because she had to go back to work,” Huff said. “It’s hard to find someone to keep your child if the day care is closed.”
Luckily, many of the parents were off of work for the past few days, so finding child care was not a problem, she said.
Grace Child Development Center was out of power until Thursday afternoon, which meant they had no lights, phones or air-conditioning. They also lost all the food and had to completely restock on groceries, Huff said.
“For the safety of the children, there’s no way we could keep the day care open,” she said.
Huff didn’t know if the children would be excited about returning to day care today, but said she was sure the parents would be.
Comments
Posted by concernedNTZcitizen (anonymous) on September 5, 2008 at 3:33 a.m. (Suggest removal)
This was a problem.
Posted by cooper3k1 (anonymous) on September 5, 2008 at 8:15 a.m. (Suggest removal)
What's bad is most daycare's will still charge for a full week even though they were not open.
Posted by Teach4Peace (anonymous) on September 5, 2008 at 11:48 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Cooper3k1, couldn't agree more! That is the true shame od it all!
Posted by cooper3k1 (anonymous) on September 5, 2008 at 12:06 p.m. (Suggest removal)
It is a shame. I understand if your child misses a day or two when daycare is open, but if the daycare is closed then they should prorate the charge, especially under circumstances like this! At Thanksgiving, my toddler only went for Monday and Tuesday because daycare was closed the rest of the week and I still had to pay the full weeks price. I was only off one day so I had to have someone else keep him for the other days.
Posted by redusmfan (anonymous) on September 5, 2008 at 1:22 p.m. (Suggest removal)
i am glad all my kids are past that age now. I used to get frustrated with things like paying for a whole week when they only went 3 days....
Posted by kpage (anonymous) on September 5, 2008 at 1:29 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Me too, redusmfan. My oldest watches the little 'uns in times of need.
Maybe by Monday everything will be back to normal. I hope.
Posted by shewoman1960 (anonymous) on September 5, 2008 at 9:33 p.m. (Suggest removal)
By guidelines of the MS State Dept of Health no childcare facility can operate without lights, telephones or essentials needed to care of the children which is understood however those facilities should not be allowed to charge for a service that they could not and did not provide. In my experience, parents paid for thier childcare if the child was absent & the center was open but when the center was closed and the child is absent due to circumstances beyond anyone's control?
The storm prevented the centers to open resulting in the thier workers not reporting and many parents having to report to work as usual. The parents will utimatly have to pay the center and also pay another person to care for thier children plus endure the additional expense of the water, food, and other items needed during the storm, power outage, etc.
Gosh, now tell me why it pays to work and provide for your family! There are several qualified, caring and compassate centers in our area and exceptions can be and should be made to help our families thru this difficult time. If we can't help those who are helping themselves, who should we help?
Posted by johnwentworth (anonymous) on September 5, 2008 at 10:13 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Do any of you still get paid when your off work? The daycare works depend on that full week of pay just like you all do. I am sure you aren't offering to give up pay for the time you were off due to Gustav.
Posted by cooper3k1 (anonymous) on September 8, 2008 at 9:10 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I am not on salary, so I do not get paid if I am not at work except for vacation . I did not work Tuesday and I will not get paid for it! I was told Friday by my daycare that they would do as the schools did. Well, our schools were out Mon-Wed. My son only went to daycare for 2 days last week and I still had to pay $85! I had to have someone else keep him on Wednesday because I had to work. I am the one losing, not the daycare.
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