“If you love what you do, you won’t work a day in your life.”
My name is Lisa Doyon and I am a family child care provider on a quiet dead-end street on the East side of Manchester, New Hampshire. I have been doing this for more than thirty years. The saying above is accurate, and I could not see myself doing anything else.
My family
I have been married to my wonderful husband Tom for thirty-five years. He is the bookkeeper, the grocery-store runner, the computer IT guy and Mr. Fix It. He is also my back-up on the rare day I cannot be here, and because of that he is fingerprinted, background checked, first aid and child and adult CPR trained, and takes the training the State licensing regulations require of him. He always supports and encourages me when I want to have one of my day care children over after hours. He knows how important it is to me to keep those relationships. I seriously never let them lose touch.
I have two sons. One is married, so I finally, finally have a daughter, and they have three boys, the youngest just born. So I am a grandmother three times over, and two of them have spent their days here with me. The nest is not completely empty either: Bowman and Scout, our two yellow labs, absolutely love the children, though the day care has its own finished lower-level space, separate from the rest of the house, so they do not see them all that often.
On the weekends I am with my family: cooking, baking, gardening, painting, or heading up to Squam Lake, which is my happy place.
Training and credentials
The part that is easy to skim and hard to earn.
Earned
- First-ever recipient of the TEACH child care scholarship
- Associate’s degree in Early Childhood Education
- 2018 Excellence in Child Care Award, Early Learning NH, one of only three in the state
- Credentialed in Granite Steps for Quality
- Uses the Pyramid Model as the foundation of the curriculum
Maintained
- Licensed family child care provider, State of New Hampshire
- Licensed for nine: six children through the day, plus three enrolled in school full time
- 21+ hours of early-childhood training every year
- First aid and child & adult CPR certified
- Fingerprint and background screening every three years
- Unannounced state licensing visits, yearly or more often
- Fire and health department inspections every three years
- Accepts the NH Child Care Scholarship
Thirty years, and the training hours still happen every single year.
Why families stay
Some of the families who write to me have been doing it for twenty years. Children I cared for as infants send me messages as adults. One of them is twenty-two now and still in touch. That is the shape of this work, and it is why I have never wanted to do anything else.
Lisa was practically my second mother. Now being 22 years old and still having contact with her shows how loving and caring of a person she is. I will always look back at my daycare days with Lisa and smile.