There are several groups of women (about thirty groups in all) who have dedicated their homes and their hearts to providing a daycare for very young children who have no one else to take care of them during the day.  These women are hard-working, kind, strong, and dedicated to their job.

Their jobs are not easy.  Every day, except for maybe one to two days a week, kids are dropped off at their home (sometimes very early in the morning; it depends on when their parents go to work) until sometime in the afternoon/evening.  There can be any amount of kids they get in a day.  Some have 20, and some have 100!  Their homes aren’t large and luxurious.  Their resources aren’t huge.  They don’t get paid that much.  Their job isn’t peaceful.  And even so, they willingly take care of these children who would otherwise be left to fend for themselves and their baby siblings every day until they were old enough to go to school.

Every home that is used for this purpose is run differently but they all take care of the children and make sure they stay safe.  The parents pay a little for their child/children to go to one of these daycares.  By paying, they are enabling their children to be looked after, to be fed a meal, to be taught some small things, and to be played with.  Some of the daycares have games for the kids, paper and crayons, legos, beads, or other small things to help teach the kids and keep them occupied for the day.  Others have chairs and tables.  One had a little playground!  Some have only a small space for the kids to stay at during the day.  Most, if not all, of these places have gates so that the children don’t go running off.

To be caring for so many really young children each day would have so many difficulties!  For one thing, the noise.  How would you be able to put up with all that noise??  For another thing, the mess.  What a disaster it might be to have 100 little kids drawing, throwing legos around, smushing crayons everywhere, etc…!  Would you even bother cleaning it up each night??  For another thing, the safety.  Trying to contain all those little munchkins in a small space, without letting them fight, run outside, or bump into something and hurt themselves!  How is it possible to keep every kid from getting hurt??  Yet another thing is the joy factor.  Attempting to meet the needs of all the children is super hard; do they need to go to the bathroom? do they need to eat? do they need to take a nap now? why are they crying?! why are they upset?! who just started this fight?! who needs a time out?!  How do you even begin to make every child happy??  Needless to say, their job isn’t easy!

Even though these women have a hard time and no doubt become very tired, they complete their jobs cheerfully, carefully, and in the best way they can.  They seek to please each child and to teach good habits (when to be quiet, how to be polite, how to share, etc…).  And on top of this, they teach the children educational things when possible.  They will show the kids how to sing a song, or count their numbers, or say their alphabet, or to be patient.  These women are really amazing and are definitely to be admired!