By Casey Neill
Company for her kids and “a bit of pocket money” prompted Shelley Oxford to answer an advertisement in the Journal for the new Dandenong Community Family Day Care.
That was 40 years ago.
Ms Oxford and the centre celebrated the milestone with a party next to its original site on Saturday 4 November.
“My daughter made the cake, so that was special as well. She grew up in family day care,” she said.
She said that family day care involved mothers opening their homes to other people’s children and caring for them.
“We were managed by the office and they would place children in our care,” she said.
“I had two little children then and I wanted company for them and to make a bit of pocket money.
“I did that for 25 years. 15 years ago I moved into the office as the office manager.
“I’m placing children in other people’s homes.”
Ms Oxford has met many generations of several families.
“One of the first little boys that I minded, he came into the office a few years ago and he said he had such fond memories of family day care that he wanted his children to experience it,” she said.
“He trusted me to find a placement.”
She started off earning 40 cents an hour.
“I supplied nappies, food, everything,” she said.
“People now have to be qualified and the whole thing has changed.
“At the moment, you can have up to four pre-school aged children.
“I remember having 17 at one stage.
“What I loved was, especially the school children, they didn’t have anyone to see them at assembly or go to school things.
“I could be there.
“They’d be waving to you, so proud that they had someone there that they could call family while their parents were out working.”
Ms Oxford had her son when her two daughters were in their early teens.
“Because his sisters were so much older than him, these children were his family,” she said.
“He always had mates to play with.”
Concerned citizens in the 1970s told Dandenong City Council that families living, working or studying in the municipality needed a formal child care service.
Then-mayor Max Oldmeadow called a public meeting to address the problem and a committee was elected to establish a child care centre.
Dandenong Council donated the land next to Greenslopes Primary School – now Emerson Middle School – and within 12 months the building was complete.
The 45 places were taken before the doors even opened.
At the same time, the Federal Government started funding family day care schemes so the committee prepared a successful submission to start one in Dandenong.
It started operating in 1976 from the nursery foyer.
As the scheme grew, the committee fund-raised and bought the house at 1 Anthony Street to use as the co-ordination unit where it remains today.
