Our Daycare lady sparked – People come to you and shape your future

As mentioned in the last post, after I returned from Israel I didn’t think much of that ‘thought document’ in the summer. I returned to it in early September for that our daughter Tayvia was entering preschool (junior kindergarten) and with my wife and I working, Tayvia attended a home based daycare ran by Patricia V. She prefers to be addressed as ‘Mrs Pat’ because the kids can pronounce that easier. We’ve been with Mrs. Pat since Tayvia was just 6 months old and she had become very attached to Mrs. Pat. It wasn’t an easy transition from her care to preschool; and we viewed this as a great problem. Mrs. Pat was a great person to her, to us and always helped us out when we needed flexibility, direction and advice. My wife and I wanted to thank her and we took about a week to write a letter. Writing it made us think very deeply on why we chose her in the first place. If you’re a parent reading this, you know that selecting a daycare is a very important choice and things like references, cleanliness and certifications are a must…but also you realize that there are a TON of options to choose from! We examined ~5 options and Mrs. Pat came from a personal recommendation. When we met her, we remember having that feeling…she had an aura/energy about herself. Confident, warming, inviting and well balanced. She focused on what we were looking for in a home daycare provider and chimed in with examples of how she helps you as a parent develop your child. She gave many examples of her getting the kids out of the house, going on day trips and engaging with them. We left that first meeting and just knew she was the best option. Over the first two weeks, of course it was a new routine for us to get used to, but after almost 4 years we have cherished her and really felt like she’s part of our family. Here are some excerpts from that letter:

…We think a lot of people view home care providers as places that simply feed kids, put movies on all day and consider a good day being one to which the child is returned with no scars or ripped clothing. What we have learned is that home care by you is far more than that, its a partnership and an opportunity for us to be mentored.

…We wish to thank you from the bottom of our hearts. You set an example and a level of excellence that others in the profession should follow and this isn’t just our opinion, we’ve been told and reminded by many others how you excel.

…You should be proud of what you do and how you do it because we’re the ones that are privileged to have had you in our lives.

There was more to the letter, but you get the picture. Tayvia’s last day at Mrs. Pat’s was full of hugs & tears and she has visited often over the school year — many times during the week for that our 2 year old son Ryker is now attending Mrs. Pat’s daycare. Below is a pic of Mrs. Pat and her current ‘batch’ of kids.

Now when we were writing that letter, the connection back that ‘thought document’ I started on that flight back from Israel was being made. Mrs. Pat’s previous life was in accounting, but after she ‘woke up’ and realized that wasn’t for her, she talked with some friends and left that behind to start a home daycare. Fast forward 2 decades and 53 kids (thus far), she’s been greatly successful and genuinely loves what she does. I asked her how she got all those kids? did she advertise? did she use the want ads? She laughed and said:

‘No no, I don’t ‘do marketing’ Kyle…I guess when you do a good job people find me I guess.’

I then asked her why she keeps doing it? She said ‘Kids like Tayvia and parents like you keep me doing this. Bad kids and parents make people quit and move on’

This made me think…has she really decided what she’s done because it seems like other people influence her. People are coming to her and have really shaped her career. She sparked the change from accounting to daycare, but it’s other people that continue to come to her and keep her in the daycare field. This keeps her in business but does that mean they also are sorta dictating what she’s doing in life?

So I went back to my thought document titled ‘’Thought Document – Israel Trip #2′, renamed it to ‘Thought Document – Life’s Choices and Paths’ and added some thoughts like:

* Others really chose your path by influencing you and giving you options.

* Are you a product purely of your environment?

* Why did we chose Patricia? what did she have that the others didn’t? was it just the referral?

* the role of other people & mentors are huge.

That last thought was the more interesting one because it made me think of who my mentors were thus far in my career. I’ve had 5 mentors thus far and many more that I’d consider advisors…these are the people that I call on for career advice, exploring new roles/business ideas or just for great conversations. The more I thought the more I realized that these people have really shaped my career direction. What if one of my mentors advised me to drop everything and change the focus in my career? Then I realized something…this is exactly what happened to me almost 6 years ago when I left ~9 years of engineering/project management to go into the world of global software marketing at GE…and that mentor of mine really pulled me into a new world I never thought I’d be in.

More to come on my TEDx journey…the next situation(s) that fed the concept was at a conference in Chicago and at home during ‘yanksgiving’ turkey where the idea of this aura being definable was sparked…with that I’ll leave you hanging until my next blog post.

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— Kyle