Would You Leave Your Kid In An All "One Race" Daycare?

[Michelle]

I have some daycare friends (distant) that have daycares with all one race of kids, I just don't see how they can do that!
They even "screen" parents on the phone and can usually tell the race by their voices and make up an excuse that they are full or can't accommodate their hours.

I have a very mixed group of kids. I don't even see color.
But it did make me start thinking that if I had to put my child in daycare would it make a difference of the racial mix? My answer is "no"!

I have been faced with racism though, and a couple times I have had interviews and one grandma and one dad had walked out in a huff and say" I don't see any black kids in there!" I'm like That was years ago and my dynamics change from time to time. The only thing I am looking for in a family is the hours I want, rates, and if the parent will follow the rules,and the child seems well adjusted and taken care of. I even had a white family make a comment about how I had too many hispanic or black kids here.. jeez

Why can't people just see "who" you are? not the color or the language you speak? I love my kids and we all learn from each other! I teach them English, they teach me Spanish, I'm even learning Edo (an African language).
I can see deep into my kids eyes and see their beautiful personalities.
Most of the kids call me Aunt Michelle and they love me and so do the parents!

One funny thing did happen one day... I was picking up a dcg from school and a classmate of hers asked her, "is that your white mama?" We both had shocked looks on our faces! I just laughed and said " I'm her Auntie" ::::
I got him thinking!

[sharlan]

I don't see color, I see a child to love.

Over the years, I've had white, black, Hispanic, and Asian of various nationalities. One little girl's father was from Saudi. We called her our Arab princess.

[SilverSabre25]

Well, I would...but I would leave her in a mixed race daycare too. It just doesn't matter much to me. I have mostly had all white kids in my daycare. It's just happenstance, even though I live in a racially diverse area.

[PitterPatter]

I have had a mixture of white and black. Not many hispanics or chinese etc around here but if they were interesed I would enroll them as well. I have had all white at 1 time and then all black another time. Now I have a mixture again. The black families have all been mixed (i hate that word but for lack of another) So not much has been said here thank God because I wouldn't tolerate it. These kids have enough to deal with growing up. It is sad to see parents still see color. I think as long as attitudes like that exist there will always be a problem. These days more and more people are getting over the race issue and having more and more mixed families. I think in the furture most families will be a mix of many races. Maybe then we will finally get over the race issue. Until then all children are welcome here.

[Michelle]

what if the day care provider had a very thick accent?
would you worry that your child would not understand her or maybe even start picking up the accent?

[Michelle]

I have had a mixture of white and black. Not many hispanics or chinese etc around here but if they were interesed I would enroll them as well. I have had all white at 1 time and then all black another time. Now I have a mixture again. The black families have all been mixed (i hate that word but for lack of another) So not much has been said here thank God because I wouldn't tolerate it. These kids have enough to deal with growing up. It is sad to see parents still see color. I think as long as attitudes like that exist there will always be a problem. These days more and more people are getting over the race issue and having more and more mixed families. I think in the furture most families will be a mix of many races. Maybe then we will finally get over the race issue. Until then all children are welcome here.

The term nowadays is biracial.
Where we live , it is very hard to get an Asian family.
They are very particular with what their kids eat and the ones I have had demanded that I hold the babies under the sink to wash their bottoms and not to use baby wipes.

[AnneCordelia]

My town is very white with few other races. All the daycares I know are full of white children simply because of happenstance. I do have an adorable little black boy in my daycare. I like that I can have that culteral diversity for the rest of my children, especially since we moved here from a very diverse city to this small white town.

[Michelle]

I don't see color, I see a child to love.

Over the years, I've had white, black, Hispanic, and Asian of various nationalities. One little girl's father was from Saudi. We called her our Arab princess.

aw! how cute
I am always so willing to learn more about their culture.
I always look up their country and read about what they eat, language,clothing, customs...etc.

[Michelle]

Well, the reason why I asked this question was because of the responses I have had in the past.
I sorta had that in the back of my mind when I had an interview yesterday.This family is black and my group now is very mixed and thought "o.k. she's going to see I have a black kid, so, now she will be comportable with me" totally ridiculous! I know, but I had that little thought in my mind when I never did before. :confused:
These are the times nowadays I guess

[AllDeezBabies]

When I open I hope to have a diverse group of children. We would be able to learn from each other. I love learning about different cultures and it is really a prize to learn from a childs eyes.

[Kaddidle Care]

We have whoever signs up and wants our program.

The only time we even think about color is when we are making things that represent the children and try to find paper to match skin color. :: We sort of leave it up to them though - we tell them to look in the mirror and try to find the circle (face circle) that looks most like them. Sometimes they pick what everyone else has.

We recently made Indians for Thanksgiving and I had a very brunette boy pick out blonde hair for his Indian. We go with the flow.

Screening for race/color is so wrong in so many ways. That's nuts!

I did have an incident with my own son years ago which opened my eyes. We were in a store and a little girl was behind us and he was making a face and moving away from her. I asked him if he knew her and why was he doing that and he told me "She's so dirty!" I was like "What?" - but then realized that he must have had only white kids in his school class and I had never thought to discuss "color" of skin with him. Needless to say we had a little conversation about it that day. It was just too weird.

[Sunchimes]

I have one biracial child, the others are white. It just worked out that way. I would have taken any child who worked out.

Until this country stops having Miss Black America or Miss Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, and until we stop hearing about the first black police chief or the first Muslim mayor or the first Asian whatever, we will remain divided. How can we feel united when the media and others work so hard to make us stand apart. Just my opinion.

[Michelle]

I have one biracial child, the others are white. It just worked out that way. I would have taken any child who worked out.

Until this country stops having Miss Black America or Miss Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, and until we stop hearing about the first black police chief or the first Muslim mayor or the first Asian whatever, we will remain divided. How can we feel united when the media and others work so hard to make us stand apart. Just my opinion.

good point!

[sharlan]

One of my girls' providers was Viet Namese. Sometimes I had a hard time understanding her. Her mother spoke to the girls in her native tongue. I didn't understand a word she said, but the kids did.

So to actually answer your question, I wouldn't care if all the kids were black, white, or had purple polka dots.

[daycare]

I Think that a lot of it has to do with the area that you live in too.

I live in a small city that is 85% white. I think I am the only person of my race living in this city. My son who is adopted is 1 of 10 African Americans living in this city, and he is only half.

I actually like to try to have my fill of chlidren from different backgrounds. The reason that I do this is because of an awful experience I had with my daughter when she was in preschool.

Several years ago we lived in a very wealthy part of Newport Beach CA. The preschool that my daughter went to was made up of mostly white children, a handful of asian children and a handful of children with dark brown hair and eyes, but don't recall their backgrounds. When you walked into the school, you would see a sea of blonde hair and blue eyed children. It was very common to see in schools in this area.

Well one day my daughter comes home from preschool very upset. I asked her whats wrong. She tells me that today a new girl came to her class and that she is very dirty and needs to take a bath. I thought ok well maybe the girl missed her bath?? I told my daughter that she should get to know this girl and like her if she is a nice person. I told her that a person smelling funny was not a good reason not to like them. My daughter then says NO mommy this girl is very dirty, all of her, she maybe rolled in the mud or something. I start thinking to myself HUH what are you talking about??? So I end to conversation and decided to take care of it the next day at preschool so I can better understand what is going on.

When I pull up to the preschool, I see a little Indian girl standing on one side of the playground and all of the other kids playing. As soon as my daughter saw her from the car, she shouts see mommy that girl, look she didn't take a bath again.......

Tears filled up my eyes. I just didn't get it. Why did my daughter think that? Besides her brother has dark hair and skin, why didn't she ever think that about him?? I looked at all of the kids playing and I turned to my daughter and explained why the girl looked different than us. The best job that I could do for a 4 year old.

We finally got out of the car and I walk up to the girl with my daughter and said hi, Im *** and this is my daughter *** she is in your class, do you guys want to play? The girl looked at us as if she wanted to cry. I had to push to to start playing together and before I knew it they were playing hop scotch.

Well the story goes on. I pick up my daughter from preschool and again tears and upset. Ok now what. My DD says you made me play with the brown girl and now everyone won't be my friend anymore.....WTH uuuggghh..

Long story short, I ended up moving my daughter to a school that was filled with multicultural kids. One where my daughter would come home and tell me stories about her friend from Mexico, Japan, France, Canada, china, Hippie kids, kids with "REAL KIDS CLOTHES" (no labels) and just kids from all walks of life.

For me, that was my family a little bit of everything from every where that at the end of the day all worked, loved, lived and cared in the same way.

To me it was more important to me to have my daughter understand and learn to except people for who they are, not what they look like, smell like, came from, or what kind of clothes they wear. This new school was the right move.

So my daycare is made up the same way. A little bit of everyone from every where....We are all different, just like a puzzle piece no two are the same...But at the end of the day, we all fit together......

Love is always blind.........