The Heart of Childcare: Mariana’s Journey from Mom to Entrepreneur

Intro  

Welcome to another edition of inspired stories where leaders share their experiences so we can learn from their successes, how they’ve overcome adversity, and explore current challenges they’re facing.

Anthony Codispoti (06:14.446)
Welcome to another edition of the Inspired Stories podcast, where leaders share their experiences so we can learn from their successes and be inspired by how they’ve overcome adversity. My name is Anthony Codispodi and today’s guest is Mariana Perez -Pena -Flores. She is the oldest child of a garbage truck driver and a nurse. She raised her four kids with a philosophy of respect, accountability, and honor. She started her first childcare business in 2003 with six children.

And today she is the proud owner of A to Z Learning Center, which has two childcare centers in San Antonio, Texas, and possibly a third location by the end of the year. Their website is a the number two zlearningcenters .com, a to zlearningcenters .com. They believe that every child deserves a quality education, regardless of means. Their approach is to provide a safe, nurturing and stimulating environment that promotes learning, growth and development.

They offer a diverse and inclusive program that caters to the unique needs of each child. And they are dedicated to fostering a love of learning in every child that walks through their doors. They are family owned and operated and their roots run deep in the community. They go beyond traditional childcare by offering a nurturing environment that extends into the evening hours and even offers a nutritious dinner. Now, before we get into all that good stuff, today’s episode is brought to you by my company, Ad Back Benefits Agency.

Mariana Perez Pena-Flores (07:15.131)
All right.

Mariana Perez Pena-Flores (07:20.153)
So, I’m going take one more.

Anthony Codispoti (07:42.51)
where we offer very specific and unique employee benefits that are both great for your team and fiscally optimized for your bottom line. One recent client was able to add over $900 per employee per year in extra cashflow by implementing our program. Results vary for each company and some organizations may not be eligible. To find out if your company qualifies, contact us today at addbackbenefitsagency .com. Now, back to our guest today, the founder of A to Z Learning Center, Mariana.

I appreciate you making the time to share your story today.

Mariana Perez Pena-Flores (08:14.233)
Thank you, I’m excited to be here.

Anthony Codispoti (08:16.47)
Okay, so let’s go back to the beginning. What was the inspiration behind first starting your child care center?

Mariana Perez Pena-Flores (08:23.247)
I had my eldest daughter, put her in daycare, and had more separation anxiety than she did. So I would go into work late every morning, take a long lunch to visit her at daycare, and then leave as early as I possibly could. When I was pregnant with my second daughter, I decided that I didn’t want to go through that again.

So I took a severance package from the company that I was working with and decided to stay home. Unfortunately, our family was used to the double income, so it was a struggle. And by the grace of God, we lived literally across the street from an elementary school, a middle school and high school. My sister had been working in child care and had been doing it since she was 18.

So her, my husband and I had a conversation about wouldn’t it be cool to open a daycare center in our home. And we had the perfect clientele. I really didn’t expect to like it as much as I did. I intentionally opened in the summer thinking I wouldn’t get that many kids in. I would say I tried really hard at it, but it was just not for me. I didn’t.

think that people needed care during the summer for their children. So within the first three months we were full and I ended up falling in love with it.

Anthony Codispoti (10:03.288)
So that first summer, it sounds like you were hoping this wouldn’t work, somewhat trying to sabotage the idea. So you could say you gave it a try and it didn’t go, right? That’s why you open. Yeah.

Mariana Perez Pena-Flores (10:09.273)
Thanks

Mariana Perez Pena-Flores (10:16.029)
I really did. I really did. I was like, I’m not going to want to raise other people’s children. I’m not going to be good at it. What if I offend somebody? What if they don’t like the way we do things? I didn’t want to be accountable for making a mistake or, you know, offending somebody. So I was like, but I’m excited to stay home with my own kids. So it’s a win -win situation.

But the more children that came in and getting to know their families, I fell in love with it.

Anthony Codispoti (10:51.99)
What did you love the most?

Mariana Perez Pena-Flores (10:54.859)
The experiences that we had with the kids. Being at home with my two girls, I was like, I’m going to be able to go to the park, I’m going to go to the zoo, we’re going to go on family outings. And now I had a couple of other children with me and thank God I had my sister too, Amlupitha, because I was able to still do those things that I wanted to do with her by my side.

So we were able to still go on the outings, go on the nature walks, visit the zoo. We are lucky to have Fiesta Texas theme park here in San Antonio and SeaWorld. So we did all those things, but the idea that the parents were like, sure, go ahead, take them, I trust you. my gosh, that’s something I wouldn’t be able to do.

And the thing that touched my heart most was some of the parents were like, I really can’t afford it. And their children were under the age that we could go in for free. So I was like, don’t worry about it. You know, we’re gonna be real careful. This is the time we’re gonna leave. This is the time we’re gonna get back. And it worked. It was great. It worked.

Anthony Codispoti (12:06.638)
And so how did you fill up so quickly? were you finding these students, these children?

Mariana Perez Pena-Flores (12:13.559)
Word of mouth. It was all word of mouth. I started off with my husband’s niece and one teacher across the streets who was doing summer school and from there it just grew.

Anthony Codispoti (12:29.1)
And so how long were you running it out of your home before you decided to open up a standalone center?

Mariana Perez Pena-Flores (12:36.687)
I actually did it from 2003 until 2008. In 2008, I had an amazing licensing rep who said, you’re always full, you have this space, why don’t you apply for rezoning with the city of San Antonio and open up a full daycare center? So our home literally became a daycare center.

The first year that we did it was really hard sharing our living space with four other children. And my husband was wonderful enough and I tugged hard enough too to convince him to add some square footage to our house. So when we rezoned, half of our house was the daycare center and the other half was our home.

Anthony Codispoti (13:31.862)
And so how long did you continue to operate it out of your home before you took the next step?

Mariana Perez Pena-Flores (13:32.409)
Thanks

Mariana Perez Pena-Flores (13:39.119)
We operated it out of our home till 2012, 2013. We ended up getting so big that we needed the rooms, the square footage. So we bought another house and the whole house became a daycare center. And at that time I was able to get a second and a third facility.

Anthony Codispoti (14:09.048)
So you were up to three facilities at one point and then did you have to close one or more facilities maybe during COVID?

Mariana Perez Pena-Flores (14:16.143)
No, actually it happened in 2014. 2016, I’m sorry. I had to close one facility. We were leasing some space out of a church and I didn’t know my guidelines for this state. So whenever you renovate a space or you’re bringing it up to code, you only get 90 days to do so.

I didn’t do my research, so that was totally on me and I didn’t communicate it with the church either. So they were working on the plumbing and the HVAC system. It was the whole church that was being done. The 90 days expired on us, so I was forced to go out and turn in the license and I was down to two centers. It was, but at the time we made it work.

Anthony Codispoti (15:09.004)
Hmm, that’s frustrating.

Mariana Perez Pena-Flores (15:16.143)
At that time, we added more square footage to our home, so we were able to actually move the children over. The advantage that I have is my facilities are literally seven to 10 minutes away from each other, so we were able to accommodate the parents that we had and it wasn’t too much of a disruption or an inconvenience.

Anthony Codispoti (15:39.246)
Okay. And so what does it look like now? You’ve got two centers now. Is one of them still in your home? Okay. One of them is in your home and the other one is the other location that’s seven to 10 minutes away. Okay. And there are plans, thoughts about a third facility?

Mariana Perez Pena-Flores (15:46.083)
Yes.

Mariana Perez Pena-Flores (15:52.783)
Yes. Yes, I’m actually working with another church that I’ve had a relationship with for going on 10 years. They had a school and a daycare center during COVID it closed. So I’m going to be going into their facility.

Anthony Codispoti (16:14.591)
What’s the timeline for that?

Mariana Perez Pena-Flores (16:16.655)
Hopefully by January. So December, January.

Anthony Codispoti (16:18.922)
Okay, that’s exciting. And so what is happening right now? You need to get a new license. You need to do some refurbishing of the place.

Mariana Perez Pena-Flores (16:29.743)
We need to get the properties rezoned by the city of San Antonio. The church is actually working on that. Once that is taken care of, then we’ll go into our licensing application. The application takes on average about 45 days. Within that time, I need to make sure we have our CFO, our health permit, and our fire inspection. Our CFO, our certificate of occupancy.

Anthony Codispoti (16:54.722)
What was the first thing you mentioned? Your C.

Anthony Codispoti (16:59.638)
Okay. And so how far is this location from the other two?

Mariana Perez Pena-Flores (17:05.583)
It’s about seven minutes away from the second location and 15 minutes away from the first location.

Anthony Codispoti (17:13.346)
That makes it easier for you to kind of get around and be able to visit all of them when you need to.

Mariana Perez Pena-Flores (17:18.519)
does. The other thing is I intentionally focus on Title I areas. So Title I is what our school districts label as low -income at -risk families. So I look to go into those communities that I can service that I can have an impact on.

Anthony Codispoti (17:41.452)
Why is that so important to you?

Mariana Perez Pena-Flores (17:44.225)
Because they’re the ones that need us. I use my children as an example of what they can one day accomplish or one day be. Everybody assumed that being that I was a business owner for daycares, my kids were automatically, that was their destiny, that was their fate, it was said and done. My oldest daughter lives in New York City.

Right now she’s working with a school, but her ambition actually is to go into finance. She’s a math whiz. My second oldest is going to be graduating from school this year and she is actually a construction project manager. So she’s in the construction field. My third oldest, my son is going to school. He’s in his junior year.

He would like to be a mariachi director. He actually is studying to be a teacher for music, but he specifies and focuses on mariachi music. And my youngest is in her senior year of school. She is part of the leadership for their junior ROTC program. She would like to go into linguistics.

And her goal is to work for the FBI and travel the world.

Anthony Codispoti (19:13.238)
Wow, that was a whole lot of proud mama moments there. And you give a lot of credit to where they are and the positive trajectory that they’re headed on because of what you were able to provide them at such an early age, right? And that’s what you want to be able to provide to other kids.

Mariana Perez Pena-Flores (19:17.132)
Yes.

Mariana Perez Pena-Flores (19:30.433)
me

Exactly. We figured out what they were interested in. I had an aha moment about three weeks ago. I was talking to all four of them. We were talking about how competitive they are with each other. And I was like, guys, I taught you to be competitive. I really taught them to be competitive. We are a sports family.

I would tease them and tell them second place was first place loser, which was not a good thing, I admit, but it was fun. It was kind of like you do your best 110 % all the time. So I told them, I’ve taught you guys to strive and give 100 % for anything and everything that you do. We don’t halfway anything. But why are you guys so competitive with each other? And they were like, mom, you set the foundation for that.

It’s not only about what we do in everyday world, but it’s a part of our lives. It’s who we are. And I thought, wow, I think I kind of messed up on that one. But at the same time, they said, you never, even though you exposed us all to the same thing, you never said, you all have to do this. It was kind of like, what are you interested? What do you want to do? And I think a lot of times parents forget

look at what they’re playing with, look at what they’re pretending to do, look at what draws their interest, look at what they take their time with. Yes, there’s outlets for them to do other things like they might not be, you know, set off for the Olympics in volleyball or in baseball, professionals, but that’s a good outlet. What do they really want to do? And I think we forget that. So when I

Mariana Perez Pena-Flores (21:29.583)
Ask the kids in our program, especially the 8 to 13 year olds, what you want to do? What are your goals? What are you looking forward to when you get older? I want them to list that. I want them to focus on it. I want them to think about it. Because at the end of the day, they’re the ones that are going to determine when and how they get that. It’s not going to be their parents. It’s going to be them. And that’s where the accountability comes in.

the decisions that you make, the choices that you have, that’s going to get you there. But what are you going to do to get there?

Anthony Codispoti (22:06.478)
So how can you, as a child care provider, start to instill some of that thinking, some of those values in really young children in these very formative young years?

Mariana Perez Pena-Flores (22:22.105)
We’re not allowed to say I can’t at the daycare center. It’s considered a bad word. We can say, I’m trying to figure it out. I’m gonna try to do it. It’s difficult right now. Or.

Mariana Perez Pena-Flores (22:43.716)
I’m practicing it. But we cannot say I cannot. Because there’s nothing we physically, mentally, emotionally cannot do. We’re the drivers of our destiny, of our fate, of our future. But it’s…

Get sad, get overwhelmed, get frustrated, dust yourself off, take a breath, it was a bad moment, and then keep moving forward.

Anthony Codispoti (23:14.958)
So I want to better understand Title I areas. These sound like lower income areas, probably folks that would have trouble financially affording or accessing childcare. How are you able to make this extremely valuable and needed service available to them?

Mariana Perez Pena-Flores (23:37.185)
A lot of our families qualify for subsidized child care. The ones that don’t, child care is expensive now, and I’m not gonna lie, it’s very expensive. But what I do is I have my own tuition assistance program that we use for our families because I am a Texas Rising Star, four star center.

It allows me to get the maximum rate back from our city and other programs for childcare, the subsidized program. But when I became a four star program, I didn’t anticipate it putting me out of reach for the families that I was targeting. I was always that middle -class family where we didn’t qualify because we

My husband made too much money when we were just had his income alone. But at the same time, we didn’t, we couldn’t afford to send them to a private childcare center. So we were kind of stuck in the middle. And that was what was happening now. Once I became a four star center, those families that didn’t qualify for subsidized care, couldn’t afford to be in our program.

So I needed to figure some way out to still be able to get them what they wanted as long as I was within their comfort level for affordable child care, in all honesty.

Anthony Codispoti (25:19.286)
And so how were you able to do that? How were you able to offer some of your own, I forget the term that you use, but basically your own subsidy or your own payment support?

Mariana Perez Pena-Flores (25:30.063)
I call it a tuition assistance. So I use some of the funds to reinvest in our program. I use the funds to make sure that our teachers are covered. And then rather than taking that profit, I use 30 % of those funds and I use it for tuition assistance.

Anthony Codispoti (25:32.494)
and assistance.

Anthony Codispoti (25:52.726)
Wow, that’s incredibly generous.

Mariana Perez Pena-Flores (25:57.109)
Yes, but if I didn’t do that, I wouldn’t be able to have the experiences that I have with these children. That was my goal. That was my drive in. That’s the only way I’m going to be able to still do what I intended to do.

Anthony Codispoti (26:15.884)
So your goals for growth are perhaps maybe not as much about increased profit, but more about how can you provide the kind of support to more kids that’s needed, especially in these lower income areas? Like how can you reach the greatest number of children and make the biggest impact?

Mariana Perez Pena-Flores (26:34.625)
Yes.

Mariana Perez Pena-Flores (26:38.775)
Exactly. That’s what I like to do. You hear so much about the generation today, the kids in school, we lack manners, we’re egocentric. It’s all about them. We’ve got our faces in our tablets, in our cell phones, on the computer. And for it.

8 to 10 hours a day I have them in my care and for 8 to 10 hours we’re technology limited facility. There are no televisions, there’s no computers, there’s no laptops, there’s no iPads, there’s no cell phones. We’re there for the experience. I want them to play, I want them to

Discover I want them to imagine I want them to use their minds but more importantly I want them to engage and interact not only with each other but with adults I’m Probably crossing the line, but I I want to be able to say this is how you talk to somebody respectfully This is how you engage with them. This is how you ask for something. This is how you’re humble. This is how you’re gracious These are manners

And I don’t think there’s a foundation for it in the schools. They’re already overwhelmed with, you know, not having enough staff and then having children from all different ages. So at least for the time that I have them in our care, that’s one of the foundations that we focus on.

Anthony Codispoti (28:20.386)
Talk to me more about what goes on there day to day, like what the curriculum’s like. I get this sense of, or I understand what you’re doing with teaching sort of the foundation of manners and how to treat other people. Let’s hear more about that and sort of like what else is involved in the curriculum.

Mariana Perez Pena-Flores (28:40.175)
The biggest focus that we have is ironically not reading and writing. It’s more of the social interaction and the emotional impact for the kids. So we focus more on how they interact with each other and how they self -regulate.

because there’s a lot of frustration, lot of getting overwhelmed and not knowing how to communicate it. For a lot of kids, it’s throwing toys on the floor, dropping and crying in frustration, yelling. But when you start to teach them problem solving skills of, okay, this, you’re having a moment, it’s not that big a deal.

Express it the way you need to express it when you’re done. We’ll talk about different options that you have So yes, I know you’re gonna knock the toys off the table and that’s okay You’re gonna do that but once you’re done and you calm down you’re gonna put those items back on the table and Then you’re gonna think instead of throwing the toys off the table. What could I have done differently? Could I have said I’m angry? Give me a minute

I need to be alone or I’m frustrated. I really want that toy now. Is there something else I can play with or just, you know, I’m having a bad morning. I need a minute. So we start off at a very young age once they can start talking, just talking about, you know, the understanding of it’s a moment. It’s not your whole day. It’s a minute in time.

The ugly comes out of us and it’s okay because we’re human and it’s going to happen. But once it’s over, what do we do to keep going forward? Our discipline philosophy is a little different. We have calming corners and calming areas. Everybody’s using that now. That’s what we’re using for self -regulation. But we also have the children go and touch a wall. And even at the age of two,

Mariana Perez Pena-Flores (30:54.031)
counting with them and breathing counting to 10, 1, 2, 3 and so on and once they get to 10 we tell them okay it’s in the past we’re going to start new and we’re going to keep going forward because there’s nothing we can do to change how they acted or how they reacted the only thing we can do is give them the options of what they can possibly choose to do next time going forward

Anthony Codispoti (31:23.33)
What’s the touching the wall part of it? What does that do?

Mariana Perez Pena-Flores (31:23.951)
Because it offers more senses so I Found that not only are they breathing not only are they focusing by counting but they’re actually Involving touch now, so they’re touching the wall just to kind of press on it and it kind of Helps them soothe they’re focusing on that sense of touch Focusing on counting and breathing and then we kind of move on

Anthony Codispoti (31:53.08)
You know, one thing I’m curious about is you’ve got two centers very close to each other and a third one coming all in the same geography. Do you have any concerns about being sort of oversaturated or do you think the demand is there for what you’re?

Mariana Perez Pena-Flores (32:08.643)
think the demand is there for what we’re offering. I think my biggest fear is being stretched too thin. It’s a philosophy that I have. It’s one that I really push on practicing with the teachers. It’s really easy to come in and teach somebody how to be that way, but it takes practice before somebody’s really good at the technique.

or identifying a child before they trigger or that they’re going to trigger. So I think right now my biggest fear is being stretched a little thin between the three locations.

Anthony Codispoti (32:49.824)
When you say stretch thin, you mean from like a management perspective, being able to staff and train the folks, the workers there appropriately.

Mariana Perez Pena-Flores (32:58.389)
Yes, I’m a little bit of a control freak. I’m not going to lie. So I always want to be there. And I try my best to be at both facilities right now. But having a third one, I think that’s my biggest fear is not being able to keep give each facility the attention that I need to. I am working with both of my sisters right now on teaching them.

you know, what we’re doing, how we do it. My husband helps out as much as I can pull him away from his work to do it too. But that’s the goal is making sure that philosophy is spread out there. So if I do want multiple locations, I know I can’t do this all myself. I’m going to need a community.

Anthony Codispoti (33:51.424)
Let’s talk about this control freak part of your personality right now, because, you know, it’s interesting is I’ve interviewed lots of business owners. You kind of have one role when you’re in startup mode, right? When you had the just in your home without expanding your home, you had six kids, you’ve got your hands on everything, right? You’re doing all parts of the operation. And now it expands, you know, first in your home and then to a second center. And now with a third center.

the role that you have to play shifts a bit, right? Have you noticed that? What have you noticed are the big changes?

Mariana Perez Pena-Flores (34:25.619)
Yes. I… The biggest change is I don’t have a classroom to myself. And I miss that. I like being in the classroom with the kids. If I’m having a hard day, if I’m just overwhelmed, if I need to just kind of calm down, I like to take over a classroom. It just, for some reason, the kids just really calm and comfort me.

Anthony Codispoti (34:53.206)
You and I are wired very differently, Marianna, and I love that because we need more people like you. I’m sorry, go ahead.

Mariana Perez Pena-Flores (34:55.331)
You

Mariana Perez Pena-Flores (34:59.823)
So my favorite classroom is actually the toddlers. Some people refer to them as the terrible twos. I love them. I like that look at what I did aha moment. Look I figured this out or that’s amazing. So I love two -year -olds. They’re a little more trying. They’re a little more egocentric but at the same time you can’t get away from that aha moment. So

I love them. Now that I’m in the role where I’m out of expanding, I don’t get to be in the classroom as much as I want. And I think that’s the hardest part of letting go, is not having the classroom to myself. And I’m very hands on, so I like talking to the parents. I like knowing all the kids’ names, trying to know what all their interest is, trying to figure out what upsets them and what

excites them. So that’s I think the hardest part is not being able to have that bond the way I want it. I feel like I’m limited in that. The paperwork, it’s not my cup of tea. It never really has been. So I’ve always found somebody who will handle the paperwork part for me. I will go back and review it. So it’s my my job to

Audit it and make sure it’s where it needs to be, but to organize it and put it together, I’ll let somebody else who’s good at that do that.

Anthony Codispoti (36:36.684)
That’s the beauty of delegation, right? Figuring out the parts that you love, the parts that you’re not as naturally inclined to and yeah, being able to focus your energies in the right place.

Mariana Perez Pena-Flores (36:39.341)
Yes.

Mariana Perez Pena-Flores (36:46.419)
And I think finding a team and identifying what they’re good at and then drawing on their strengths as well. I get distracted very quickly and I recognize that. That’s probably why I bond with two year olds as much as I do. I get distracted very quickly. But I know people who are like really focused on certain things.

I have Miss Naomi at Center number three who is amazing and I can tell her, know, I have a vision of a theme and I just explained a couple of details and she runs with it. And then I have my sister Lisa who is amazing at organizing and paperwork and she does an amazing job of making sure the paperwork at both facilities is down pat. And then I have teachers like

Miss Marisela, Miss Renita, Miss Yvonne who are just really good at bonding with the kids and teaching them and you know figuring out what tools they need to use not toys, tools that they need to use to get the kids interested in reading or doing math. It’s not always a worksheet or a handout in front of you. Sometimes it’s kind of like I don’t want to count.

And she’s like, okay, but you know what? I got this awesome box of trucks and I know you love trucks. Can you help me make sure we know how many we have? And boom, they’re counting. So you have to look for the right support team to help you and draw from their strengths in order to make the system work.

Anthony Codispoti (38:28.126)
Let’s talk about your support team because you know so many business owners that I talked to It’s hard to find and then to retain, you really good folks I’m curious what you’ve tried in the past and what you found is working

Mariana Perez Pena-Flores (38:44.768)
What I found is working is Letting them know from the beginning What I am upfront I let them know from the beginning. I am a control freak. I Do have a little OCD of certain things and I asked for their forgiveness in advance. I like puzzles and I mean I like puzzles so I

Anthony Codispoti (39:09.061)
We talking like jigsaw puzzles or? Okay.

Mariana Perez Pena-Flores (39:11.183)
I’m yes, jigsaw puzzles. So I like them because they’re a good foundation for math skills and problem solving skills. So from the time they’re babies on up to 13, we have puzzles everywhere. If there’s a piece missing, the day does not end until we find that missing piece. And both facilities, the teachers understand that. I am a math person, so they’re going to hear about math in every single aspect.

that I can throw it in for their day, for their environment, for the way they teach. I also let them know that I’m very protective of the kids that we have. So for that moment of time that the parents trust their children to be with us, I’m gonna look at how they’re treated, how we talk to them, how we interact with them, if we’re bonding with them. I’m gonna pay attention to that. So I let them know upfront.

there’s certain things that I am

Mariana Perez Pena-Flores (40:15.009)
a little specific about and that they’re going to hear about and then the goals that I have and I let them know upfront you’re either with us or this is just a job for you. If this is just a job where you’re looking for a paycheck this is not the place for you to be. If you’re here because you want to change a life, have an impact of a life, touch a child then and be you know part of who they are for the rest of their lives.

Anthony Codispoti (40:25.987)
Yeah.

Mariana Perez Pena-Flores (40:43.307)
then this is the place you need to be. But if you’re looking to, you know, make a paycheck, this is not the place.

Anthony Codispoti (40:54.729)
And that really helps to filter out the folks that probably aren’t a good fit for you.

Mariana Perez Pena-Flores (40:58.687)
Learned that I needed to because before I was trying to sell myself up I’m very flexible. We’re all a team family comes first philosophy. That was great, but It was bringing in people that I felt I was taking care of more Then they were taking care of the daycare kids. So I actually went to a training and I learned

22 years later, I learned that as much as, you know what, it really isn’t. It really had a change on my philosophy. But I thought I was bad or wrong for focusing so much on.

Anthony Codispoti (41:31.168)
It’s never too late, right, Mariana?

Mariana Perez Pena-Flores (41:47.604)
what they brought to the facility and then I realized it’s about how valuable somebody is to your program. Not the value your program has on that staff person, but how much value they bring into your program. So if I’m constantly fixing things for them, if I am constantly finding I have to go in and take over the class, or you know they’re calling out a lot, or I’m having to apologize to a parent,

for situation, they’re not only taking value away from my program, but they’re taking value away from me. Because instead of doing something else, I’m fixing something now. And that’s not gonna work. I need things to run as smooth as possible. Are we gonna have hiccups? Yes. Are we gonna have perfect days? We’re gonna try our best to. Not every day’s gonna be perfect. But at the same time, that’s always the ultimate goal.

Anthony Codispoti (42:44.654)
I want to talk about the parents a little bit. I’m curious, what are some of the common concerns that parents have when starting their kids in a new childcare center like yours, and what can you tell them to help put their minds at ease?

Mariana Perez Pena-Flores (42:58.707)
The biggest concern they have is men in child care. Because I am family -based, my husband is there, my son is there, my daughter’s boyfriend is there.

I do have, I have had my…

co -workers nephews work there and That’s the biggest and the saddest concern that there is me has They don’t realize how much Men have a good positive influence on their children Especially when some of these families don’t have a positive male figure in their life So

Anthony Codispoti (43:46.83)
That’s a good point.

Mariana Perez Pena-Flores (43:51.043)
think that’s the biggest concern that they had. The other one is, do we have cameras in the facility? I do not have cameras in my facility. And the reason being is, not everybody is comfortable with having their child on video for other parents to observe. Some parents still have privacy concerns. Some children cannot be videotaped or photographed. And for that reason,

Anthony Codispoti (44:10.509)
Yeah.

Mariana Perez Pena-Flores (44:21.089)
I don’t want to keep my facility from being able to service these children as well. We do work with children that are in foster care. We do work with the battered women’s shelter here. We do have families for whatever reason do not want their children videotaped or photographed. So for their privacy and out of respect for them.

and every other child who doesn’t get to make the decision for themselves of whether they want to be videotaped or photographed, I just don’t have it out there.

Anthony Codispoti (44:52.014)
Hmm. You know, interesting point you make about the concern of men in the childcare center. My boys are eight and 10 now, so it’s been a few years, but they were in a local childcare center here. That was amazing. We got to know the owners pretty well, and we really enjoyed the experience. But I do remember, you know, walking into a couple of classrooms for the first time and seeing men providing the service. And it was, it was a moment of pause for me.

It’s like, well, that’s a little unusual. Let me get to know this person and, you know, have a little chat. And, and they were some of the greatest care providers in the facility. my kids still talk about, Mr. Jared, the nature guy, cause he, he brought in animals and he did like little skits with his guitar and it’s, and sung about nature. And, he was a big hit with all the kids, but, so even as a guy, like I kind of get that. It’s like, that’s a little bit.

Mariana Perez Pena-Flores (45:24.547)
Thank

Mariana Perez Pena-Flores (45:45.377)
I am not a person is a human being. I am not a human being who is a human being.

Anthony Codispoti (45:50.356)
unusual. But to your point, like what a great thing to be able to put like a good male figure role model into these young kids lives who might not have that in their home environment.

Mariana Perez Pena-Flores (45:56.324)
Thanks.

Mariana Perez Pena-Flores (46:06.615)
And the other thing about it is these men don’t leave them. My son goes to college every year and comes back and they look forward to it. is Mr. Vicente gonna be here for Christmas break? Is Mr. Vicente coming for the summer? This year he was gone for a little bit for a band program and they were so excited for him.

and excited with him and he was like, wow, you know, if you’re in band in middle school and high school, one day you could do this and it’s really exciting and fun. And you know, my husband is a project manager for the state. He works with the environment. And so they’re like, Mr. Rick. And this is what Mr. Rick is known for. Mr. Rick is known for Star Wars.

My husband is a huge Star Wars fan. Have you seen the new episode on the Disney Channel? my god, it’s so great. Do you have any new Legos? We buy him every single Star Wars item there is. So when he comes in with new shirt, they’re all excited to see them. But again, it’s something that he can bond with them about. So if there’s a new Star Wars program or I mean a new Star Wars show or if there’s a

a new Star Wars Lego, the first thing that, when is Mr. Rick coming? When is he gonna be here? Look, I need to tell them what I got or I need to tell them what I saw. So there’s something that they can bond with them about. And like I said, they look forward to it. Plus the most important thing is for some of these children, these men don’t leave their lives. They don’t enter and then disappear. They’re gonna be there. And I think that’s really important as well.

Anthony Codispoti (47:40.717)
Yeah.

Anthony Codispoti (47:56.886)
And it’s great how your husband’s personality really comes out, right?

Mariana Perez Pena-Flores (48:00.907)
Yes, it really does.

Anthony Codispoti (48:03.214)
I’m curious, what advice do you have for parents who maybe are trying to decide between multiple options, different childcare centers?

Mariana Perez Pena-Flores (48:15.523)
Look for a program that puts your child first. Look for a program that is very transparent. When parents ask, know, we’re a facility that uses an app just like most facilities do now. So we tell our parents, we’re going to take a picture of your child in an activity, whether they’re crying or

elated about it. We’re not going to hide anything. You need to know was this a good experience? Was it something they like doing? you know what? They really were uncomfortable doing it. They were like, no, get it away from me. But you need to be transparent. When parents first start their children, I always tell them it’s going to take two to three weeks for them to adjust. If you call and ask, hey, how’s my child doing?

I’m going to tell you whether they’re crying or they’re bonding really quickly. I’m not going to lie to you. Why? Because you need to know not only how we’re meshing with them, but how they’re meshing with us. Not every program is going to be the right program for your child. And you need to look at those cues. The other thing is making sure that you have a bond with not only the owner or the director,

but with the teacher as well. Because the teacher is the one who’s going to bond with your child, the teacher is the one who’s going to communicate with you, and the teacher is the one who, in a sense, is helping you raise your child.

Anthony Codispoti (49:56.524)
That’s good advice. I’m curious to hear maybe like a particular success story of a child in your center. Maybe it was a kid who was struggling a bit when he or she first came in and you guys were really able to make a big impact.

Mariana Perez Pena-Flores (50:15.587)
don’t think we made a big impact on him as much as he made an impact on us.

He required a little more attention. He was nonverbal when he came to us. Had been kicked out a couple of centers because he was just a little more rambunctious and he stole my heart. He just had a different way of communicating with people and a different way of interacting.

But once we found what he was interested in, it was amazing. And I always tell people, I don’t take children out of our program. I never fire a child. I look to see how we can change their lives, but at the end of the day, it’s how they change ours.

And he made me look at children in a very different way because the first day he got there, we were strangers. And that’s the one thing I think that we forget sometimes is we’re strangers. So his mom dropped him off. We put him in a classroom. The classroom was a little overwhelming for him with all the stuff that we had posted in all the toys that he wanted to touch and experience everything.

And in a matter of 10 minutes, he ran back to that room. And I mean, emptied out every container, spread the toys all over the place, was taking toys from children. It was just, it was a hot mess. It was bad to the point where my teacher cried because her room was literally destroyed. Once we both kind of got past it, we thought,

Anthony Codispoti (52:08.492)
A real tornado.

Mariana Perez Pena-Flores (52:22.323)
what happened, what was different. And then that aha moment came. She said, at one point, I was really scared because I didn’t know what to do. And I was like, you know what? So was I because I didn’t know how to comfort him or how to even respond to him. And then we both looked at each other and thought, probably was scared too. And we didn’t even think about that. So now we ask parents.

bring them in, please understand we’re strangers just like they’re strangers to us. Give us time to get to know each other but any information you can give us would be really really helpful because he’s the one who turned me on to remembering every time we take our child to school that they passed another grade and there are strangers in their lives.

The teachers is a stranger. Some of their classmates are strangers. Administration is strangers. And we forget that as exciting as a time that is, it’s gotta be a very scary and overwhelming time. And we forget that. They’re just kids.

Anthony Codispoti (53:37.816)
That’s a really powerful lesson. I’m glad you brought that up because like there was just this chaotic moment, right? This real like typhoon of a child just sort of tearing the room apart, don’t know what to do. You were actually frightened of this little person and then it dawns on you. Like, well, of course, you know, everybody shows their emotions in slightly different ways. And this child was just scared. And that was how it was coming out.

of his body. That’s how his central nervous system was communicating it. And so when you recognize that, what you go and give the guy hug, like, like, what’s, what’s the, what’s the approach?

Mariana Perez Pena-Flores (54:19.035)
We ask, do you need a hug? Do you need a moment? Do you want to be by yourself? Because even a baby will let you know. It’s like, can I hold you? And if they’re wiggly, no, they don’t want to be held. Just give them a minute. I think we forget that. We need to ask permission as much as we expect children to ask.

know what do you want what do you need sometimes it’s a toy sometimes it’s a blanket sometimes you know it’s just letting them go through their emotions and then when they’re done it’ll be okay i tease everybody that sometimes we forget kids need to go through their emotions and go through all of them because if we keep interrupting them

We’re hitting the start button and they’re starting all over again from the beginning. Sometimes you need to let them process through all the phases and then once they’re done, then they’re done. But we don’t give them room to do that because we’re always like, settle down, quiet down, calm down, and we forget, I can’t.

Anthony Codispoti (55:30.69)
You know, two really powerful lessons there that are great reminders for me as a father of two young boys. and something that, been talking with my wife quite a bit about, you know, the first one is when these big feelings come up, my natural instinct is to try to interrupt or redirect that because I think that’ll put them in a better place. And selfishly, like it would put me in a better place to not have sort of this noise and this chaos, but

Mariana Perez Pena-Flores (55:35.535)
Thank you.

Anthony Codispoti (56:00.278)
I’ve begun to realize more and more the importance of letting them feel these really big feelings, only encourage them to come out, rather than trying to hold it back and tamp it down and redirect right away. It’s like, no, get as big as you need to right here and get it out. And then as they’re naturally starting to come down, I like the other thing that you said, which is kind of give them choices. Do you need a blanket?

Mariana Perez Pena-Flores (56:07.31)
Thank

Mariana Perez Pena-Flores (56:20.335)
Bye.

Anthony Codispoti (56:29.87)
hug, do you need some space? My wife and I, you know, did this with my son last night, he was having a rough moment and because he didn’t want to get back to his homework. And so we let him feel the big feelings. And then, you know, when he was sort of settling down a little bit, she’s like, Would you like mom to help you with your homework or dad? Right? It wasn’t a choice of do your homework or not do your homework, but it’s giving him some sense of a choice and control, which it didn’t flip a huge giant switch, but it was a small one.

Mariana Perez Pena-Flores (56:56.441)
Thank

Anthony Codispoti (56:59.054)
because he said, I want mom. And then they did it. And then they did the homework. And so I think those were two great lessons that you pointed out there.

Mariana Perez Pena-Flores (57:07.215)
Yeah. It’s, it’s nice to reflect and think, okay, you know, I’ve learned and this is what we need to start doing going forward. It’s upsetting because again, I have a 24 year old, a 21 year old, a 20 year old and a 17 year old. And I’m like, man, I wish I had known that then. And I’m just figuring it out now.

Anthony Codispoti (57:36.558)
better late than never. And you get to teach it to a whole new generation of kids.

Mariana Perez Pena-Flores (57:38.389)
It.

Exactly, but I think this is what my parents were talking about when I used to go, I don’t understand how you were so hard on us and with the grandkids it’s like you’re telling me I need to be different. I’m using your philosophy. I’m using your your techniques and they’re going they weren’t always right.

And, and that now realizing now I know what they were talking about.

Anthony Codispoti (58:08.94)
Yeah. Mariana, I’m curious to hear about a particular challenge that you experienced either personally or professionally and maybe some of the lessons that you learned coming out the other side.

Mariana Perez Pena-Flores (58:22.287)
I learned that I can overcome or handle anything because I’ve already had at this point the big big bad

experience. So in 2015, my husband had been suffering headaches, was taking Tylenol, thought it was just, you know, we’re getting older, things happen, it’s probably allergies. And it turned out that he had a mass in his brain, he had a cyst. And it wasn’t, you know, something that you hear about or you know about.

This was like one in a million things that he had. And I remember

Mariana Perez Pena-Flores (59:20.163)
I remember taking him to the hospital and them telling me there’s nothing wrong with him, it’s just a headache. And me going, I’ve spent enough time with kids, I’ve spent enough time with therapists to know something’s wrong.

and the doctor telling me you’re really wasting our time for a headache and me going, you’re going to do an MRI and a CAT scan now, or I’m going to raise a fuss. So you can do it professionally and respect my wishes, or I can raise a fuss and you’re going to do it that way. And I’ve always had a big personality when it comes to that.

because my parents weren’t in the best health towards the end of their lives. So I grew up in the hospital knowing, you know, when you had to push your way. They did the MRI and then they put us in a room, had him sitting in a chair and said, okay, well, we’re just waiting for the results and then we’re gonna send you home. And I’m like, okay, you know, you respected my wishes, okay. And then having…

Mariana Perez Pena-Flores (01:00:34.273)
Seven doctors come out and say, we’re so sorry. He has a mass. We’re calling an emergency surgeon in right now. And my world is just turning upside down because to have seven people approach you like that, you know it’s bad. And here I am at the height of my career and I have three daycare centers and the best team possible.

and I’m getting ready to open another one, a bigger one. So I wait for them to get us upstairs and the surgeon on call comes in and says, we’re calling in our best surgeon. This is something that’s very unique. And I’m like, okay, explain it to me. And he’s like, I’m not sure you’re gonna understand. I’m like, my mom was in LVN.

Just tell me I’ll understand it. I also went to school and I liked math and science. So I had an associate’s degree in biology and anatomy. So I understood, know, I knew what they were going to be talking about. And when they explained it, they were like, we’re getting in someone who has experience in this. He can do it. The next morning, the surgeon on the floor comes in and says,

We’re going to have to schedule surgery for him. He’s got swelling of the brain. It’s bad, but we’ve got a couple of days to help drain fluid from his brain and then we can do the surgery. And I’m like, okay, I’m going to tell the family, you know, it’s going to be okay. And then two hours later, the main surgeon, the one that they called in, Dr. Fichtel says, you have to make a decision right now. If I don’t do surgery,

within the next few hours he’s gonna die. And I’m like, okay, then to do the surgery, he’s like, no ma ‘am, you need to understand. When I do this surgery, he still might die. So I need a decision right now. What do you wanna do? And all I thought was, I just told my kids everything was gonna be okay.

Mariana Perez Pena-Flores (01:02:56.907)
So I made a decision not to tell anybody how severe it was because I didn’t want to focus on comforting them. I wanted to make sure I maintained my strength to focus on him. So I said, do the surgery, do whatever you need to do. I’m going to let the family know he’s going to have surgery. And my husband was in and out of consciousness that day.

And just by chance, an hour before he goes into surgery, he’s awake and the most alert he’s been in the last two days. And he says, am I gonna be okay? And I went, of course you are. It’s routine surgery. You don’t have anything to worry about. You’re in good hands. Promise me, and I said, I promise you, you’re gonna be fine.

In the back of my head I’m going please God don’t make a liar out of me and He looks at me and he says no matter what happens Don’t change the routine of the kids Make sure you still focus on them make sure everything that they’re doing stays the same I need them to maintain their routine so that they know everything’s gonna be okay, so I said, okay and thank God

The surgery was a success.

Mariana Perez Pena-Flores (01:04:25.485)
But at that point, my mom was an ovarian cancer survivor.

And the week before this, she had found out her cancer had come back. And it was really hard when she went to chemo for my sisters to be in the room with her and stay positive. And it was hard for my dad to see her to go through it, but it was back. And being that we were in the hospital with my husband, her immune system was going to be weak going through chemo again. So.

I wasn’t going be able to see her this time around. I was going to have to limit my visits because they didn’t want me to expose her or my kids expose her to anything. So in a sense, when I needed my family the most.

had to figure it out because my mom needed them more. And it wasn’t until about six months later that I told my kids, it was really bad. I just didn’t tell you. And my oldest daughters were like, how could you not tell us? And I told them, because if I had told you, I would have had to tell everybody else. And I just didn’t have the strength to comfort everybody else when I needed to be comforted.

So now when hiccups happen or really bad days or I just feel like I’m overwhelmed and the world’s too much, I think back and think we got over the hardest time of our lives. This is nothing compared to what we’ve been through.

Anthony Codispoti (01:06:14.936)
Wow. Marianna, I really appreciate you opening up and, excuse me, sharing all that very powerful story. And what a great lesson that you were able to hold on to coming out the other side of that. Right. You know, we all have hard days, times we feel overwhelmed, like you said, and for you to have sort of this most incredible reference point to say whatever happened today.

an upset parent, a child who had this, an employee who called off it. This is nothing. I have been through, I have climbed far bigger mountains than this. It helps to put things into perspective.

Mariana Perez Pena-Flores (01:06:53.199)
Thank

Mariana Perez Pena-Flores (01:06:58.367)
It really does. And then the sad thing is I would pray not everybody has to experience something like that. But sometimes when you experience things like that, it really makes you not necessarily stronger, but it puts everything in perspective. you know, I tell my kids, I’ve been through hell. I didn’t think I would be able to. I never thought I was strong.

But I’m a lot stronger than what I think I am.

Anthony Codispoti (01:07:34.188)
And I think that’s another important lesson for everybody to hear is that I don’t think any of us give ourselves enough credit for how much inner strength we have. It’s only those moments where you are pushed beyond what you thought were your limits that you discover that true inner strength. You discover a whole new set of limits.

Mariana Perez Pena-Flores (01:07:46.137)
Thank

Anthony Codispoti (01:08:00.876)
Now, Mariana, I just have one more question for you. But before I ask it, I want to do a couple of things. First of all, if you’re listening today and you enjoy today’s content, please hit the like, subscribe or share button. I also want to let people know the best way to get in touch with you, Mariana. What would that be? Somebody’s listening. They’re looking for a child care center. They just they love your story. They want to connect with you.

Mariana Perez Pena-Flores (01:08:02.931)
And

Mariana Perez Pena-Flores (01:08:13.571)
Thank

Mariana Perez Pena-Flores (01:08:21.509)
Thank

Mariana Perez Pena-Flores (01:08:26.901)
email a to z learning at live live .com the number two yes

Anthony Codispoti (01:08:32.716)
And everybody, the two is the numeral two. Don’t spell it out. Eight, say it again then.

Mariana Perez Pena-Flores (01:08:40.191)
A, the number two, the letter Z, learning at live .com.

Anthony Codispoti (01:08:45.624)
Great. So last question I have for you, Mariana, is I’m curious how you see the child care industry near you evolving in the next five years. What do you think the big changes are that are coming?

Mariana Perez Pena-Flores (01:08:58.359)
I’m actually scared for it. I really am. I see a lot more school districts taking in younger and younger children. And some of these kids do not need a large environment like that. I think they need a smaller one. Just because we need more one on one with children. One on one that I know

Anthony Codispoti (01:09:00.087)
Mmm.

Mariana Perez Pena-Flores (01:09:27.947)
Some of these families are not able to provide for their kids. I know here in the state of Texas, if we want to be part of this subsidized care program here, you have to be a Texas Rising Star facility, which means they hold us to, of course, a higher caliber. Unfortunately, a lot of facilities that are what we call mom and pop shops.

like myself, don’t want to do it or don’t have the means to do it. So there are already programs in my community directly around me that are closing their doors. And it makes it scary because now we’re being pushed back to having a friend, a neighbor, a grandparent, an aunt or uncle watch the children.

And I’m not saying that that’s a bad thing because I was that friend in my home watching children. The thing is, I’ve learned in the last 22 years that the minute a baby is born, you now have this little human being who you can start teaching. You know, a couple of hours old babies will mimic you if you open your

mouth open and close, open and close. Eventually they do start mimicking your actions. If you blink your eyes tight and you open them up, they’re babies that will mimic you. So we can start teaching them from the very beginning, but knowing how to do that, how to draw, you know, and hit every teachable moment out there and making it fun and making it positive and

sending the foundation for them to be ready to be in elementary school. You need to know how to do that. And in 22 years, I’m still learning right now. I will tell you, always kid with my kids and tell them I’m Mary Poppins. I’m practically perfect in everything I do. But the practically part means that I’m still learning.

Mariana Perez Pena-Flores (01:11:53.687)
and I still have to be open to learning. And I think that’s the most important thing is, yes, you can, you know, be caring for a child in your home, but do you know what to target? Do you know what to focus? Because let’s face it, we’re in a very scary time right now. My daughter’s a senior in high school and I’m grateful that she’s a senior.

in high school because every day that I send her to school, I pray she comes back to me. I pray something traumatic doesn’t happen at her school. I pray that something bad doesn’t happen in our city, in our country, in the world every day because of all the school incidents that happen. And these kids not only have to be ready to learn,

But they have to be ready for me in case of a traumatic situation happens. It’s one thing to practice a fire drill. It’s another thing to practice an active shooter drill. And that’s what we’re sending our kids to now. We need to help these children not only have a foundation and be prepared to learn, but be strong enough.

Anthony Codispoti (01:12:57.783)
Yeah.

Mariana Perez Pena-Flores (01:13:19.223)
to know what to do and who to trust and where to go and how to react in case something traumatic does happen.

Anthony Codispoti (01:13:29.824)
Mariana, I want to be the first to thank you for sharing both your time and your very powerful story with us today. I really appreciate it.

Mariana Perez Pena-Flores (01:13:37.411)
Thank you.

Anthony Codispoti (01:13:39.064)
Folks, that’s a wrap on another episode of the Inspired Stories podcast. Thanks for learning with us today.