When parents work the night shift, babies need a safe place to sleep

Like any daycare, Penny & Peggy Nairn’s 24 hour childcare and Early Education Center is full of toys and games and puzzles and paints. However, at this center, which is open around the clock, there are also cots for sleepy kids.

Many low-wage night shift workers who don’t have someone at home to watch their kids rely on childcare centers like this one.

Peggy’s center also accepts families whose income is too low to pay market rate so they receive a subsidy from the government. About 214 of the 250 children who are cared for here are subsidized. Without these subsidies, they would not be able to get the care that they need.

“I think as the kids grow up they see their parents making a commitment to work or to school no matter that they’re doing. And they’re able to provide for their kids and as the kids grow up they kind of learn to respect what the parents are doing,” says Peggy.