Samantha Perala has owned and operated Stay and Play Child care in New Ulm for five years, after doing in-home day care for 10 years. She said after a while, more space was necessary to continue expanding.

“I wanted to have more room for more families,” she said. “I was maxed out in my house and as my kids were getting older, they wanted more of their personal space and I wanted to expand.”

Expand she has. Perala started with 14 children. Now, she has 64, the maximum allowed under her license. She said she has been at capacity since the end of their first year of business. Stay and Play has five age groups: infants to 12 months, 12-16 months, 16-33 months, 33 months to kindergarten, and a school-aged group.

Perala said the beginning was rough, especially as they opened amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, on top of being full of children, Stay and Play is also fully staffed.

Samantha Perala (holding her daughter Miranda Mae), Kristi Briese, Mya Kube, Jeanne Grabow, Jen Guza [holding son August Guza], Hayle Ince, and Anesa Fluegge stand with their place of work. Perala said she’s currently at capacity with 64 kids and a full staff.

One thing child care providers have to tackle is constantly changing rules and regulations. Perala said some of these changes are going in a particular direction.

“They want more providers to have different kinds of programs that enhance them,” she said. “Their expectations are more paperwork-based, more ‘You need to do this, this, this and this.’ It’s really taking away from the kids the time it takes to document everything.”

To provide children with the best care possible, Perala said it takes dedication from sunup to sundown. Ensuring staff are up to date with their training in CPR and First Aid, filling out paperwork for the state Child Care Assistance Program, and tracking immunization records are just some of the behind-the-scenes tasks required.

“It’s really a lot,” she said. “You have to make sure everything is perfect all the time, logged and documented. It’s a lot of paperwork.”

Perala said the supply is still not keeping up with the demand for child care in New Ulm. She said it’s a delicate balance of making sure her child care services are affordable for parents while generating enough income to retain all her staff.

“My phone rings a lot,” she said. “There’s a lot of people that looking for care and it’s almost becoming unaffordable to parents. It’s a vicious cycle. They need care, but can’t afford it.”

Perala said she first got into child care because she knew it was a big need and enjoyed working with children. Today, those same factors continue to motivate her.

“I was always told ‘You never have to work another day in your life if you found a job you love’ and this is it,” she said. “It’s fun to come to work. You color, you play, you wipe some tears and by the end of the day, they’re all happy and it’s been a great day.”