Following up on an earlier post, I want to highlight today’s Missoulian editorial – which calls for basic improvements to Montana’s child care regulation and oversight. Particularly, in-home providers should be getting visits from state inspectors before they get their licenses. Anyone who works with young children – and especially children too young to understand or verbalize incidents that risk their health and well-being – should be subject to a comprehensive background check.

These changes won’t solve every problem, but they will get us started in the right direction.

P.S. There’s also a business story in today’s Missoulian about Kim Ormsby, who was named Montana Entrepreneur of the Year for her Natural Baby Company. In just a few short years, her Bozeman-based business has gone gangbusters and is now selling about 4,000 cloth diapers A MONTH to moms around the world. Missoula Mom wrote about her here.

- MM

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A little-discussed nugget of law tucked into the federal health care reform act directs businesses that have more than 50 employees to give lactating mothers a private space in which to pump milk or breastfeed, as well as a “reasonable” amount of (unpaid) time to do so.

This Free Press article forwarded to me this morning discusses it in more detail, and got me reminiscing about all the gross places in which I struggled to pump milk for the short six weeks I breast-fed my newborn baby girl.

Bathrooms, mostly. I was struggling to wrap up my journalism degree at the time, and if the University of Montana had a dedicated lactation room, I was not aware of it. I was also working at the Kaimin, and have fond memories of sitting with my back against the door (because it didn’t lock) of the old editor’s office – a room so filthy I had to scrape what looked like crusty old macaroni and cheese off the windows just to get a little natural light – praying no one would barge in.

The article also got me looking around the Missoulian, pondering places I might pump if I were lactating now. Hmm. Looks like the bathroom again.

Which brings me to my favorite quote from the article. Here’s what Michigan Breastfeeding Network cochair and Children’s Hospital of Michigan pediatrican Rosemary Shy had to say about breastfeeding in bathrooms: “I want every employer who says (pump in a bathroom) to be forced to eat his lunch in the bathroom for a month.”

The law creates a lot of questions – how will this work for non-office staff? – and will no doubt lead to many more as the details are hashed out. But I think it’s a positive thing that the nation is acknowledging its lactating labor force at all, and I, for one, welcome the long overdue discussion.

- MM

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You can tell summer is on its way because the weekends are quickly filling with things to do. If you don’t already have enough on your plate (ha, ha) or are just looking for fun and meaningful time spent with the entire family, this weekend offers plenty of opportunity.

First, if you see droves of kids outside sans I-pod or other electronic devices, don’t be alarmed. A worldwide virus has not hit. It’s Global Youth Service Day (actually, it goes all weekend, April 23-25). The Governor’s Office of Community Service has a map of activities aimed at encouraging young people throughout Montana to celebrate and help improve their communities. Roughly 2,000 kids expected to participate in our state alone!

If you’re looking to do something a little different tonight, check out the Family Reading Adventure at the Children’s Museum. From 5:30-7 p.m., parents and children will be taking on “The Rough-Face Girl” by Rafe Martin. It’s an Algonquin tale described in reviews as a Cinderella-style story of a girl who competes with her two older sisters to marry the handsome prince – er, Invisible Being. Be aware, though, that this isn’t just a sit-and-read thing. Family Reading Adventures is all about interactivity and participation. It’s free, but you have to register in advance, so call 541-PLAY right away to reserve a spot.

While you’re downtown, you might also want to swing by the Blackbird Kid Shop on the Hip Strip (at 525 South Higgins Ave.) to check out the First Friday display offered by the YWCA Missoula’s GUTS! girls. That’s “Girls Using Their Strengths!” and these young ladies age 9 to 18 have been hard at work on pieces depicting their favorite “sheroes” – female heroes.

Then on Saturday, of course, you won’t want to miss ACROtainment at Hellgate High School. It’s kids, it’s acrobatics, it’s live theater – and shows start at 3 p.m. or 6:30 p.m. You can buy tickets at Bitterroot Gymnastics; call 728-4258.

On Sunday – well, take a deep breath and start stockpiling your energy for the week ahead, because next Saturday, the first weekend in May, is when the Farmer’s Market, the People’s Market and the Clark Fork River Market will kick off the summer season. AND, next Sunday will see the first-ever Sunday market at the Carousel.

It’s shaping up to be another rip-roaring summer. I’m worn out already just from writing about it … but in a good way.

- MM

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Today, Jennifer Savage writes at Mamalode about being trapped in her car in downtown Missoula by a member of the local homeless community until a bartender at Charlie B’s came out and shooed him away.

It’s a stirring personal account that serves as an apt illustration of a persistent problem downtown. I regularly get e-mails from downtown shoppers and business owners pleading with the mayor to address the issue of aggressive panhandling and downright disgusting behaviors downtown: public urination and sex in the early morning hours after the bars close; broken glass and trash left lying on the sidewalk next to passed-out drunk people.

The people sending these e-mails, and Savage, seem to me to have a great deal of compassion for the homeless who live among us. And they don’t care if the people making them feel unsafe are homeless, college students, or fellow parents and business owners. They just want to be able to enjoy downtown with their families without being yelled at or stepping over human waste.

That really doesn’t seem like too much to ask. As for solutions - well, that’s another story.

- MM

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Smokejumper camp. Equestrian camp. Writing camp.

Math, filmmaking, art, gardening – you name it, there’s a camp for it in western Montana. And I should know, having spent ALL DAY earlier this week combing through the Missoulian’s exhaustive guide to summer camps. We’re talking more than 14,000 words, all aimed at helping parents choose a fantastic summer camp experience for their kids.

But oh, how to choose! Ballet camp? Soccer camp? Fishing camp? One thing’s for sure – if your child has a particular interest in a particular camp, you will want to snag a guide right away to make sure you secure a spot.  Availability is sure to shrink down fast once this guide hits the streets!

Look for the guide – it’ll be hard to miss – in Thursday’s newspaper.

- MM

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As Shirley Brown, Child and Family Services Division administrator for the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services, notes in her guest column in the Missoulian, April is National Child Abuse Prevention Month and the May is Foster Parent Appreciation Month.

It’s a fitting sequence, as child abuse is usually followed by foster care – or at least it is when the system works as it should.

Throughout the next two months, Missoula and other communities in western Montana will be home to a number of events meant to raise awareness and deepen the pool of understanding about child abuse and foster care, as Brown mentioned in her column.

One event I’d like to highlight in particular is being organized by a group of social work students at the University of Montana and is scheduled, I believe, for April 27 at Meadowview Community Church. The lineup of speakers includes a pair of foster parents and their foster child, Bill Neaves of the Dan Fox Foster Care and Adoption Program at Youth Homes, two professors from the university and Missoula Mayor John Engen.

I’ll post more details as they become available.

- MM

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Tristan Scott’s story about Montana’s poor rating (as in, scoring zero out of 140 points) when it comes to oversight of child care facilities in this state was certainly an eye-opener for me. I realize that my family has been blessed to find child care providers who went above and beyond the minimal requirements.

That much has been apparent since I first began the search for an in-home day care that would best meet my daughter’s needs more than four years ago. I got a list of providers from Child Care Resources, drove by most of them, called only a few and visited only two in person. The personal visits were enough to convince me which place was perfect for my little girl – but a few of the drive-bys left me wondering how desperate some parents must be for child care.

In any case, as CCR’s Kelly Rosenleaf notes in the story, regardless of how comfortable you are with your current child care provider, it’s important to have that talk about privacy and appropriate touching with your child.

I think it’s also clear that some changes need to be made in Montana’s system of child care regulation. With a “zero” score, we’ve really got nowhere to go but up.

- MM

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Yesterday Missoulian business reporter Betsy Cohen forwarded an e-mail noting that the founder of a natural cloth diaper business had been named Montana Small Business Person of the Year.

The Small Business Administration picked Bozeman’s Kim Ormsby, chief executive officer of the Natural Baby Company, in recognition of her ability to capitalize on the growing eco-friendly baby products market and expand her small online retail store into “a multi-million dollar brand with retailers in over 20 countries.”

The e-mail says that in just two years, the company grew by 250 percent and expanded its retailed base by 1,000 percent in 2009 alone – spurred on in large part by the growing demand for economical and natural alternatives to disposal diapers.

According to the note:

•    The average child uses about 6,000 disposable diapers in two years.

•    At 25 cents a diaper this can add up to between $1,600 and $2,000.

VS.

•    The average Gro Baby (a brand of cloth diaper sold by the Natural Baby Company) uses 24 cloth shells and 24 soaker pads in 2 years

•    The average Gro Baby parent spends around $455 in 2 years, or just $20 a month on diapers

•    Using Gro Baby diapers instead of disposables can save parents over $1,000 in 2 years!

•    There are currently about 9.5 million children under 2 and in diapers, 7.5% of those babies are in cloth diapers and 92.5% in disposable diapers. If families using disposables switched cloth diapers they would save over $6 billion total.

Ormsby will be going to Washington, D.C. in May to accept her award, along with the winners from other states, at the SBA’s annual National Small Business Week event. 

“I am extremely honored to be named the U.S. Small Business Administration’s 2010 Montana Small Business Person of the Year,” Ormsby said in a prepared statement. “What’s most thrilling is that amongst the financial and corporate companies that are making great contributions to our economy, the SBA is honoring a product line in such a niche, but essential category and is highlighting the position our industry holds as a significant part of this nations success.”

Congratulations to Kim Ormsby, Montana’s top “mompreneur”!

- MM

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On Saturday, tomorrow, Child Care Resources is hosting its 3rd annual Parade of Child Care Providers. Seven “high-quality child care facilities” in Missoula will be open for visiting from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

The parade is timely for two reasons: One, school is going to be letting out for the summer very soon, and a lot of parents need to start lining up child care arrangements now. Second, Missoulian reporter Tristan Scott informed me yesterday that he’s working on a story about child care regulation and oversight. Watch for it in an upcoming edition of the Missoulian!

For information and a map of the child care tour, go to http://www.missoula.com/childcare/.

- MM

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Monana’s Attorney General, Steve Bullock, was scheduled to do this a while back but unexpected emergencies delayed the awards. The awards? Yeah, for “Outstanding Mentor of the Year,” a new recognition created just this year “as a way to recognize outstanding individuals who have made a positive difference in the lives of children.”

At a ceremony today at the Russell Elementary School Library, he honored Missoula’s own Del Key, who joined Butte college student Cory Sonnemann in being the first two Montanans to receive the new award. I guess the award-givers couldn’t decide between the two, and so had to award them both.

Key, who is retired, is well-known at Russell, where he has been an after-school volunteer for several years.

Congrats to both, and special congratulations to the kids who are lucky enough to have these mentors in their lives!

- MM

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