Omaha World Herald Article
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Published Monday Working parents keep a high-tech eye on kids BY GRACE SHIM |
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| WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER | |
Working mother Diane Landon likes to take a peek at her 17-month-old daughter a few times a day.
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While Landon can't always leave her job in Omaha to go to Melanie's day care, she can take a few minutes to see her, courtesy of technology. She logs onto the Internet and sees real-time Webcasts of her daughter.
"She was sick with a fever all weekend, and Monday she was home with me," Landon said last week. "(On Tuesday) I could check her out, and she was napping.
"It's kind of a nice little thing to see what she's doing."
Landon's day care, Little Hands At Work and Play, has the Web cameras at three of its seven centers in Omaha, including the downtown site Melanie attends.
Little Hands offers the service through Omaha-based Parents at Ease. The service costs parents an extra $10 a week, and the Web cameras capture - but do not record - what occurs in several rooms at the centers.
Rick Clark, president of Omaha-based Little Hands, said he became interested in Web cameras after attending a child-care convention a couple years ago in Atlanta. He didn't pursue the idea until he received a phone call last spring from Russell Albin, a co-founder of Parents at Ease.
Albin and his wife, Cheri, both of Omaha, started the company in July 2000 because they wanted such a service for their own daughter, Cadie, who was born with Down's Syndrome and was about to start day care.
Albin said security is an important aspect of the service. Parents need two passwords to log on, and the Web site does not give out day-care addresses.
Bruce Loften, president of WatchMeGrow in Lacey, Wash., said demand for such services is growing rapidly, particularly in Texas, Florida and the Southeast. Nationally, he said, there are about four to 10 new installations of the viewing equipment a month. In total, about 300 to 400 centers nationwide have some type of Internet viewing service.
Parents are pushing for the service, Loften said.
However, the technology hasn't caught on quite as well in Omaha.
Ellen Freeman-Wakefield, president-elect of the Omaha Association for the Education of Young Children, said few Omaha area day cares have Internet viewing, compared with other parts of the country.
Freeman-Wakefield, who also serves as director of First National Bank of Omaha's child development center in downtown Omaha, said her facility doesn't have Web cameras. First National contracts with Boston-based Bright Horizons to manage the center.
"We feel children should be allowed to be children," she said. "First National wants parents to come down here rather than to have the parent watch their children on a Web site."
Clark, of Little Hands, said his day cares have an open-door policy too, but the Web cameras are an extension of that.
Landon, the parent, said sometimes she can't get away for a drop-in visit.
"And a lot of times, the kids cry when you leave because they see you and think you're going home," she said. "You can peek in, and the child doesn't know you're watching.
"There have been times when I've called, when it looks like she fell, and they (day-care workers) already have incident reports written up," Landon said. "You don't really see anything they wouldn't tell you about."
Apple Tree Orchard in Papillion, the only other Omaha-area day care to offer the service, was the first to install Web cameras. The center does not charge an extra fee, and its Web images are still frames.
Kristin Vanderwyst, founder and director, said she started the service in July 2000 after watching a news story about the cameras. She said many parents find it reassuring to see their children, especially if the day care is new to the family.
"They like the fact that they can check in on their kids without calling the teacher," she said.
Lisa Sarver, a corporate attorney at Kutak Rock and the mother of two young children, is a big fan of the service. Both her 4-year-old son, Jacob, and her 21/2-year-old daughter, Cassidy, go to Little Hands' downtown location.
"When you're a working parent, there is such a large part of your child's life that you know little about. They spend so many hours away from you," she said.
Sarver said the days when the Web service is most helpful are when her children are having bad mornings.
"If I can see them going about their routine like nothing happened, I'm not distracted anymore," she said.
The Web service also enhances communication between parents and day-care providers, Sarver said.
"It's hard to ask them questions if you don't know really what goes on," she said.
Landon finds the Web service is an advantage when she travels. As the recruiting and admissions coordinator for University Hospital's Physician Assistant Program, she is out of town three to four times a year and can be gone up to a week.
"If I get in the right hotels, I can log on and see her when I'm out of town," she said. "I was in Albuquerque (N.M.) a few weeks ago and was able to log on," Landon said, adding that she was able to show images of Melanie to her aunt and uncle. "That was neat."