Michelle H.

“ My first experience with childcare was working at a childcare center at the age of 14. I quickly moved up to becoming head of the infant room at the center. After experiencing a childcare center, I knew I wanted more one-on-one time with the kids to teach them instead of just caring for them. It was then that I decided I wanted to become a teacher. I first began working as a nanny for a foster family who had...

My first experience with childcare was working at a childcare center at the age of 14. I quickly moved up to becoming head of the infant room at the center. After experiencing a childcare center, I knew I wanted more one-on-one time with the kids to teach them instead of just caring for them. It was then that I decided I wanted to become a teacher. I first began working as a nanny for a foster family who had a 1-year-old girl and 9-year-old boy with ADHD. I was a nanny for the kids 40 plus hours a week during my summer vacations for two years and experienced some amazing, but heartbreaking times with them. When I left for undergraduate, I immediately got a job as a part-time nanny for an extremely smart 18-month-old girl. I worked about 20 hours a week while pursuing my Education Degree. During the summer, I worked longer hours and three years later the family had their second child, a boy. I was his nanny from the day he was born until his third birthday and I taught him quite a bit. The two of them turned ages 9 and 11 this year, and I still have a really close relationship with the entire family. During this time, the mother of the family was staying home with her newborn son. I was "passed" to another one of the family friends who needed a nanny for their 3-year-old and 5-month-old son. I worked in between the two families until the original mom was ready to return to work. I commissioned a close friend to take on the second job, and for three years, my friend and I did what we called nanny sharing. The kids were very close in age and we would take them to gym classes, the park, and zoo etc. It was great. If one of us couldn't work, the other took care of all four. After college, I ended up moving to Nevada with my older sister and worked as an Environmental Consultant. I missed being a nanny though and it didn't take me long to get a part-time weekend job for a mother with twin 2-year-old's. I also began teaching Preschool to two girls, 2 and 4 years old, after work. A few years later, I returned back to Washington State and was a nanny for a couple who had just had their first baby. I helped the mom transition back to work after only 5 weeks of maternity leave and cared for that baby until she was 6 months old. Since then, I have lived in New Zealand and have gone back to school to get my MS in geology (a challenging science I fell in love with). I would like to teach geology someday but desperately miss caring for infants and teaching preschoolers.

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