Not much time to sit down

LaFramboise named county

Day Care Provider of the Year

By KURT NESBITT

Journal Staff Writer

NEW ULM -- With a bustling day-care business occupying much of her time and most of her home, Barb LaFramboise doesn't have a lot of time to sit down and rest.

In fact, she has almost none. On Tuesday afternoon, she looked after the usual seven kids who come to her house during the day to play, eat, sleep and watch television.

Around 12:30 in the afternoon, some of the children were already taking their afternoon naps. But in the basement roared five rambunctious boys, who ran around with large toy trucks, making motor noises. The family dog, a 12-year old Bichon Frise, barked constantly. LaFramboise was constantly reminding the children not to taunt the dog.

Scenes like this are the kind that LaFramboise has endured for nearly 17 years as a licensed day-care provider. She was recently feted as Brown County's Care Provider of the Year.

Her business grew out of a desire to stay at home with her own children while they were growing up and as time went on, LaFramboise found she liked being available to help take care of her children.

The process Brown County uses to make decisions on whether or not to grant a day-care license is based upon three main criteria. First, prospective providers must take classes in first aid and child development. The home where they want to have their day-care business must pass a safety inspection and anyone looking for a license can't have a criminal record. The county re-inspects and re-tests providers every two years after a license is first granted. Inspectors can sometimes make surprise inspections of a home if they wish.

"Day care is a lot easier when your own children are beyond the age where they don't have to share their mom or their toys," she said. "It's that jealousy issue."

LaFramboise's preference for keeping an eye on the kids dates back to when she was a little girl. She remembered a time when her family was butchering poultry on a farm. Her grandmother guided her hand inside a turkey. She instantly ran away, saying she was going to go keep an eye on the kids back inside the house.

Her move into the day-care field started when her second daughter was born 17 years ago. She previously worked as a bank teller and as a secretary.

She thinks day care doesn't get the same amount of respect as some other professions do, possibly because many people don't grasp its importance.

LaFramboise even admits that sometimes she doesn't feel like she's really doing any work, but sometimes she gets a glimpse at the effects she has on children when she sees a child accomplish something important.

"They can be exhausting, but they're a bunch of neat kids," she said of the group of regulars as they filed up alongside a basement couch to watch a video.

As a regular rule, there isn't much television at LaFramboise's house. There is a neither Nintendo nor a PlayStation2. Those games are deliberately absent because she feels many kids today are over-stimulated by cartoons and video games. Instead, the kids who come to her house get to play outside on the jungle gym in her back yard and run around in the basement.

"I really like being my own boss," she said. "But I don't see myself doing it for the rest of my life. This gets to be a real high-energy job."