The name (at least for the moment) of the ALSC committee I co-chair is Library Services to Underserved Children and their Caregivers. It’s a mouthful and in the two years I’ve been part of the committee, the word in there I’ve thought about most is Underserved. But lately, it’s that last word that really has me thinking: Caregivers.
Recently, one of my LIS students shared that she was writing her capstone about the benefits adults get (or don’t) from parent-child programs in libraries. I assumed she meant the benefits as a caregiver: being a child’s first teacher, how to model behaviors, those kinds of things. But as we talked more about her ideas, what she actually meant were the benefits for the adult participants as people. This was, I am embarrassed to admit, a bit of a surprise to me. I assumed if an adult wanted their own needs met through a library program, they’d join the book club or attend a workshop for adults.
What I missed was something I’d actually already figured out over decades of offering storytimes and library programs in shelters. There are only so many hours in a day and caregivers who take their kids to a library program are often sacrificing time for themselves to do so. In my shelter programs, where parents had to follow strict rules, curfews, and mandatory meetings (none of them fun), it was no surprise that the adults would remain engaged in craft activities long after their kids had wandered off to do something else. In those precious moments, the parents could just be themselves, having fun with beads and glitter and glue, talking to me and the other parents, not staff who needed them to do things and do them a certain way.
The burdens on many caregivers, too much work, too few resources, too many competing forces pulling at them from every direction, likely mean too little time for themselves. If they are able to take 30 or 40 minutes to be with a child in the library, can we make that time as meaningful for them as we know how to do for the child?
Today’s blog post was written by Dr. Vikki C. Terrile, Associate Professor at the Graduate School of Library and Information Studies at Queens College, CUNY, on behalf of the Library Services to Underserved Children and Their Caregivers Committee.
Tess Prendergast
Great post! I absolutely agree Vikki, thank you for putting the spotlight on caregivers, especially very new parents. While it is very important that we provide stuff developmentally geared to age ranges, I actually think it is equally important that our programs offer safe, social experiences for the adults. It is often the only time in the day they get to be around other adults. Some parents are very lonely, isolated, away from extended family, and are either solo parenting or their partners work long hours, are deployed, or work overseas for long stretches. Free library programs – even in fairly affluent communities but especially in more vulnerable ones – are a lifeline. I teach my MLIS students that the relationships they build with the parents and caregivers are way more important than how much they are able to entertain the little kids in the moment. Getting these adults to trust you is going to reap benefits for years to come. If they trust you, they will believe you when you tell them they are their child’s most important teacher (some don’t feel that way at all at first), they will take it all in when you tell them that singing lullabies reduces stress in babies and parent and years from now they will remember that reading aloud to kids way past the age when kids are reading themselves is great for the whole family. The goal is for adults with young children to feel like the library is their community living room, a place they can relax, a place where people are happy to see them, and a place they can have fun with their kids, make a few friends and learn new stuff together.