Working mothers find soothing fad in kids centres
Source: The Sangai Express / Sundari Yumnam

Imphal, August 06 2014: With the ever-increasing workload of mothers, particularly working women and the need to look after their children with utmost attention in this highly compe-titive age, kids centres are an emerging solution to this pre-dicament.

The children's needs are increasing daily whereas the time available to a mother is just 24 hours.

A mother's responsibility is to perform all the household's chores ranging from cooking, washing clothes and utensils and mopping floors apart from looking after her kids.

She does the micro-economic activities of the family by looking after the minute details of the household and is prone to be blamed by in-laws and relatives in case of any flaws.

The burden increa-ses all the more for working mothers.

Gone are the days when women are just housewives contributing to 99 percent of house-keeping while their male counterparts are the soul bread-earners.

Women today equally participate in earning the monthly income by stepping out of the traditional domestic boundaries in addition to home-keeping.

Baby Kids Care Centre

Nowadays, the Gen-X women are mostly doctors, engineers, MCS officers, lecturers and even corporate professionals working in MNCs.

In the present situation, they hardly find enough time to care for their children.

It is quite obvious that it becomes imperative for them to share their work load with some responsible guardians or care-givers who can take the guardian's part .This is where the role of kids centres comes into play.

Imphal also is catching up with this latest trend of urban culture as we see kids-centres mushrooming around the city over the last 7-9 years.

There are Hello kids and Kids Zee at Singjamei, Baby Day Care Centre at Yumnam Leikai, Nanny's at Yaiskul and the list goes on and on.

Everywhere we go whe-ther it is Singjamei, Yaiskul , Uripok or Lamphel, we usually come across the banners of kids-centres along side cyber cafes, pharmacies, stationery and other stores.

Established in 2005, Baby Day Care Centre at Yumnam Leikai, with around 30 children at present, focuses on social, emotional and intellectual development of each child as an individual.

They start admitting children aged just 6 months to 6/7 years at only Rs 1000 as admission fee.

Mothers, who are mostly government servants, usually keep their child- ren during office hours i.e.9.30 am to 4.00 pm.

One can feel a deep sense of pleasure and relief to see their kids intermingling amongst themselves and play their hearts out with a variety of toys like balance, jeep, walker, animals, ABC blocks etc.

Children usually pass their leisure watching Chota Bhim, Tom and Jerry , Ben-Ten and singing rhymes.

Employing around two teachers and two helpers to assist in its activities, principal of Baby Day Care Centre Ningongbam Ongbi Lakshmi (42) emphasised with a deep sense of satisfaction, "It's not as easy as it sounds-running a kids centre.

We are striving hard to give comfort, warmth and healthy environment where kids would have access to top quality food." She further added, "It's been quite challenging looking after the boys who get violent and indulge into fight with their peers than the girls who silently and calmly rejoice amongst themselves by playing with their dolls.

Proper toilet facilities are also readily made available to the kids in case of potty or shisu" .

Sunita(30), a nurse at JNIMS, felt so relieved and secure keeping her child at a kids centre near Ibecha Don School, Heirangoithong during her busy and hectic schedule at the hospital.

Topping all the kids centre in the town and having made a brand name of itself over the last 4 years is the Hello Kids, which in the form of a franchisee pre-school, provides a multi-tiered soft play facility with a safe, secure and stimulating play environment with dedicated playzones for babies, toddlers and juniors.

The classes consist of fore-play (1 & 1/2 to 2 & � years), pre-nursery (2 & � to 3 &1/2years), lower KG (3 & � to 4 & �years) and upper KG(4 &1/2 to 5 & �years).

The class timings are 10.30 am to 1.15 pm while boarding starts from 1.30 pm to 4 pm.

The popularity and reliability of the of this pre- school can be justified by the number of students enrolled there which gradually rising from 77 in 2011,130 in 2012,165 in 2013 to 220 now.

With one-time admission fee of Rs 5630, Hello Kids uses an urban environment and a comprehensive curriculum to encourage children to develop their own interests while learning appropriate social skills apart from the usual ABCD.....Z.Tuition fees are around Rs.530 per month for both playgroup and nursery excluding Rs 300 for snacks as home-made tiffins are not allowed.

Established in April 2011, the teachers of Hello Kids are mostly good-looking dedicated graduates who try to impart a holistic development to the kids .Almost 14 teachers and 5 helpers coordinate in exploring the world of the kids through play, songs, and movement.

Principal of the Hello Kids, RK Ranjana proudly claimed, "What is unique about Hello kids is the teacher's affection, standardised form of teaching techniques using demonstrations, assessment, feedback, handbook, audio-visual aids, textbooks and toys which are a bit different from other centres.

The student intake is a strict 24 in a class which makes a 1:5 teacher-student ratio." She deeply sighed saying, "Looking after kids is a mixture of joys and pains" .

While parents are away at work, their children are in safe hands at the Kids' Centre where they play indoor games and engage in art, music, rhythm and rhyme.