The recent announcement of a $65,800 21/22 Building Blocks Planning Program is largely due to the young mum’s dedication and is the first concrete step in what will hopefully result in a long daycare, kinder and maternal service built for the town in the not-too-distant future.
For Tenielle and her husband Jye, their own experiences looking for daycare for their two boys Jax, now aged 4, and Tex, 3, were what prompted her to seek a solution.
“In 2020 I started a full-time teaching job with a two- and one-year-old which we were able to manage with family day carers and some help from family and then COVID hit in 2020,” Tenielle said.
“Like many other working parents, we were unable to send our kids to daycare and that is when the real problems started.”
At the end of 2020 they were able to get a live-in au pair to help, but that was not an option for 2021.
After much discussion Jye went part-time to look after the boys a couple of days a week and with the help of family and friends they were able to manage.
“It was a pretty difficult time essentially we had to manage off one wage and it is pretty hard these days to raise a young family that way,” Tenielle said.
She said there was a lot of judgement placed on her because she worked full-time and she had to defend her decision.
“We currently live in a teachers house and because there is a lack of rentals in Cohuna I had no choice but to keep working full time — I also worked very hard to get my teaching degree and I love my job,” Tenielle said.
Lack of day care facilities is not a new issue for Cohuna.
In fact Tenielle has spoken to parents who had tried to get day care operational decades ago.
“It has been a lot of hard work and I can see why people have given up previously, but I just thought someone has to see this through,” Tenielle said.
Initially she set up an online petition, which attracted more than 5000 signatures.
“I knew there were a lot of parents on waiting lists and I also knew of people who were putting off having kids or moving to the town because of a lack of childcare,” she said.
The turning point in the process came when the chief executive officer of Pink and Blue Early Learning Centre reached out.
Tenielle was told the town was not big enough to attract a daycare centre like Pink and Blue, but a community-run model like the one in Barham was definitely an option.
She is working alongside another Cohuna mum, Christine Hill, and two women from the Gannawarra Shire to continue to drive the project forward.
“It has been a lot of hard work and by the time the centre is built my family won’t need to use it, but other families will and that’s why I have decided to continue to keep going,’’ Tenielle said.
“We have the shire on board with us now and we are all working toward the same goal and we are finally starting to get somewhere.”
She said the grant now enabled them to complete a proper viability study along with planning and allows for application to further grants in the future.
“Midway through 2022 we should have a proper plan of what the centre will look like and where it will be located,” Tenielle said.
Meanwhile, Tenielle, like many other Cohuna parents, will spend 2022 juggling daycare for her boys.
She has been lucky enough to get the boys into daycare in Barham, which means plenty of time in the car before and after work, but at least she and Jye can now continue to work full-time.
“I love my boys and I love my job and I know a permanent daycare facility will make things a lot easier for parents in the future,” Tenielle said.
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