One Family's Story - Why they chose MCPC for all 3 kids
When we first became pregnant, we realized we had no real knowledge of pregnancy, child-birth and parenting. We’d heard stories and watched TV and movies, obviously we had been kids ourselves, but we really knew nothing about what to expect. This brought us a lot of curiosity to the way we approached each step of the process; what were our options? How did we want to approach it? What were our values? Did anyone anywhere actually know anything about creating good humans?
We became interested in trying to give our children the opportunity to explore the world through play. We felt like there would always be time for academics but little time to be a child. Along that path, we discovered cooperative preschools. We knew it was going to be both a lot of work and an opportunity to have special time with our child. After trying another coop first, we learned about MCPC. We found the grounds at MCPC magical, the chickens, the sensory experiences, and the different play yards. The way the teachers spoke to the kids and parents was amazing, something we wanted to copy at home.
We’ve now had three kids all go through MCPC and are in our last year for our last child. It’s been the best thing we’ve done for ourselves and our kids. Each of our kids has been their own unique human with their own quirks and personalities. We’ve seen how MCPC has made space for each of them in their own way and given them a safe space to learn how to interact with the world.
With our first kid, they are autistic, and learning social interaction was a real challenge. Before MCPC, they lacked a lot of confidence in engaging with different groups and we lacked a lot of words and practice for coaching them through it. Sometimes their reactions could be scary and we got scolded by people for how they behaved. At MCPC, we never felt like our child was bad. Everybody is always working on something, Jolie would say. MCPC brought out their best.
Our second kid, they had so much energy. They were used to being more flexible in their play because of their older brother. They needed to learn different social dynamics. MCPC helped them grow more accustomed to playing outside of the home.
Our third kid grew up in the pandemic with two older brothers. They were under-socialized and had learned a lot of inappropriate lessons from their older brothers. MCPC has been a safe place to learn dynamics with kids their own age and younger.
All of our kids have felt different, none of them have felt like easy typical kids. And MCPC has been a place for all of them to learn and get ready for school in ways that made us feel that much more comfortable and ready for the bigger, scarier elementary school world. I feel like it’s been a time period where other people see my kids for who they really are, not as part of a big academic system but as an individual getting the special personalized love and care that they need. How often can we say that in life?
For us, it’s also been a learning experience. I’ve now watched our director, Jolie, share her talk on conflict resolution a handful of times. Every time she shares it I feel like I learn something new about how to apply these lessons at home. Each work-day, I feel like I take a turn of phrase from one of the teachers and bring it to my own chaos to be a better parent. There’s almost a halo for a few days after my work days where I remember all the right words to use; to take the limit to the child, go down to their level, and recognize they can only learn when their lid isn’t flipped!
We’ve had the opportunity to build community. We have friends who talk to their kids the way we want to talk to them. Our kids feel safe with those parents as well, because they know how to speak MCPC and might even have helped them through a challenging situation before. We’ve done holidays and camping trips, child-care shares and pizza nights, double dates and parties with MCPC families for years. Some of the parents have been at MCPC with us multiple times for multiple kids. In workdays now, I often remember my workdays when my partner was on parental leave after having our third child and now that little baby is here at MCPC themself.
As we look towards our final year at MCPC, I feel a sense of loss. This special place won’t be a major part of our children’s daily lives anymore. It also won’t be a primary part of my life anymore. The teachers at MCPC are special people to me, I think of them all as friends. The kids are grounding, spending time with other people’s kids helps me see how normal my own chaos monkeys are and how really hard everyone’s parenting journeys can be. It feels different at elementary school and I imagine even more different when we start middle school next year. But, I share knowing looks with a few other MCPC families who go to our elementary school or who we see at alumni events. We’re part of a community together forever. I don’t think we’ll ever have an experience in our lives that will compare to MCPC, where we spend so much time with our kids, learning lessons and creating community. I truly love MCPC and while we might not be here next year with a kid in school, we’ll be here in spirit with all the other families who get to experience its magic. My kids will be MCPC kids forever and I’ll be a part of the community forever too.