Rebecca
Single mom and KinderCare teacher
Teachers are in a unique position during the pandemic and Rebecca articulates it perfectly. As a KinderCare teacher and mother, she shares how important both of her roles are, to offer stability—for her own child and her students—in these unsteady times.
"I'm Rebecca. My daughter is Yuki. She's six so she's in the school-age classroom, but she's been here at KinderCare since she was two.
"As a teacher, we play such an important role—because for some kids, we might be the most stable place for them. I'm just really grateful that we all have a place here."
I started here as a parent. This was supposed to just be a summer job but I'm still here. I am a single working mom. I work 40 hours a week, so my 6-year-old couldn't do school if it wasn't for the school-age classroom here. That whole aspect of trying to make sure she's getting her education, and it being so bumpy and unpredictable, has been difficult and kind of scary.
Yeah, it's been really up and down. You think you have your footing and then things change. The roller coaster is kind of getting normal, which is a little scary—it's weird to say. At first, I was having a hard time. It felt like my personal failure. But I'm going to remember how adaptable she was. My students too—the resilience that I'm seeing in them and their ability to keep going. They come here every single day and they still want to learn and make connections, no matter what their life at home looks like.
As a teacher, we play such an important role—because for some kids, we might be the most stable place for them. I'm just really grateful that we all have a place here.
I've seen a lot of kindness in people trying to see each other through another lens. I feel like that's been really good with everything that's happened, that people are kind of opening their eyes and trying to walk in somebody else's shoes in a way that was not happening before.”
