I am Teressa O’Caer, and this is the day that changed my life forever. This is my part of the story of the New Dream.

Until that day I had not thought too much about child care. I had a career that I loved and was still getting used to Eugene, the weather and the tie-dye.

I had no idea that bringing this small new person onto the planet would inspire and motivate me to start a child care center so that he could have the exact kind of care that I wanted for him. Suddenly I had three jobs: my actual day job, the day care, and my family. I was in multi-tasking bliss.

As it turned out, I found a lot of other parents wanted exactly what I wanted for their kids too. Before long my husband and I were operating seven child care centers right here in Eugene.

I learned a lot about the business of creating and providing quality childcare in this unique community of ours. In 1989 we purchased the current site of the New Dream and developed it into a large facility that could hold our seven centers.

Eventually I retired in 2003, read every book I had skipped, and took up training in a new field. And then, in early 2009, I got the amazing opportunity to come back into this field with a whole new dream of what child care could be for the new families walking in the same shoes I had stepped out of years before.

And now, as you already know, it is a whole new world…filled with new opportunities and new problems. Our babies are absorbing technology and corporate logos through their very pores. Food and health issues are suddenly becoming near epidemic. It’s not just more of what we knew before.

However, for some things, the science is in and the studies are on the table. As it turns out, kids need more nature, more real life, more human interaction, less TV, DVDs and computers in order to develop physically, emotionally and cognitively (sounds a little like more fun). They will need better brains, sturdier bodies, emotional resiliency, and community.

As before, I still care passionately about providing the very best for our kids. I also want to find every way possible to support parents who are working and learning and striving to raise the very best kids they can in today’s world.

We do know that your kids will be living in a future world that we can barely imagine today. I believe that together we can be thoughtful and proactive about bringing together the right people and the right stuff to prepare them to thrive and to make the very most of the lives that they will lead.