Latest / The Inspired Stories Podcast / 20 Years of Nurturing: Erin Kress on the Evolution of Childcare | Childcare Series

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20 Years of Nurturing: Erin Kress on the Evolution of Childcare | Childcare Series · The Inspired Stories Podcast

0:04
Welcome to another edition of Inspired Stories, where leaders
0:07
share their experiences so we can learn from their successes,
0:10
how they've overcome adversity, and explore current challenges
0:13
they're facing. Welcome to another edition of
0:18
the Inspired Stories podcast, where leaders share their
0:21
experiences so we can learn from their successes and be inspired
0:24
by how they've overcome adversity.
0:26
My name is Anthony Kotaspodi and today's guest is Aaron Cress,
0:31
Director Assistant of Step One Child Care, a child care center
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founded in 2013 that serves children from infants up to
0:39
seven years old in Melrose, MA. They believe that children are
0:44
unique individuals who need a secure, caring and stimulating
0:47
atmosphere in order to grow and mature emotionally,
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intellectually, physically and socially.
0:54
Their goal is to help children meet their potential in a
0:56
caring, warm, secure and stimulating atmosphere.
1:00
Their teaching staff and management team work together
1:03
and cooperate with parents to make every effort to achieve
1:06
this goal. Now before we get into all that
1:08
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1:11
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To find out if your company qualifies, contact us today at
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back benefitsagency.com. Now back to our guest today, the
1:38
Director Assistant of Step One Child Care, Aaron Cress.
1:42
I appreciate you making the time to Share your story today.
1:44
You're welcome. So Aaron, I understand that you
1:48
aren't the founder of this child care center, but can you maybe
1:51
give the origin story? How did the center come into
1:53
existence? Well, it started, like you said,
1:56
in 2013. The director ended up getting
1:59
pregnant with her own child and she moved her home center to a
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small center that she found in Melrose, MA so she could keep
2:09
her baby home and not get subjected to germs and all that
2:12
stuff. And then she just grew.
2:15
And it just took off from there. It did, yes.
2:18
And so at what point did you get involved?
2:21
She opened in April of 2013 and I started in May of 20. 13 Oh,
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so you've been there essentially from the beginning.
2:30
Yes, I have nine and a half, nine years.
2:33
OK. And and how did you find out
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about this opportunity? Did you know each other
2:37
beforehand? No, she actually opened in 2015,
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April of 2015. 2015 OK. 15 years.
2:46
OK no actually I was looking for another job.
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I want to be closer to home because I had a child in
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elementary school at the time and I want to be able to get her
2:54
and be more closer to home. So she was happened.
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So when my boss happened to be looking for teachers so I
3:01
applied and I've been here since.
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And had you had a background in child care?
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Yes, I actually have been doing this failed for over 20 years.
3:10
OK. And so describe what your role
3:14
is there now? What do you do on a daily basis?
3:17
Well, right now I'm in the preschool classroom, so we're
3:20
implementing potty training. We're doing structured stuff
3:23
like circle time with them, potty training.
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We take them outside, you know, let them learn at their own pace
3:31
with them learning educational stuff.
3:35
And so you guys actually teach potty training there?
3:38
Yeah. Well, we helped them with potty
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training. Yes, we strongly encourage it
3:41
for them to go where we have multiple kids in the room that
3:44
actually potty trained. The littler ones will be like,
3:47
oh, that looks fun, I think I want to go do it.
3:49
So we encourage them to potty train and we give them
3:51
incentives with it and we work with the parents on getting them
3:55
potty trained. We also start to help them learn
3:59
the writing skills of holding pens and pencils and learning
4:02
how to write letters, numbers, their names.
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So when they do get ready for the older pre pre-K classroom,
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they have the fundamental skills that they need.
4:15
That's great. Now, your center serves kids
4:20
from infants all the way up to seven years old, which is a bit
4:23
of an older age bracket than you typically see in a childcare
4:26
center. Yes, typically we don't get them
4:30
after the age of 5 due to summer camps and where it's easier for
4:35
the parents to put them at summer camp where the hours are
4:37
longer. Typically our oldest we have is
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five, but we can take them up to seven if we absolutely needed
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to. And that that older brackets six
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to seven, that would be more for the summertime because those
4:50
kids are typically in kindergarten, first grade,
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second grade. Yes, exactly.
4:54
OK. So tell me about your curriculum
4:57
and your overall approach to childcare education.
5:01
Our curriculum is based. Every month we do a different
5:04
theme like September we may do fall or back to school or fun
5:09
and each week we teach them something to do with that.
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Curriculum based, curriculum based theme we may have going
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on. We also have them do Chinese
5:20
circle kind once a week where they will learn different things
5:24
about that theme for the week. So say we're doing farms,
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they'll learn about the farm that week and they'll learn
5:30
different things in Chinese related to that.
5:34
Interesting choice. I'm curious why Chinese in
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particular? Because he owns Chinese and it's
5:42
bilingual. The kids love it.
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They know they'll go home talking to the parents and say,
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Mommy, I learned how to say this in Chinese, or I learned how to
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say that in Chinese. Terrific.
5:52
And you said you do a different theme each month.
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Here we are in September 2024. What's the theme this month?
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Our preschool theme this month is seasons.
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Because the weather changes so quick, we're talking about the
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different seasons. Like one week we talked about
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fall and what we need to get ready for fall.
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And then we talked about like we're talking about winter now
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and what we need to get ready for the winter, what we do in
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the winter, what our favorite season is and why.
6:17
OK. And is October lined up?
6:20
What's the theme for October? October will probably be for my
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room, the farm and apple picking and pumpkins and Halloween
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related stuff. What do you feel sets apart step
6:32
one? Childcare from other centers in
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the area. We I'm all like a family based.
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Like when I walk into work, I'm all like, oh, it's a job.
6:42
I'm like, oh, I get to go see my family today.
6:43
I get to see, you know what? This one's it's more family
6:47
based. Yeah.
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And so do your folks tend to stay with you long, both the
6:54
families as well as the employees.
6:55
Yes, I actually had a family that graduated with me this year
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who's been with me for 10 years, and it's amazing to see him and
7:05
his siblings go all through like our center when he was a baby.
7:10
Now he's going off to kindergarten and his sis, you
7:13
know, it's amazing to see the family bonds that we get with
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them. And the employees are the same
7:18
thing. A lot of the employees that have
7:19
been here have been with us for four or five years.
7:23
Oh wow. Yeah.
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So we don't have a high turnover of teachers because like I said,
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it's more of a family based than center based.
7:31
So that's interesting. I'm wondering because, you know,
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I talked to a lot of childcare centers and finding and
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retaining good folks is a huge challenge in pretty much every
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part of the country. I'm curious what you guys have
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tried and what's working for you on that front.
7:49
A lot of it has to do with our director, you know, she's very,
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very flexible, very understanding and she listens to
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our needs and concerns. So it's more like she works with
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us to make us feel comfortable and happy.
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It's more geared towards keeping us happy.
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Does that make sense? Sure.
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Oh yeah. And that's why she holds the
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retention of teachers that she needs.
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And she's very generous to us, too.
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Generous in terms of like times off, time off and benefits or.
8:19
Exactly. All that time off, the benefits,
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like if there's family emergencies, they totally
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understand everything. It's just it all comes down to
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how she respects us and she respects us.
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Phenomenal. Oh, that's terrific.
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And she's actively involved in in running the center as well.
8:33
Yes, Yep. So.
8:36
Erin, maybe take me through what a typical day would look like
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for one of your students. A typical day for our students
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is we greet the, we greet them at the door with their parents.
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You know, we talk to the parents about their night and their
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morning, and then they come in the room.
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I'll take my kids, for example. They're all older.
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They'll come in, they'll wash their hands and they'll sit at
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the table and read a book or play with like Legos at the
8:59
table and whatnot. And then we get ready for snack.
9:03
And depending on the weather, we either go out first thing in the
9:06
morning or like 10/30/11, depending on, like I said, the
9:10
weather. And then we'll get ready to go
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out for playtime outside. And then between the transition
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time, we'll have potty time and then we go into circle time too.
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So like after snack by 930 quarter or 10, they'll learn the
9:26
days of the week, the months of the year, how to spell their
9:29
names, you know what we're talking about for the themes and
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get through circle time and then we go out.
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And by the time students are ready to leave, they're heading
9:39
into kindergarten or first grade.
9:41
You feel like they're generally very well prepared for that
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transition. Yes, Yep, because I've seen kids
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that have started in my room not being able to spell their name
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or write their name to going off to those old preschool room,
9:56
which we call pre-K to spelling their names.
9:59
You know, writing their name, holding them, writing their
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names, holding the pencils the way they need to be done.
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And it's a huge. I'm sorry.
10:07
Go ahead, Aaron. I.
10:08
Was going to say it's huge to see how they learn and respond.
10:11
I I imagine that's pretty rewarding.
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It is, yeah. I, I'm wondering if maybe you've
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got a particular story in mind of a student that maybe was
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struggling early on and that you were able to, you know, really
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help them kind of transition through and, you know, see them
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kind of come up the other side. You're like, oh wow, this is
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exciting. Not a particular story about
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somebody struggling, but like how they're learning.
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I have a little boy who would, you know, fidget around at
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circle time. Look at this, look at that
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touch, all his friends and everything as we're talking
10:43
about the Mayflower. Good.
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He goes home that night and he's playing with his boats and he's
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like, mommy, look, we're learning about the Mayflower and
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this is the Mayflower. So I was pretty happy and
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impressed that he's actually learning that I taught him.
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Oh look, the boats of them. And he's bringing him home.
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Even when the kids is really fidgety and it seems like he's
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paying attention to everything else but you, his ears are still
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taking it in. His brain is retaining it.
11:08
Yeah. That's good.
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And his parents were like, oh, are you teaching them about the
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Mayflower? I'm like, yeah.
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They're like, oh, he's telling us about it at home, playing
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with his boats. And to me, that's rewarding
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because he's learning. I'm teaching them something.
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You know, I'm curious, Aaron, what are some of the most common
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concerns that parents have when starting their kids in a new
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school like yours? What can you tell them to put
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their mind at ease? It's mainly with them, it's the
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socialization aspect of it. They want them to learn to be
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friends and be comfortable. I will encourage the parents if
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their child is staring at our Center for the first week to
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bring in a couple of weeks, depending on how the child
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adjusts a lovey or a stuffed animal for them to hold.
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And you know, talk to if they need to.
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And we'll reassure them that mummy and daddies are coming
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back and, you know, send pictures to the parents so their
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mind is at ease to know that the child is OK.
12:04
And do the parents get updates during the day or just kind of
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when they come to pick the the the kids up at night?
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If the child just started, they'll get pictures and emails
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throughout the day at the end because typically the center's
12:16
very busy with schedules and whatnot that they do mainly get
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one at night. Yeah, I remember when I've got
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two boys who are 8 and 10 now, and they were going through
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local child care center that we're a huge fan of.
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We we always loved getting those updates.
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And on the days where they didn't come, we're like, what,
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what what's going on? We have no idea.
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Like it's sort of a black box. We don't know what's going on in
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there. But like we always understood
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because it's like we would much rather than be attentive to the
12:46
children than, you know, taking pictures and, you know,
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uploading them like there's a a priority.
12:53
List there exactly the safety and the education of the
12:56
children is obviously more important.
12:58
That comes first, yeah. But it would be interesting to
13:01
hear your perspective on, you know, kind of what goes on and
13:06
what the teachers are sort of dealing with on a daily basis
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because, you know, it's parents on the outside dropping our kids
13:13
off and picking them up. We, we have no idea kind of what
13:16
goes on between those hours. Right.
13:19
Like I said, typically here, because we've been with Swan for
13:22
so long, the days run smooth. You know, my kids are all happy
13:27
to come in. They ring the doorbell, they
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come in, they're all smiles and comfortable.
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And if our parents do have a concern about their child,
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they'll just call and be like, you know, how are they doing
13:36
today? And we talked to them.
13:40
And so what's it like for the teachers interacting with these
13:43
kids? Like, what are maybe some of the
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struggles that, you know, they go through?
13:48
Because I mean, I know what it's like trying to deal with my own
13:51
two children, you know, let alone put me in a room where,
13:55
you know, the ratios are much different than that.
13:57
And it's somebody else's kid. You know, I know that you guys
14:00
are hiring people who are well wired and built for this.
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They're well trained, they're caring and they're loving.
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But you know, kids are kids and they're they can be really
14:09
challenging. You know what's What's that like
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for the teachers? It can be hot at times that, you
14:15
know, we got those really challenging kids that it
14:18
happens. But like in my room, there's two
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teachers. So if one of them's really,
14:22
really challenging for one teacher, the other teacher will
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step in and be like, oh, I'll take them for a few minutes and
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I'll calm them down or redistract them.
14:28
So that tough child usually has a bond with a certain teacher
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that they'll go to, so they're not so much of A struggle that
14:36
they finally, you know, the challenging behaviors dissipate.
14:41
Well, it works very similarly in my own house, my youngest son,
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when he's having a really hard time, he generally gravitates
14:48
towards my wife and with my older son, he grab gravitates
14:51
towards me. So it makes sense that you know
14:54
you would have a similar kind of bond with a particular person
14:57
inside your child care center. Right.
15:00
Yeah. And you'll see that like as the
15:02
babies start off in the infant room, they form that particular
15:06
bond with that certain teacher. And then as they move up to the
15:09
centers, they form that bond with one other teacher.
15:14
And so your role as director assistant, you're in the office
15:18
part of the time kind of managing business stuff.
15:21
Maybe you're in the classroom some of the time, kind of paint
15:23
that picture. What?
15:24
What does this look like for you on a daily basis?
15:26
Well I'm in the classroom some of the time and then with the
15:28
office stuff I help my boss like do tours of the center and help
15:33
her fill the snacks and answer the phones and stuff like that
15:36
if she needs it done. And what would you describe as
15:41
your favorite part of your job? That you get being in the
15:44
classroom watching the kids learn and talking to them and
15:49
teaching them. Aaron what?
15:54
What advice do you have for parents who are maybe trying to
15:57
decide between different schools?
16:01
Different schools tour as many as you can if they're pregnant
16:05
and get on as many wait lists as possible because infants seem to
16:08
fill up the quickest and to hang on.
16:12
Something will come up and they will find something that they
16:15
love. And do you currently have a wait
16:18
list? We do.
16:20
Yeah. Yep, we do.
16:22
And for for those listening, we'll have this in the show
16:24
notes, but their website is step and then the number one not
16:29
spelled out, just the number step1childcare.com.
16:33
And so if they go to your website here, is there a place
16:36
for them to schedule a tour or I see your phone number on here
16:41
and your e-mail address step1childcare@gmail.com and
16:45
phone number is 781-322-0026. Are those the best ways to
16:51
schedule a tour or find out more information?
16:53
Yes definitely emailing would be the best way to schedule a tour
16:58
as our director is awesome. She will get back to them
17:01
immediately and set up a tour so their family can come and see.
17:07
What are some of the trends that are happening right now in child
17:13
care in the state of Massachusetts, or maybe more
17:16
specifically just in in your local geography?
17:18
In Melbourne, what do you mean by like trends?
17:21
Well, I don't know. I like, I talked to a lot of
17:23
child care centers in California and they are going through
17:29
transitional kindergarten being moved.
17:32
So they're losing sort of their four to five year olds because
17:36
now the state is taking over educating those kids.
17:41
And so their centers are having to sort of, you know, adjust
17:45
and, you know, they just lost a big portion of their students.
17:47
And so I don't know if anything like that's going on there.
17:50
Or we we have that typically a lot of the centers in
17:53
Massachusetts will lose kids come the end of August,
17:57
beginning of September because they've either moved out of
17:59
state, moved to different schools or they started like
18:02
public schools. So that is very common in child
18:05
care, for them to lose kids and stop back up again once they're
18:11
settled in school. What are maybe some of the
18:15
specific hardships that you see child care centers going through
18:19
now? Kids leaving, and I say that for
18:24
the reason a lot of them due to COVID, we lost a lot of centers,
18:29
lost kids. Some are fully recovered, some
18:31
haven't. But Massachusetts, I'm sure
18:33
you've heard, is one of the most expensive states to live in now.
18:36
So people are moving at an alarming rate.
18:39
So it's causing numbers to drop I think.
18:44
Yeah. Tell me a little bit about how
18:46
COVID impacted you guys. Like you said, some centers have
18:50
come back to pre COVID levels, some have not.
18:52
Some have closed. It didn't weren't able to make
18:55
it through. What was it like for you guys?
18:57
Thankfully we were able to come back and fully recover from
19:00
COVID with the numbers. When we first reopened after
19:03
being closed for the four months, we weren't fully up to
19:06
capacity running, you know, at capacity in rooms due to the
19:11
people. We're still out of work.
19:12
Maybe looking for some other alternatives.
19:15
It took us about a good six months to 8 months to get fully
19:19
up and running. Every room open, kids full.
19:24
What allowed you guys step one child care to sort of persevere
19:28
through that challenging time when others just couldn't?
19:33
I think a lot of it had to do with our director.
19:35
She was keeping us updated on, you know, what was going on,
19:39
what was happening with the center, what was just our
19:42
director keeping us updated on everything.
19:44
Yeah, yeah, that communication's really important.
19:48
I'm curious, now that you are back up to pre COVID levels,
19:52
maybe some of the other local centers didn't make it, There's
19:55
wait lists. Is there any thought about
19:58
expanding? Maybe adding on to your current
20:00
center or adding another center down the road?
20:04
I don't know. I'm trying to convince my boss
20:06
to open up another center, but right now we're goodwill.
20:11
We are and we're happy. My fair theory is the more you
20:14
open, are you going to lose more kids?
20:16
Are you going to be able to get more?
20:18
You know, we're comfy. We're cozy where we are.
20:21
The more you expand, you know you got to hire more help.
20:24
Are they going to stay? You're going to have kids.
20:26
Are they going to stay? They're going to leave you open
20:28
Too big. You may not succeed.
20:31
Yeah. There's a capital risk involved
20:33
there, right, Like, you know, doing a build out, leasing a new
20:36
facility, right. And how long would it take to
20:39
fill up? Could you find the additional
20:41
staff? Yeah, and there's lots of, lots
20:43
of risks involved there. So I I understand certainly
20:46
being comfy in your current place as you described it.
20:49
Well, because when we first started, we started off as one
20:53
center and then the center we're currently at now, we have 2
20:58
centers that are in the same building.
21:00
They're just divided by a couple of stores.
21:02
And it's worked out for us that way and we were able to expand
21:08
in the newer center than we were our first current one.
21:13
So you have two centers in one location, Is it just separated
21:17
by age groups or how's how's that?
21:19
It is separated by the stores we're in like AI guess you would
21:23
say a complex. We're in an apartment complex
21:26
with retail in it and we have one section in one section and
21:34
then at the end of this complex is another section.
21:37
So we're divided by buildings, if that makes sense to us.
21:41
Gotcha. We might after 10 years sell and
21:44
retain the employees, but just sell under different ownership.
21:49
OK, understood. Aaron, what's a serious
21:53
challenge that you had to overcome in either your
21:56
professional or your personal life, and what did you learn
21:59
going through that experience? I haven't had any major serious
22:03
challenges in my personal life per SE, only for work.
22:06
And that major challenge would be biters having multiple biters
22:11
at one time and how to overcome it.
22:14
And how do you overcome that? Lots of communication with your
22:19
Co teachers and being on your toes at all times to make sure
22:22
that this child's not biting. That one we got through it.
22:25
Like if I had to go to the bathroom I would be like I'm
22:28
going to the bathroom. I take two kids, put them in
22:30
like a different area of the room while the other two kids
22:33
stayed and another area of the room separated them at all
22:37
times. Communication, though, is key.
22:40
Yeah, this is a this can be a big deal.
22:42
I remember when my kids were in child care and we heard about a
22:46
biter in in my son's classroom. And we were like, you know,
22:51
horrified, Like what's wrong with that kid?
22:53
What's wrong with those parents? And then a couple months later,
22:56
one of our closest friends who had a daughter in the same
23:00
classroom, she became the biter. And that really sort of flipped
23:05
the script for us because it was like, we know this kid, she's a
23:09
good kid. We know the family.
23:10
They're good families. Like, you know, they're,
23:12
they're, you know, I forget how old she was at the time, 681012
23:16
months old, something like that. And you know, she's, she's just
23:19
figuring out her way in the world.
23:21
She's not a bad person or a bad child because she's doing this.
23:24
But the parents were horrified. They're like, we don't know what
23:27
to do. It keeps happening.
23:29
We, we want it to stop. We don't know why she's doing
23:32
it. And so I don't know what, what
23:33
would you have, you know, what would you have to say for
23:36
parents who have been in that position where their child is
23:39
the biter? We tell them, well I've used
23:42
from my own experience that it is age appropriate and it's
23:45
developmental. You may have those biters that
23:47
are frustrated because they can't talk as well as their
23:50
friends. They may be teething and they
23:53
need that fixation of oh, I'm going to bite something.
23:56
It happens to be a friend to feel better.
23:59
They could be bored, they could be hungry, especially with the
24:02
little little ones that are biting like the 1213 months old,
24:05
they don't really tell you, oh, I'm hungry.
24:07
So they may bite their friends. So a lot of it is teasing
24:10
developmental. I've had a child bite a friend
24:14
and I asked him, I said, why did you bite him?
24:16
He said because he was standing in my spot.
24:19
Yes. So you know you have kids that
24:22
will bite out of the sake of that's what they want to do.
24:24
And those are the ones that you explained to them that no,
24:26
that's not what we do. You use your words and it's not
24:30
OK. But typically I found that the
24:33
biting happens for a reason that either hungry, they can't talk
24:38
as well as their friends or they're stressed out because we
24:40
can communicate how we feel. If we're stressed out or
24:44
bothered. They may not, they can't, not
24:45
all of them can. Like I have kids that are three,
24:49
2 1/2, three-year olds and I had a child that was a bite and I'm
24:52
like, why did you bite? And he's like, I want mommy and
24:54
daddy. Once he's calmed down, he might
24:56
be able to tell you, but in that moment they're upset and that's
25:00
their way of feeling better. We just tell the parents.
25:02
We work through it with them, we'll get through it.
25:05
We come up with different strategies as to help prevent
25:09
it. Yeah, that's good.
25:11
That's good advice. Like, I had a little boy who bit
25:16
in one room and then he moved up to my room and we knew he was a
25:19
biter. So one of us would constantly,
25:22
like, keep a close eye on him, but let him go play with his
25:24
friends and we'd talk to him. If he'd stuck it and upset, we'd
25:26
be like, you can't bite your friends.
25:28
It's OK, we're right here. And we talked him through it.
25:31
So you kind of have identified a child who has a tendency to
25:35
bite, and you've identified that it happens when he or she gets
25:39
really upset. And so you're kind of keeping an
25:41
eye on them, checking their mood, You see them start to get
25:44
wound up. Then you can sort of go in
25:46
preemptively and stop it from ever happening in the first
25:50
place. Exactly, Yeah, exactly.
25:53
I noticed in the toddler room when I had bite is they don't
25:56
talk nearly as much as the preschoolers did.
26:00
So that was a little more challenging.
26:02
Like we'd be like, OK, if they play, are they going to bite for
26:04
the sake of just biting? We couldn't tell.
26:07
A lot of that is teasing too. You know, I'm a firm believer of
26:10
teasing. There's a reason why they bite.
26:12
And they may want a toy, but they can't say I want it.
26:15
They're going to bite their frontlets it go because they're
26:17
crying. They get it.
26:18
You're just going to watch their clues as to why they're doing
26:22
it. You're, you're like a little bit
26:24
of a forensic child care specialist.
26:26
Yeah, I've been doing this forever.
26:30
That's great, Aaron, what's something you wish you could
26:33
teach a younger version of yourself?
26:37
A younger version of myself? What?
26:39
Something that's obvious to you now that maybe wasn't when you
26:42
were younger. I don't know.
26:44
I don't really have anything that more like patients at home,
26:48
I guess would be the key because now I'm patient, but I'm like
26:52
after the end of the day, I'm like, OK, I'm done.
26:54
I don't want to do it like that whole leave and work type of
26:58
thing at homework and then going home and dealing with my
27:00
husband, my kid, my dogs, whatever it may be.
27:04
Yeah. And here's a question that I
27:06
like to ask, and maybe this is not appropriate for your role.
27:09
You can tell me because it sounds like you are involved in
27:12
the office side of things that you're also involved in, you
27:15
know, being in the classrooms. But, you know, as business
27:19
leaders, often times this falls to an owner.
27:22
You know, we're always keeping an eye on the bottom line.
27:25
Like how can we make sure that, you know, the profits are
27:28
sustainable and steady so that we can continue to keep our
27:32
doors open, pay people well, you know, and, and continue to serve
27:35
these families. And there's generally 2 levers
27:38
that we can pull. And one is like how do we
27:40
increase sales, right, so we get the revenue up.
27:43
And the other one is how do we decrease expenses?
27:46
Do you ever get involved in any of those sort of, you know,
27:49
bigger thought processes on how can we pull those two levers?
27:52
I don't, I leave that up because I don't really want the
27:55
paperwork and the like money aspect of it.
27:57
But I do know that where we are, we do have rent that we have to
28:01
pay every month. So I know that if they go up we
28:04
have to increase the prices. But we are well, well, not
28:10
educated, I shouldn't say well aware of when it's going to
28:12
happen. So we can notify the parents as
28:14
to OK, six months. So I'm going to up the rent or
28:17
whatever it may be. And I'm curious where you are in
28:20
Melrose, MA are is there ever the opportunity for childcare to
28:25
be supplemented by a grant or a government program?
28:29
Then we do have supplemental daycare through the government.
28:34
We are not one of them. We do have government funded day
28:38
cares in Massachusetts, yes, but we're not.
28:41
Got you. This is a.
28:43
This is separate from you guys. Yes.
28:46
Aaron, what's a a fun fact that most people wouldn't know about?
28:48
You a fun fact that people don't know about me.
28:55
I guess that I love animals. I have two cats and a dog.
28:59
Yeah, what are their names? Sonic, Swindell and Simba.
29:03
Swindell. What's Simba and Sonic I I get
29:08
those references. What's Swindell?
29:10
My daughter's loves, my daughter loves country music and there's
29:13
a country singer named Cole Swindell, so that's how she
29:16
named him the Black 1 Swindell. And did your kids also name
29:20
Sonic and Simba? Yes, my daughter did.
29:23
And it's so funny that those are the names my youngest son really
29:27
into Sonic, my older son, he's kind of moved out of this phase.
29:30
He's 10 now, but super into The Lion King and Simba and have the
29:34
dolls and the the posters and the the characters and
29:37
everything. So it's, yeah, it's kind of a
29:40
universal thing for young kids. Those are those are fun
29:43
characters to follow. Aaron.
29:46
Are there any specific mentors or books, maybe other podcasts
29:52
that you've enjoyed that have kind of helped to shape you
29:55
personally or professionally? Well, I have read the book,
29:58
especially if the children are really challenging.
30:00
It's called Tuck of the Turtle. It's about a turtle who, when he
30:05
gets really, really upset, instead of throwing toys or
30:08
hitting his friends or biting, we tell them to tuck themselves
30:10
into their shell to calm down and hold them.
30:14
Tuck of the turtle's a good one. Hands are not for hitting.
30:17
There's a series of book called Hands are not for Hidden, feet
30:20
are not for kicking, and teeth are not for biting.
30:23
And it explains to them what the body parts are used for, which I
30:26
seem to think is really helpful. And like the toddler Room, you
30:30
can explain to them as you're reading it that we touch our
30:33
friends nicely. We don't kick them or we don't
30:36
bite them. We bite food and you can explain
30:38
it to them so that they understand it with the books.
30:44
Yeah. And now that you mentioned that,
30:45
I remember Teeth, they're not for Biting was a book that our
30:49
friends who were having trouble with their daughter biting
30:52
picked up and were reading to her on a regular basis.
30:54
Yes. Yeah, and they can't, believe it
30:57
or not, the kids will relate to it in their own way that it will
31:00
click for them, be like, oh, I learned that in my book, that I
31:03
can't bite my friends because I want that toy.
31:05
They will learn. They do learn from it.
31:07
Yeah. That's great.
31:12
Let's see. Aaron, I just have one more
31:15
question for you. But before I ask it, I want to
31:17
do 2 things. Sure, everybody listening today,
31:19
if you like today's content, please subscribe, like or hit
31:22
the share button on your favorite podcast app.
31:25
Aaron, I also want to let people know the best way to get in
31:27
touch with you or the center. What would that be?
31:31
The e-mail that is on the front of the our website, the one that
31:35
you just read off, would be the best way to get in touch with
31:38
us, and the phone number too. So that's Step 1 childcare and
31:43
one is not spelled out. It's the number
31:44
step1childcare@gmail.com. And the phone number is
31:47
781-322-0026. We'll have it in the show notes.
31:52
But for those who are not at their computer and are listening
31:54
on their favorite podcast app, that's how you can get in touch
31:57
with them. OK, Erin, last question for you.
32:00
I'm curious, how do you see the childcare industry evolving in
32:03
the next 5 years? What do you think the the big
32:05
changes are that have come? Retaining staff, I really do.
32:11
I think that will be the biggest challenge for a lot of centers.
32:15
I'm seeing it now through like the public schools when my
32:19
daughter is attending that you know, that they have a budget
32:22
deficit. So now that they have to pull
32:24
teachers from this room or they have to pull teachers from that
32:28
school, I think that's going to be the most challenging.
32:31
That and being able to find money, like finding money to
32:35
open centers and all that I think is going to be the biggest
32:39
in the next 5 years. Why do you think it's going to
32:42
get harder to staff the child care centers?
32:45
What do you what do you think is shifting there?
32:48
Bill because a lot of staff and I was one of them when I first
32:51
started at this failed and I've come to realize that it's not
32:54
that case. They need they expect more
32:56
money. They think because you know,
32:58
especially in child care settings that they want more
33:01
money. They want the $2530 an hour, but
33:05
yet if we pay all the staff that we need to charge a lot more for
33:09
tuition and it's not going to be feasible for some parents to pay
33:14
$3000 a month so we can fund our teachers and you'll see it
33:17
teachers and kids leaving for that reason.
33:21
Like I know one center currently in Melrose, MA is raising their
33:26
tuition a lot that a lot of the kids have left, yes, not us, but
33:31
another center. And So what are you going to do?
33:34
How do you retain them? That's the biggest thing would
33:37
be financial. Yeah, You know, I've heard this
33:41
from multiple child care centers.
33:43
There's this unspoken balance that needs to be kept, right?
33:49
Like the teachers, they want, they deserve to be paid more.
33:53
But there's a certain threshold at which parents can afford
33:56
child care because it's inexpensive endeavor, you know,
33:59
a lot, a lot of parents, you know, a huge portion, if not all
34:03
of one of the parents paychecks, you know, goes to, to pay for
34:06
child care. And, you know, the, the only way
34:09
to, to be able to pay your staff more is to, to charge more
34:14
intuition. And there gets to be a certain
34:16
threshold where parents are like, we can't do this.
34:19
So how do you find that balance? And I think some people are
34:23
hoping that maybe state or federal government will step in
34:27
and, you know, be able to, you know, contribute, maybe local
34:30
employers will be able to contribute.
34:32
I I don't know if you've got any thoughts on sort of how to fix
34:35
this math problem that exists. My only thing is if the state
34:39
steps in, what's going to happen to the employees?
34:41
Do you know if the state's saying free pre childcare for
34:45
let's say preschoolers and pre-K, OK, that's fine and
34:48
dandy. But now where's that money
34:50
coming from to pay the teachers? You can't pull it from another
34:53
child, another teacher's pay to pay them.
34:55
So the teachers out of a job if they have.
34:58
So it's kind of messy, I think. You also mentioned where would
35:05
money come from to open up new centers because it's an
35:08
expensive endeavour to to open up a new center.
35:10
Exactly do they wanna do they wanna, you know, get out that
35:15
equity loan or that mortgage to open another center?
35:18
Are they going to fail? Is like it's just it could
35:20
create more debt than they need or want.
35:22
Yeah, yeah. And I think this is this is
35:25
another thing that people outside of the childcare
35:27
industry are people who, you know, don't have kids in that
35:30
age bracket, maybe aren't aware of or fail to appreciate.
35:34
Like what what we really lost going through COVID, like COVID
35:39
was hard on lots of industries. A lot of people who, you know,
35:42
were were affected by this, but childcare centers in particular,
35:47
you know, it was hard for them to keep their doors open.
35:49
A lot of them didn't. And then new owners are not
35:54
stepping in to fill that gap. So there's not enough childcare.
35:59
It's becoming more expensive, you know, because we've had
36:02
inflation, wages are going up, wage demands going up.
36:06
And so right, how do we sort of fix this gap?
36:10
How do we, it's, it's, it's a, it's this, it's very similar,
36:12
but kind of a different math problem.
36:14
And, you know, how do we even get more centers open to sort of
36:18
fill that gap? And in the coverage that, you
36:21
know, the coverage that used to exist And even before COVID, at
36:23
least where I live, people were still on waiting lists for
36:26
months. And so, you know, now it's
36:27
gotten even worse. Exactly, because now that
36:30
everything's up and running, everybody's going back to work
36:33
in the office more. The children are getting older.
36:35
They're like, oh, we need childcare.
36:38
That's why they get the money that they need, because people
36:40
are desperate. Yeah.
36:43
Well, we haven't come up with all the answers here today, but
36:47
maybe somebody listening will, will have some ideas on this.
36:51
But Aaron Cress, I want to be the first to thank you for
36:55
sharing both your time and your story with us today.
36:57
I really appreciate it. You're welcome.
37:00
Folks, that's a wrap on another episode of the Inspired Stories
37:03
podcast. Thanks for learning with us
37:05
today.