Knee High Daycare helps IU parents manage time

Junior Jherika Gogins’ day starts early. Between her 15 credit hour course load and a job at the Indiana Memorial Union Bookstore, she is constantly running.

So every morning Gogins straps her two-year-old daughter Keziah into her car seat so the pair can make it to the Knee High Daycare Center by 7:30 a.m.

Gogins is an undergrad, but she is also a single parent.

Because Knee High is a cooperative, each of the 10 families whose children receive care there must work two shifts a week. For Jherika, that means balancing an added 10 hours of work.

“It’s an art,” Gogins said.

Gogins said she doesn’t experience much of Bloomington’s social scene. Sometimes her sister in Indianapolis will take Keziah for the weekend, but for the most part she is on her own. 

At $175 per month, Knee High is one of the most affordable daycare centers on campus. Sunflower co-op, a similar parent-run facility, charges $150 per month. Hoosier Courts Nursery School, in contrast, charges $170 per week.

Ph.D. student Albert Felten said his organic chemistry students are often surprised to learn he has children. He said he and his wife, who works at a local bank, chose Knee High for their two children because of the lowered cost and greater interaction with his children.

“It’s actually nice because it gives me an excuse of like five hours where I just play with my kids,” Felten said.

Unlike Gogins, Felten has the added bonus of a co-parent who isn’t in school. But with mandatory hours of research and teaching, his life is as hectic as that of the rest of the parents.

Knee High is located in a house just off campus. Most of the children are between ages 1 and 4, and lunch is an event.

As they sat in tiny chairs around a semicircular table, an undergraduate aid read the toddlers a story to focus their attention. Lines of Dr. Seuss were interspersed with encouragements to take just one more big bite of sandwich.

Ph.D. student Bita Zakeri said one advantage at Knee High is the strong network of support. Undergraduates can complete their work study requirements there and help the parents who run the majority of Knee High’s affairs.

“A co-op like Knee High works really well, and parents help each other out,” Zakeri said. “This is a community.”

But Zakeri said even though she appreciates the atmosphere at Knee High, she is disappointed that there aren’t other valid options.

Zakeri is the mother of two-year-old Shahin. She said the combined stipends of herself and her husband, who’s pursuing a Ph.D. in chemistry, wouldn’t cover the $600 to $800 per month charged by other campus daycare centers.

IU has no childcare facilities devoted specifically to students. Like most campus daycare centers, Knee High is available to anyone with an IU affiliation.

“I actually find that there’s not a lot of support from IU at all,” Zakeri said. 

Other large institutions offer student-centered options. The University of Michigan offers a childcare subsidy to students enrolled at least half-time.

At IU, affordable options seem to require a donation of time.

And co-ops are exclusive. Because parents must work together, new families go through a 30-day trial period and must be unanimously accepted by the other families. It is literally only available to a chosen few.

For those who make the cut, it is by no means easy. Zakeri said work hours and extra selection meetings make co-ops draining, and like Gogins and Felten, she said she has little if any time to herself.

She is tired of people telling her she looks tired.

She makes special time every evening for Shahin. But with their varied schedules, time with her husband is almost nonexistent, she said. Zakeri has already dropped a class this semester.

“It was just impossible to do nine credit hours, do about two or three hours of field work and do six hours here and do 18 hours at work, and then still get home and do the mom and wife and the house stuff,” Zakeri said.

While she stole a few minutes to play with Shahin on Knee High’s floor, Zakeri said she can’t imagine giving any of it up. She asked, why should anyone have to choose between a family and an education?

“Having kids and going to school is tough, but I want to give my kids a good life,” Zakeri said. “I don’t have time to think about it.”