Marion Minton knows the daycare business, and she knows how to make lemonade out of lemons.
When the COVID-19 pandemic struck back in March, Minton was laid off from her job as a daycare worker at First United Methodist Church in Indianola, she said, but the Sunflower resident did not let that get her down.
There was a soft callback for workers in June, she said, but by that time she was already working for an individual family, and she was in the process of starting her own business.
“I decided to open up a babysitting center, because so many parents here (Sunflower) needed childcare,” Minton said. “A lot of them are essential workers who work at the hospital. Most of these parents work in nursing.”
Minton saw a need and decided to fill it.
The biggest demand, she said, was with older kids who need help navigating virtual learning, which most kids in the Sunflower County Consolidated School District have been under this fall.
When Minton spoke to The E-T a couple of weeks ago, she had kids ranging from ages 7 to 11.
Minton said she has worked to get her daycare director’s license, and she also has certifications for early childhood education and for kids with special needs, but there is a difference between a daycare and a babysitting center, she said.
Mainly, the babysitting center takes a lot of drop-ins, and some of the kids might be there on a temporary basis, while daycares tend to be more routine-oriented with the same kids each day.
Minton said she is able to meet the needs of parents who may need their children watched during some school days or while they simply run errands.
Minton said this is something sorely needed in the town of Sunflower.
“In the Sunflower area, we don’t have a daycare,” she said. “We have a Head Start, and they take them in, but we don’t have anything for the virtual learners. We don’t have a recreation center or anything like that for kids.”
Minton is in the process of securing a permanent place for her babysitting center, and she is hoping to start taking infants when she is in her new building in Sunflower.
She is also planning to create a recreation area for area kids to utilize.
“My motto is ‘do your best and be your best in everything you do,’” Minton said. “Take pride in yourself. I know the Lord will see you through. I try to be a role model to our little town, where there is not much here for the children, so by opening this place, it has provided kids meals and a safe place to be while their parents are at work.”
