As you might remember from last week’s conversation, Gina Warner, CEO of the National Afterschool Association, talked about the importance of quality afterschool programming and what parents should consider in their search for care when their children are out of school. We also touched on the search for options for summer care and my anxiety about finding quality programming for my own kids. To ease my mind, I did a little bit of research and wanted to share my findings with you.

The importance of high-quality, affordable child care affects everyone. Child Care Aware^® of America is pleased to share with you our fourth story in Faces of Child Care, an eight-week series of stories from individuals of various walks of life who are affected by child care.

We used to have a perspective on child care that it was just Play-doh and crayons. Now we know that the experiences children have in early life are helping to form how their brains develop. As a nation we can do better, and there is a real urgency to invest in the lives of children. Investment isn’t a choice, rather a necessity for current and future generations.

In the beginning, I kept saying “babies are for young people. I’m not as energetic as I used to be.” I couldn’t imagine being the child care provider of an infant at my age, but with the cost of quality child care being so high and my daughter starting a new job shortly after giving birth, I knew it was for the best that my husband and I care for Kai, just for a short while, until she could find a long-term solution.

As I walked into the trauma room, I was horrified to see my 6-year old daughter, barely visible under a head and neck brace while lying on a backboard. Doctors and nurses were carefully attending to my daughter, ordering tests, checking vital signs, and repeatedly calling out her name to keep her alert and awake. Not knowing the extent of her injuries, I felt helpless in the midst of this hurried and surreal environment, yet I tried to process the events surrounding this terrible accident.

As a registered nurse, I found myself primarily working with children who have special needs. One day my 14-month-old daughter had an asthma attack while in child care. The staff never called to tell me at work because they didn’t recognize the symptoms. I arrived that evening to find my daughter having retractions between her ribs. I immediately rushed her to the emergency room where they diagnosed her with atelectasis (a complete or partial collapse of the lung). She was hospitalized for a week.