KidsPark is a national franchise that opened with a simple mission: to provide accessible and responsible hourly child care to families who cannot or do not want full-day child care. Parents can drop off their children as many times as they need at any time during business hours. No reservations are required and parents pay by the hour.
This model has proven successful. Now, 37 years later, Kids Park is a national franchise, operating childcare centers in nine states. Sisters Beth Christie and Heather Alaniz took the plunge 17 years ago and opened the first Kids Park Center in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
“We have families who use us five days a week, or parents who only stop by when they need us,” Beth said.
KidsPark strives to help low- and moderate-income parents whose standard child care costs are prohibitively expensive and can force them out of the workforce for years. Many parents manage to juggle conflicting work shifts so they can always be with their children. Still, they both need affordable care while they work. “Hourly pick-up and drop-off allows us to keep childcare costs to a minimum,” says Beth.
Currently, parents pay $12 per hour per child and an additional $6 per hour per sibling, which is less than many independent babysitters. “It’s definitely a balancing act to have quality staff available to care for children and keep fees low for parents,” Beth says.
Kids parks typically employ young people, often college students. All of the current teachers are in their 20s. The director is in his 30s.
Immigration has been essential to Kids Park Arlington’s success from the beginning. “We’ve always relied on people from other countries or first or second generation people in the childcare industry,” Heather says.
Often these young people study to become nurses or school teachers. Beth said, “It’s so fun to see nursing as an individuality.”
“The young women we work with tend to be very family-oriented,” she said. “We have hired cousins and sisters over the years because we believe they work very well together, and they all come from immigrant families.”
Immigrants and children of immigrants also bring bilingual skills, which benefits children of all backgrounds, especially in diverse regions like Dallas, where immigrant workers play critical roles in construction, manufacturing, health care, and more. “We want our staff to reflect our customers,” Beth says. “We really liked having bilingual teachers.”
“Teachers who come from immigrant families are generally the kindest, hardest-working, hardest-working people,” Beth said. “I have found myself in awe of the work ethic of some of the young women who have come through the center, and they have brought so much love to the center.”
