Today we’d like to introduce you to Robin Holland.
Robin, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I started out at MCC in 1991. I had left a job I was very unhappy with and had no idea what I wanted to do. My sister-in-law suggested I look into child care as she knows I’ve always loved children. I applied to various places and wound up at MCC as a teacher’s assistant working part time. I knew I had found my niche! I loved my job, “my” kids and my co-workers! At this point in my life, I had no kids of my own; 6 years later I had a three-year-old and an infant. I found myself coming home with less patience for my own boys as I used up my store on the kids at MCC. I asked the owners if maybe I could help out in the office doing administrative things to break up my day. I found I LOVED the paperwork, and learning about how a Nursery School/Child Care is run. By 2000, I had three children of my own. I was in the classroom and loved it still! Each day brought something new and exciting. Well, one day brought something REALLY new and exciting. The owners of MCC had decided to retire and they offered to sell me the business. After thinking about it and certainly discussing it with my husband, we decided to take the plunge. Best decision of my life!
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
There are always some bumps in the road! Personally balancing my roles as Mom and Director has been a challenge. It took a long time for me to realize that as long as I always did the best I could, everything else would fall into place. There certainly was a learning curve in figuring out how to run a successful pre-school! It was tricky learning how to keep the “old” successful ways and yet incorporate my own ideas.
Please tell us about Medfield Children’s Center.
Medfield Children’s Center is a Pre-School/Child Care. We’ve been in business since 1982. Currently we have two locations but we are VERY excited for our future. We are in the process of getting approval for a new facility where we can all be under one roof! Currently we are licensed to take children 15 months to 6 years old. But we plan to open up an infant room when we move to our new locations. So excited for the babies!!!
We have a great educational program; we’ve been told numerous times that the teachers in Medfield know “our” kids as they are prepared in all areas to have a successful Kindergarten year. As proud as I am over our program (we’ve won Hometown Weekly’s Best of award in the 6 town region for the past 5 years, and Medfield’s best for the past 6 years), I am most proud of our teachers!! We have the best staff around. Child Care is a career field that has a lot of turnover. MCC has bucked the trend. We have three teachers who’ve been here over 25 years (truly unheard of), two over 10 years, and a bunch five plus years. You know you’ve been here a while when one of your students is now on staff as a PreK teacher!!!
If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
I think I would have realized sooner that change is okay. It took me a while to realize that just because something has been that way for a while, doesn’t mean it has to stay that way.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.medfieldchildrenscenter.com
- Phone: 5083594239
- Email: rph.mcc@verizon.net
- Facebook: Medfield Children’s Center
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