Naughty and Nice, Happy and Sad

By Bertha Gallegos Allen

My name is Bertha Gallegos Allen. You will read how my husband and I took care of my mother and her husband's mother while we worked at the preschool. In the book, you will read parts that are sad, and you will also cry. You will laugh at what a child says and does. Some children are happy, some sad. Childcare is good for children because they are safe and they are loved. Some children are better at childcare than at home. I was thinking about writing this book a few years ago. My class at Murray High gets together twice a year with the girls Joyce Thompson Carter and Beryl Turner Morley, who work really hard at getting everything together so we can have lunch at different places. One of my classmates, Diane Barton Kuhre, got me going to write this book. She said, "You need to tell people about your life as a preschool and day-care provider. I know God had a plan for me. That was why I could not have children, and the plan to have a preschool to love hundreds of children.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Page Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Nov 15, 2020
• ISBN: 9781646280322

Book preview

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Naughty and Nice, Happy and Sad

Bertha Gallegos Allen

Copyright © 2020 Bertha Gallegos Allen

All rights reserved

First Edition

PAGE PUBLISHING, INC.

Conneaut Lake, PA

First originally published by Page Publishing 2020

ISBN 978-1-64628-031-5 (pbk)

ISBN 978-1-64628-999-8 (hc)

ISBN 978-1-64628-032-2 (digital)

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

Author’s Note

Author’s Note

Author’s Note

The Goals and Philosophy We Provide to Parents

Allen’s Preschool and Day Care

Allen’s Preschool and Day Care

GLEEN W. ALLEN

Glenn W. Allen born in Teasdale, Utah. He graduated from Wayne High School where he excelled at baseball, basketball, and tennis.

Glenn and Bertha opened Allen’s Preschool and Day Care in Murray, Utah.

He spent the happiest part of his life caring for and teaching other people’s children. Took classes at the UU Westminster. When Glenn was not at the Preschool and Day Care, he enjoyed golfing with his buddies. He hit a hole in one at Meadowbrook Golf Course.

Author’s Note

I’ve been a preschool/day-care provider for fifty-four years. I’ve kept and recorded memories of the times spent with the children who were left in my care. In this book you’ll get to know some of those children and some of their parents. In these pages, you’ll find happy stories and some heartbreakingly sad ones. For some children, preschool was their safe place.

Sometimes, a child came with bruises and terrible anxiety. Their fear was a priority to the teachers. We’d even had to report child abuse when we saw it and realized that child might be in danger.

A friend asked me if I still had the school. She was amazed that I was still at it and how many years it had been. She told me I should write a book. And I’m doing just that.

My husband, Glenn, and I took classes at the U of U and attended other workshops to prepare ourselves to do this kind of work. With my mother’s permission, we fixed her house to comply with State guidelines to take care of thirteen children. My dad painted and helped get it ready. Later, we added large, open spaces with everything needed to provide for (the now) sixty children, from newborns to twelve years old.

I felt it was God’s plan for us when Glenn and I found that we would not have children of our own. We adopted our one and only child, a beautiful baby girl, whom we named Kelly. I remember every moment of the magical day when we brought our baby home. We’ve always been thankful that Kelly was a perfect fit for us. She became an important part of the school, and still is. And we have four wonderful grandchildren who spent their early years with us.

Glenn was there to help with the children every day. When the boys wanted to play ball games or other boy games, Glenn played with them. One little boy told me that when he grew up, he would be a dad just like Glenn, who was always kind to me and to the children.

Sometimes, life experiences happened during school hours. If something happened that a child wanted to talk about, we did that, or if there was a historical event, it became a history lesson on that day.

Our kitchen was always well stocked with healthy and delicious meals. My mother cooked for us. My sister did too. I was able to budget our money so that sometimes we hired my siblings, whom we loved and trusted. It was a big family who always included the children as family too.

I love kids and have been living my dream as a day-care and preschool provider for fifty-four years, having enough time to provide loving care for my mother and mother-in law.

We were having breakfast one morning, and Sonja, a six-year-old, told me, The police came to my house to take my mom to jail.

I asked her, Why did the police take your mother to jail?

Because, she said, my mother was always telling me what to do, and I don’t like that.

I told Sonja, Mothers are supposed to tell their children what to do, because they love their child.

She said, I did not know that.

Katey’s mother was having a baby in July. I asked Katey, six years old, When is your mother having a baby? She said, My baby brother is inside my mother’s belly and is coming out in twenty years.

Sally, three years old, asked Roger, three years old, Can I be your best friend?

No, Roger said, because Bertha is my best friend.

The children heard Roger say Bertha is my best friend, and now all the children wanted me to be their best friend. I told the children, I am everybody’s best friend. The children all clapped their hands and came running to me to give me a hug. Sometimes children need to hear a statement like that.

We had a little boy who was four years old. He was only six months when he started with us. He was reading a book at nap time. I could hear him cry. I went to see why he was crying. He told me he did not want to be five years old because he was getting old. I said to him, You have a lot of years to live and to discover. You will discover many good things while you are growing up. I am sure you will become a good man.

I let some little girls, aged three, play in the playhouse. They played really well together. It was time for the girls to clean up and picked up the toys. They picked up every toy but a telephone I brought from home. I took off the receiver because it had a cord. I took off the cord because I did not want them to hang the cord around their necks. The phone just had the dial keys in the front. I asked Ellie to pick up the blue phone. Ellie said, I cannot see a blue phone.

I said, It is by your feet.

Once again she said, I cannot see a blue telephone.

I was getting angry. I thought she was playing games. I went up to Ellie, and I picked up the telephone. I said, This is the blue telephone.

She said, That is not a telephone, that is a computer.

Children sometimes don’t see things as adults see them.

One afternoon in July, this boy was putting puzzles together. This seven-year-old boy came by the table where this boy was putting puzzles together and hit him on the head with his hand. I said, Iziasis, why did you hit Noah?

He said, No, I did not hit him.

I said, Iziasis, I saw you hit Noah.

He said, No, I did not hit him.

I said, Iziasis, do you think I am stupid?

He said, Do you think I am stupid?

I sat him on time-out for five minutes. Iziasis said to me, I am sorry I hit Noah on the head.

I said, That is why you are on time-out. I made him tell Noah he was sorry.

Our cook, Walter, was having a birthday party at the preschool. I bought Walter a birthday gift. I put the gift on the table the children used for art. I called Walter to let him know the children were waiting for him. The children were all excited. Walter did not open his gift; he told the children, I will open the gift later. Kourtney, three years old, shouted, Walter, open your gift! It might be a toy! Walter laughed. He opened his gift, and it was a pair of new shoes.

I went to the Toys R Us store to buy some big wheels for the children. My daughter Kelly, then five years old, helped me choose different colors. We bought fourteen big wheels. Glenn helped us put the big wheels together. The children were so excited riding the big wheels. One day, I took the five- and six-year-olds outside. They had a nice time. We all came inside the day care after. This six-year-old boy told me he was going to marry Kelly. I said, Why are you going to marry Kelly? Because she has a lot of big wheels?

No, he said, because I love her.

I could not believe this six-year-old boy would think that way.

When I first started the preschool, I did not know you could report child abuse. This three-and-a-half-year-old boy would not sit down in class. He cried all morning. He told me his butt hurt. I pulled down his pants, and he had ten circles all over his bum. I called the mom. I told her, I wanted to know, what are the circles on his butt? She cried and said, My boyfriend burned him with a cigarette lighter. I said to her, I hope you kicked him out. Come and get him. Take him to the doctor, because some burns have red around them. She did not bring him back because she moved with her mom. I am sure Grandma took good care of him.

I am always at the preschool, but once in a while, I leave because I have appointments I have to attend. One day, I left for my nail appointment. It was early in the morning. I did not go to the preschool that morning, but I came back to the preschool in time for the children to have lunch. When I heard this little girl, aged three, crying, I asked her why she