Week of the Young Child

"Working families need child care and supportive employer policies to be able to meet the needs of their young children throughout the day.

In the United States the majority of mothers with children under age 18 work, including 59% of those with infants and 74% of those with school-aged children."

-www.naeyc.org

Today Magnolia joined myself, Aunt Sara, Uncle Brad, and many early childhood advocates from across the state at the governor's proclamation. The governor proclaimed this week, April 11-17, 2010, the official "Week of the Young Child" in Idaho.

I have been celebrating this week through a variety of grassroots efforts since my time in college as a pre-service early childhood educator. Today I celebrate not only as a professional in this field, but as a mother of a young child.

I felt at though the statistic above is a profound fact about the reality of today's families. Parents work! Mothers work! Fathers work! We work because it often takes two providers to meet the needs and expenses of family's today. We work because we have careers we love.

The thing is, that our children come first, and as a working mother I'll be the first to admit that if my daughter wasn't able to be cared for in a setting that I found as beneficial for learning, growing and loving as our own home, I wouldn't be able to be a working mom.

The fact is, that few families can afford quality care and education. Few families are informed about what quality care and education should look like. Few families hear about the importance of these first few years of their child's life. Some states (hint-hint) lack support for early childhood initiatives. Many early childhood programs are unable to pay qualified early childhood professionals decent wages...this is why we advocate and continue to support families and young children this week and everyday. It's time to celebrate and support the young children, like Magnolia, in our communities!

Happy Week of the Young Child!