3rd draft

Debbie Suer
Joel Murphy
English 51
11 February 2009

From 16 to 4

Have you ever been in a room with 14 children? Well, that was how you would describe my living room for the past 8 years. The transformation from a Day Care Playroom back to a home Living Room has had an enormous positive impact on my family.

The experience started in the summer of 2008. The economic recession was beginning to show its’ ugly head when one by one my clients were loosing their jobs, therefore, no need for Day Care. I continued to keep my full time assistant, who was my right hand, but when my client load went from fourteen to eight, I no longer could afford her salary. That Christmas was a sad one. I had to let her go. I handled the next 6 months all by myself. Between my own two children, who were now getting older and jealous of my time spent with others’ children, and working alone, I had to make the hardest decision I ever made. We had to close it down or I would loose my mind!

The Living Room is the first room you see when you walk into the house. Upon entering, view would be a remarkable sight. It was cheery, bright, colorful and extremely energetic. The furniture consisted mostly of primary colored plastic. There also was a pink and white square plastic table with blue and white plastic chairs. They were mini size, of course. Now when you walk in the Living Room there are normal adult size couches in warm colors, a coffee table, a chair and a T.V home theater system. Much easier on the eyes I would say.

The colored plastic furniture had its’ purpose, but one cannot compare the feel of a cold hard plastic mini chair set to that of a nice warm, soft couch. It sure was a busy place when as many as 14 little ones were playing with their array of hard plastic toys, like trucks, dolls, and baby strollers. Everything had to be wiped clean due to either sticky fingers, snotty noses or “an accident”. I could just tell by touching it what type of mess I was up against.

The Living Room became know as the “Playroom” for the children. I cannot even begin to describe the noise factor we put up with over the years! We absorbed noise levels that would make a subway station sound like a warm summer breeze. There were honking cars, talking dolls, squeaking rubber ducks, singing books, not to mention babies crying and toddlers having temper tantrums. On top of that our large loveable Old English Sheepdog would bark at the top of his lungs as soon as anyone rang the doorbell and our African Grey Parrott would be mimicking all the above mentioned sounds in addition to the microwave, the garbage disposal, the telephone, and even my own voice! That has toned down now, only to the ruckus that my own two children can make.

The playroom also had a distinctive combination of odors, ranging from good to bad. There was the mere scent of plastic to the smell of crayons, paint, glue, even dirty diapers, temporarily, of course. The nice smells were at least Destin, Johnson’s Baby Powder, and even that tropical aroma of sunscreen when we went in the pool. I do miss some of those, but now I am content with the scent of a nice vanilla candle or potpourri, which we could not use for licensing and safety reasons.

The decision to make this transformation was a difficult one. We knew we took some risks. We did plan to open up again in the fall for “Before and After Care” as a Homework Helper Club for older schoolchildren, but it backfired on us. Little did we know that the Elementary School around the corner would set up their own After Care program at half the amount of money that I would charge. This was not discovered until August! I had to regroup and turn direction.

I made the decision to change careers and go to C.O.D. for a higher education. My family has benefited because we are back to as normal a schedule as possible, without the distraction of fourteen other bodies in our home. I do miss being a caregiver, but my own family needs me more. I can look to the future with a positive outlook in knowing that what I am trying to accomplish will be in all our best interests in the end. I do believe things happen for a reason, and when one door closes, another one opens.
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