The nurseries in Jette and Etterbeek are more than a place where parents hand over their little ones while they go to work. They are a professional partner in child-rearing, and a pillar of support. For years, a dedicated team has been guiding the smallest VUBers through their first years of life. Anne De Boeck found her purpose in child guidance at a later age.

Anne De Boeck, 49, has been working at the day care centre in Jette for five years. Her passion for children was clear from an early age, but at the time she thought it was a ‘girl thing’. She considered vocational training in childcare, but based on her school results, she was encouraged to go to college. For two years she studied marketing – but then she stopped. All that time, it had never really been her thing. She started a family and went to work in e-commerce, where she built a successful career. But there was another path awaiting her.

The turning point

When Anne was 42, the department she worked for closed, and the restructuring forced her to look for something else. As a single mother with two growing sons, it wasn’t easy. “You should do something with children,” the company’s HR manager suggested. As part of the social resettlement plan, the company offered to co-finance her training.

“I went to the adult education centre in Meise and studied child guidance for two years. The fact that I persevered and can now do this job every day makes me very happy. After two years, the HR manager called me to find out how the reorientation was going. I really appreciated that. I am very proud of my diploma and my job.

“Social recognition for the profession of childcare worker has increased since I was young. It’s no longer called childcare, but child guidance. That’s a more correct term for what we do. ‘Pedagogy for young children’ has also been recognised as a field of study. There is still a difference between nursery, primary and secondary education in terms of status and remuneration. That’s strange, because guidance during the very early years is just as crucial. We can draw inspiration from Scandinavia, where society has a very different view of the early years.”

‘Do you think she needs to see a doctor?’

“Because I’ve done both, I can compare this job to a career in sales and marketing, and I can safely say that it’s not easy. You have to manage constantly. At any moment of the day, you have to assess what each of several children needs at that moment, from a pedagogically sound perspective.

“Each person is unique and has different needs. There are a lot of frameworks available, with day care centres and Kind & Gezin, but in the field you have to translate these to the unique situation of each child.

“The VUB day care centres have a strong framework with a psychologist and pedagogical coaches, and there is a cooking and cleaning team too. This allows the child guidance specialists to fully concentrate on their work. It’s also very professional. Every day, we note the most important points of attention for the parents and we work with a monitoring system for language and small and large motor skills. We also receive training. In the years to come, I want to go deeper into attachment processes in children.

“In a way, the babies also attach to you, because they are dependent on your care. That feeling is mutual. At 14 or 15 months, the babies move on to the toddlers section. Fortunately, we also have contact with the other department in the nursery. That makes it easier to say goodbye, as you see them continue to evolve.

“Contact with the parents is also important. They rely on us. It’s a special experience when a top doctor from the UZ asks my opinion on whether their child needs to see the doctor. At that moment, they too are first and foremost a mum or dad, not a doctor. The parents’ appreciation of our work is very motivating. They are a grateful audience.”

The ball pool at Ikea

“Being a childcare worker is my ideal job and my purpose. I’m passionate about it. A group of children demands energy, but you get even more energy in return. When I get to the day care centre in the morning, I thrive. I admit that I earn less than I did in the commercial sector, but now I’m so much happier with what I do. When you love your job it shines through, and that’s important. That’s why I always show my appreciation for a shop assistant or a waiter who attends to their customers’ needs.

“In terms of social recognition for working with children, there is a lot of movement under the impetus of the Scandinavian countries. The revolutionary idea of the ball pool at Ikea was no accident. Society in northern Europe looks at education in a completely different way. One of the two parents is paid to stay at home during the child’s first year, and children sleep in the open air.

“Why almost all child supervisors are women, I don’t know. Why are most car mechanics men?”

Maybe we will find out during our ‘People’ week.

On behalf of all VUB parents, to all colleagues of the day care centre: a warm thank you for your invaluable support. 

Would you like to find your purpose as well and engage for humanity? Then take a look at The World Needs You under People.