Child care professionals share a commitment to improving society by creating dynamic and nurturing care environments for Australia's youngest learners.
Read this month's Child Care Person in the spotlight Kika Massouras Owner of Small World Day Child Care Centre 1 & 2 in Carrara QLD.
Kika Massouras
Owner of Small World Day Child Care Centre
Carrara QLD
C4K: What is your full name?
KM: My name is Mrs Kika Massouras or as the children call me "Miss Kika" and "Keekee" and I am in my early 50s!
C4K: Which centre do you work in?
KM: Small World Day Child Care Centre One and Two located on Pappas Way, Carrara, Gold Coast, QLD.
C4K: How many staff and children are in the centre?
KM: The "big" centre or Centre One is licensed for 64 children with a Pre-Prep room, a Kindy room and a Junior Kindy room. The "babies" centre or Centre Two is actually licensed to have a total of 30 children with three rooms running however I choose to only run two rooms to maintain the highest quality care. This centre has a babies room and a Toddler's room. The total staff I employ currently is 14.
C4K: What is your professional background and career experience?
KM: I was born in Cyprus (Greek islands) in the 1950s and fled the war when I was 18 with my husband to Australia. We couldn't speak English, knew no-one and had nothing. Everything we have today is from hard work and dedication. We started out by building a corner store and living above it. I worked 18 hours a day and somehow raised four children at the same time. This is how we learnt to speak English and our world has evolved from there.
I have always owned corner store and food type businesses. My husband was a builder before he retired and always built the businesses we ran. Over 20 years ago I decided I wanted to own and run a child care centre after seeing many children come in and out of the shop each day. My husband and I proceeded to build one and I have since studied to obtain the Certificate III in Children's Services and recently the Diploma in Children's Services.
C4K: What attracted you to a career in child care?
KM: I saw a need in my neighborhood at the time. At first it was a place for these children to be cared for while their parents were at work. Since then it has grown into a huge extended family for me and a passion which I cannot ignore, much to my husband's neglect!
C4K: What does a ‘normal' day look like for you?
KM: A normal day for me begins at 4:00am when my alarm goes off. I get up and get ready for work. I usually get to the centre around 4:30am – 5:00am and begin preparing the food for the day. Every day I make enough fruit salad to serve 94 children for morning tea, cook a hot and nutritious meal for lunch, bake cakes for dessert and make sandwiches, scones or pikelets for afternoon tea.
The centre opens for business at 6:30am with children arriving nice and early needing breakfast and cuddles. Around 7:30am the children and I go to feed our pet chickens and collect their eggs. At 8:30am I gather up the school children and drive them to our local school at Worongary, usually returning back at the centre by 9:00am.
Each day brings different things, one day I usually do the banking and posting of bills, next day I do the shopping (as you can image a very large feat), then I have wages, uploading of attendance, fees, payments, parent requests, staffing issues and every other day to day jobs that arise.
At 2:30pm I get ready to go again to pick up the children from school and bring them back to the centre. I am usually back at the centre by 3:15pm when I give the children afternoon tea and stay at the centre until closing time at 6:00pm. Saturdays are spent cleaning the centre (waterblasting the carpark, pruning the trees and general maintenance), and the normal paperwork required for CCMS and preparing the roles and sign on sheets including any changes to days, holidays etc for the next week. I usually finish all of this by 4:00pm. Sundays I spend at home with my husband, children and grandchildren.
C4K: What makes your centre unique?
KM: I believe the thing that makes my centre unique is the closeness and family atmosphere that is provided and formed from long standing staff and having a hands on licensee/owner who is involved in the daily running of the centre, and who knows each and every child there. I truly believe the children past and present, to be a very large extended family and love it when my "babies" from 20 years ago, come in to enroll their own babies 20 years later!
C4K: What are some of the advantages of working in the child care sector?
KM: The advantages are the children. It doesn't matter who their parents are, what environment they are from, what culture they are, they are so beautiful and I don't believe there is a better job on earth! Every day I constantly receive cuddles, kisses, special drawings, cards, hand-picked flowers and loving words spoken by the sweetest, innocent and precious assets this world has. I can feel depressed, tired, stressed but the moment a child yells out "Miss Kika", runs up and gives me a hug first thing in the morning…well, what else really measures up to that?
C4K: What are some of the biggest challenges facing the child care sector?
KM: I can honestly say the government is the biggest challenge facing the child care sector. With the sometimes impossible rules and regulations, lack of recognition for what we do, lack of support for the fees or running costs of these centres, and the large privately owned centres taking over the small business. Many "privately owned" centres may be privately owned but the owners see it as a money making business, they don't see the children. Children are not numbers, they are not ratios, and they are not dollar signs. They are the sole purpose of our existence. Children are our future and this is why I do what I do, everyday.
C4K: How has your centre changed to deal with these challenges?
KM: Unfortunately we cannot fight the government or big business. We obey the rules, regardless of whether we believe in them or not and just "keep swimming" as Dory would say from Finding Nemo. We just continue to provide a "home away from home" for the children in our community.
C4K: How does the industry need to change to adapt to these challenges?
KM: I think people get too swept up in the rules and regulations and forget about the children. The children should be what is first and foremost. Not an $800 audit for a food safety program or copious policy and procedure requirements that take staff's time away from the children.
C4K: What advice would you offer someone thinking about a career or looking for a promotion in child care?
KM: If you love the innocence of a child, strive to maintain it.
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