A caring lesson in child care from a wonderful Palmetto day care operator

From the moment I began working as a teacher at Wonderland Day Care in Palmetto, I was hooked. The year was 1984. A lot of changes have occurred over the last 32 years; many of those changes have benefited the children, families and the child care industry, and many have not.

"Back in the day," as those of us over 50 like to say, you could have one worker for eight babies. Now the ratio is four babies to one worker. That's a good change.

In 1984 my boss, Ms. Murrell Hobbs (if you are a Palmetto native, you know Ms. Murrell) taught me how to teach children, care for children, communicate with parents and keep my room clean.

Ms. Murrell, to my knowledge, had no formal education for teaching and managing a day care, but what she did have was the most amazing wisdom, kindness and love for children and for me.

Through her experience and wisdom, I learned more than I ever learned taking formal classes or Florida-mandated courses. I learned early on that I must comply and take those mandated courses, but my real education came from Ms. Murrell.

I knew that child care would become the job I would have for my life, and 32 years later it has.

I watched how Ms. Murrell "ran" the day care in every detail and one interesting aspect of child care was on occasion families needed help with paying for their weekly fee.

In 1984, I am unsure of the exact nature of financial assistance for child care, but I witnessed families receiving a discount for volunteer work. It was a lesson in barter for me. It was also a lesson in compassion for those who truly needed help on occasion.

Denise Perez

Palmetto

This story was originally published May 10, 2016 at 12:00 AM with the headline "A caring lesson in child care from a wonderful Palmetto day care operator ."