TUESDAY, MAY 29, 2001
Child care center director to retire
By Jefferson Wolfe
Staff Writer
"I've been the director for 20 years. Before that, I was head teacher. I've done everything you can do here from washing dishes to changing diapers to stopping bleeding noses. I've done it all," said Jean Timblin, who is retiring June 1 as the director of the Tiffin-Seneca Child Care Center, 131 E. Perry St.
"Children are wonderful. I love children. That's all I've ever wanted to do," she said.
Upon her retirement, Timblin says she will miss the children the most.
"You can learn so much from children," she said. "Adults should sit and listen to children. There's no prejudice and no expectations other than just to care about them."
Currently, the center has 35-40 children every day, Timblin said. Some of those children are brought there by parents who also spent their preschool days there.
Timblin grew up in Clyde, and graduated from Clyde High School before going to Bowling Green State University, where she earned a degree in elementary education.
After that, Timblin and her husband went to Germany. He was in the military, and she taught in the Army schools. When they returned, she was a stay-at-home mom for her three children for a while but started teaching again in the Seneca East District at the Seneca Huron building.
After she and her husband divorced, Timblin took a job at the day care center.
"It was a wonderful job for me because we do care about children," she said. The job also was flexible enough to allow her to spend time with her own children and attend their school functions.
After about seven years, the director, Tracy Ennis, moved away, and Timblin got the job.
"When I started out as director, I thought everyone lived like me with the same family structure and the same kind of life," she said. "I have learned that we're all different and that what is right for one person is not necessarily right for everyone else."
Timblin learned how to be compassionate and flexible in her thinking. She really enjoys working with parents and their children.
"It's a really good place to help parents in a lot of ways," she said. "We like to think of ourselves as an extended family."
Timblin credits the board of directors and the staff for her successful tenure.
"As director of the center, a director can only be as good as the people who work with me," she said. "I have a wonderful and loving staff."
The center now employs 14 people.
Anyone can enroll children in the Tiffin-Seneca Child Care Center. Timblin believes that all children, regardless of income or social status should be able to have quality child care they can afford.
The United Way provides money that is used for scholarships and tuition assistance. Many of the children who receive the assistance have a single parent, Timblin said.
The center accepts children from 8 months until kindergarten.
After her last day, Timblin plans to spend the summer gardening.
"I will spend a lot of time in my flowers and in my yard," she said.
After the summer, she plans to do volunteer work for her church and other organizations, like the United Way, who have helped the center throughout the years.
"I really haven't thought a lot about it, but I know things will come," Timblin said. "It's been a very very rewarding job. I will miss it. It's bittersweet."