EXCERPT FROM: Recordnet.com
By Jennifer Torres
STOCKTON - When Dorothy Armstrong began offering child care in her home in 1958, it wasn't really by design.
She was recently divorced and living in north Stockton.
"I had my four children, and I had a lot of things on my mind," she remembered. "What were we going to do and how were we going to manage financially?"
Then, a neighbor who ran a day-care business out of her home asked Armstrong to take over.
Armstrong considered, agreed and got permission from county authorities.
At the time, the number of women who worked outside the home was growing, but still relatively small. Nearly 20 years later, when Armstrong founded what would become the San Joaquin County Family Child Care Association, about 43 percent of women were employed.
Over Armstrong's long career and involvement in child care, American families changed - households in which both parents work have become far more common, and the subsequent need for day care more pronounced.
The trend is ongoing: About half of local children younger than 6 have two working parents. Among single-parent households, workplace participation is even higher.
"Having child care in your home, you can provide all the things the child would get at home had their parents not had to work during the day," Armstrong said.
Now in failing health, Armstrong, 86, said she is proud of her career and encouraged that the professional association she founded in 1976 remains active. She was honored Sunday with an open-house celebration.
Current providers praised her as a pioneer who helped build a foundation for high-quality child care in a growing county.
Janelle Hesch runs a home day care and was among the several women who visited with Armstrong at her home on a recent afternoon.
"You came to a meeting and you were talking about how you had gone to Sacramento to advocate, and I realized, 'These are professionals,' " Hesch told her. "That really inspired me. I think it really changed my views of family child care."
Armstrong said she founded what was then known as the San Joaquin County Child Day Care Home Association because she knew other women were running child-care businesses and she wanted them to be able to share ideas and offer support.
She got a list of licensed providers in the county - there were about 30 - and invited them to meetings. About four or five came in the beginning.
According to a recent survey from the nonprofit California Child Care Resource and Referral Network, there are now nearly 1,000 licensed child-care centers and child-care homes in San Joaquin County with slots for about 17,000 children.
But that only covers about 18 percent of children 13 and younger who have parents in the labor force.
"We want kids in quality child care, and the licensed child care supply is really fragile right now," said Kay Ruhstaller, who directs the county's resource and referral center.
The viewpoint that day care is seen as something more than just baby-sitting in the county is due, at least in part, to Armstrong, said Paula Baca, president of the family child-care association.
"It's true. I never, ever wanted to be called a baby sitter," said Armstrong, who retired in 1988.