Brittney Eldridge is the manager of Mini Mustangs Childcare. She gets up every day to help the children. The childcare starts at 7 am and will go until 4 pm. This gives Brittney enough time to feed, teach, play, and have the children take naps. Ms. Eldridge does a lot for the families around Herriman that need a daycare/preschool. She puts in a lot of time but it doesn’t phase her because she loves working with children so much.

Brittney loves her job she states that “I really love kids, and this position came open and I accepted it about nine years ago and I love it!” But the job this year has been more stressful for her. She even went on to mention that this year has been harder on her than in 2020. She comments on her mental health, “This year I think has been the hardest, we have been short-staffed, there are lots of people around that don’t want to work. This causes me to work more like 11 hours instead of 8 hours.” She even has her own family that she goes home to every day and takes care of. She puts in a lot of hard work for the children, even the parents like them a lot. The job is stressful for her but she does love it and wouldn’t want any other job.

Ms.Eldridge wakes up every morning at 4 am. She starts the day off with a quick workout, a shower, and then she’s off to work. She arrives at the high school at 5 am in morning Monday through Friday. She gets to school much earlier than any other teacher at the school. When she arrives that’s when she clocks in and starts getting everything ready for the children.

Brittney has newborns as part of her childcare. The newborns are taken care of in a different room than the children from 2-5 years old. She does this for the newborns to have a quiet space. Brittney takes care of the 2-5-year-old children while she has other employees take care of the babies. The infants arrive at the childcare center around 8:00. From here Brittney will take the children and feed them rice cereal and fruit. Next up is the infant’s morning nap around 9 in the morning. After their first nap is done it’s on to lunch which they eat at 11:30 in the morning. Ms. Eldridge will feed the infants solids or a bottle. Then it’s back to bed for the children at noon. Then the infants wake back up at 2:30 and have their afternoon meal.

Brittney also teaches the infants a lot between their naps and eating. In those times they learn to roll over from front to back and from back to front. They also learn how to sit, crawl, and even pull themselves into a standing position. The infants also teach themselves how to babble, laugh, smile, and put things in their mouths.

She checks emails any emails that she got after she left the school. After she finishes with that she moves on to check the food supply. Ms. Eldridge goes through all the food they have at the childcare to make sure everyone will get enough to eat. She checks for breakfast, lunch, and snacks. Once she is finished with the food supply Brittney moves on to fold any laundry that was cleaned the day before. She does any final touches and checks the room making sure the children have everything they need for their day at the childcare.

The children arrive from 6 to 7 and Brittney has them do free play before the day starts for the kids. Once the clock hits 7 Ms. Eldridge and her team help the kids clean up the room and then they move on to breakfast. The cafeteria this year started to help the daycare with providing some food this year.

After the children all gather to eat and then clean up, it’s on to learning. They do quick lesions to help keep the kids focused and to help them learn as much information in a short amount of time. Next up is playtime. Brittney and her crew take the kids out to the playground outside the daycare. The children play until it is nap time. Ms. Eldridge pulls out cots provided by the school for the children to sleep on. Naptime goes from 12:15 to 2:15.

The daycare team along with Brittney wake the children up. After all the kids are finally awake she provides lunch for them. This food too can also be provided by the lunchroom or Ms. Eldridge along with her team will make the food themselves. The kids go back to playing until it is their next snack time. They gather once more for their quick snack and then it’s back to playing. The children play until 4 pm when the parents come to get the kids.

After all the children leave Brittney starts to clean up. She picks up the toys, the trash, puts laundry in the washing machine, and anything leftover she cleans up. After the cleaning is done she comes back to her computer to check for an email once more. Once she is done and feels like she is done she does a quick check over everything in the rooms, puts the laundry in the dryer, then she is off for the day.