For nearly three decades, scores of Platte City area kids

have received daycare and motherly love at

TAMMY'S WORLD

Jeanette Browning

Assistant Editor

After the birth of her son more than 27 years ago, when Platte City resident Tammy Duncan told another young mother she wanted to make mothering her career, the woman laughed.

Today, Duncan has done just that with a successful home-based daycare center called Duncan ’s Daycare — known informally as Tammy’s World.

“I’ve raised a lot of precious babies over the years,” she said, with another of those babies on her hip as she spoke and several toddlers coloring at a nearby table.

The daycare takes up a large addition to her home just south of Platte City off Highway N, as well as another toy-filled playroom just off the family’s living room. In the large back yard, a landscaped playground features more equipment and outdoor toys than many elementary schools.

“When I had my son it was so hard to leave him,” she said of her decision to start her daycare career. “I spent my whole life wanting to be a mom, so that’s what I do now.”

Duncan started out babysitting six children, along with her own children, and later obtained state licensing to handle 10 children all day, with others coming in for before and after school care. She accepts children from birth, and said her oldest charge was a 13-year-old who stayed with her after school. However, her general clientele ranges from birth to age five.

The day starts early when kids are dropped off at a separate entrance at her home and she gets some off to school for the day. After tracking 10 children all day through activities, snacks, lunch and naps, her day doesn’t end until early evening when the last of the children go home.

“Then I clean for a couple of hours,” she laughed. “My daughter always said I could take any child and make it my own. It’s long hours and lots of love, but I couldn’t ask for more.”

Duncan ’s own son and daughter are grown now, and Duncan said she hopes for lots of grandbabies someday. Until then, she is godmother to many of her young charges, and has become part of the extended family for many of her clients.

“I enjoy working with the parents just as much as the children,” she said. “It makes a huge difference, too, to get along with the parents.”

One of those parents is Dana Brunner, whose daughter started attending Duncan ’s Daycare last May.

“I knew immediately that this woman was something special and my daughter knew it, too,” Brunner said. “It is quite rare to find a real life ‘Mary Poppins.’”

Duncan said she has been compared to May Poppins and Mother Hubbard, and knows the names come in jest, but Brunner is serious in her admiration of Duncan .

“My daughter has been going to Duncan ’s Daycare for a year now and every morning we get ready for school, she is excited and can hardly wait to see Tammy,” Brunner said. “For all of us who work and have children, there is something to be said for being able to go to our jobs during the day and simply know that our children are being taken care of and are truly happy.”

For the full story see this week's issue.