When I was a student at Mizzou, I was a daycare teacher. I did it because was a latchkey kid.
People with children will know this: when the childcare is over, it's over on the dot. You immediately have to go into child mode; there's no down time.
Parents need a full continuum of care and support from birth to kindergarten that is affordable and accessible - that means full day and full year. And let's not forget that even in elementary school, working parents need access to the same kind of quality, affordable after-school programs!
In my formative years, when I was a little kid, I'd get out of elementary school, and because my mother worked as a nurse, I'd have to find a way to get a ride to the high school and watch my dad's team practice.
I was a latchkey kid, from 4 or 5 years old.
To put me through school my morn had to work, so I was a latchkey kid.
I spend as much time with my kids as any mom who stays home. I only work during the hours they're at school, but there is always the sense of trying to catch up with all their stuff and not only organize my work life but also their school lives.
I got sent to a health camp when I was about 6 years old, and we all had to wear the same starchy blue uniform. The lady who took care of me after school knit me a burgundy sweater. It was the only thing that gave me any individuality.
In two-parent households, women have increasingly entered the workplace, and in single-parent households, there is even more of a need for the adults to work. That means parents do not fully control their own schedule and have to scramble to find high-quality after-school options.
I was growing up with a single mom who'd be at work when I came home from school. So I'd just turn on the TV. I grew up watching old Clint Eastwood westerns. I adopted him as one of my male role models.
Most of my days in the office end like this: I am in a meeting, it's running over, and I am starting to panic because if I don't leave the office right this second, I will be - yet again - late picking my kids up from school.
I was a latchkey kid.
There is no other parent for Inez. When I was working, I never got to hear about her day or chat about what she was learning or do any reading with her because by the time I got home my nanny had put her to bed.
I remember, my mom didn't have any help, so if she needed to be somewhere after school, we'd just go down to the neighbors' and she'd give us a snack and make sure we did our homework. There weren't any latchkey kids.
