FDC Educator Kylie reflects on 13 years in the sector

Freya Lucas

May 18, 2022

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Family day care (FDC) Educator Kylie has been working in the early childhood education and care sector in Hobart for the past 13 years and recently shared some reflections on her experience with Uniting Vic/Tas. An excerpt of her experiences appears below.

Having begun her working life working in retail, Kylie soon realised that it was not her true calling, and decided to investigate working with children, which was something she had always wanted to do.

The flexibility of working in an FDC environment also appealed to Kylie, who is a mother of two, with one child who has additional needs.

Being an FDC educator, she said, allows her the flexibility to parent her children while working and to be accessible to her daughter when needed.

For her daughter, growing up in an environment surrounded by other children has supported her to become more social, and caring for a maximum of seven children at a time has allowed Kylie to form close bonds with those in her care.

“It actually is like a family,” she said. “We drive down the driveway and they call it home.”

Reflecting on Uniting’s role as the coordinator of her FDC scheme, Kylie said that her experience has been different to those she has previously had under other providers.

“Uniting in general is more for the families,” she said, “not just family day care wise, but they will help the families that need help in more ways than one.”

For others considering taking on a role in the FDC sector, Kylie has the following advice.

“Becoming an educator is not as hard as people would think. One phone call was all it took to start the process.”

“You think that you’re on your own because you’re an educator in your own home, but you’re not. You actually have a lot of support around you, I love it. I can’t see myself doing anything else now.”

For more information about Uniting Vic/Tas, please see here.

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