FFN Video Clip: 6:41-7:31
As nostalgic as my childhood memories of playing outside until the streetlights came on, tasting honeysuckles from my neighbor’s yard as the Georgia sun kissed my skin, and making my very first friend who looked like me, Family, Friend, and Neighbor (FFN) child care reminds me of home. It calls me back to a time and place when love, affirmation, and safety were constants— woven daily into my life by my grandparents, Sallie and Sam. Leaving an imprint on my very DNA, this powerful form of care has not only shaped the makings of me, but tints the lens through which I see care as loving, safe and deeply healing.
Steeped in tradition, love, and honor, the very beginnings of my childcare were sensory symphonies of memory. Care looked like painting art projects with my grandpa, smelled like the sweet aroma of my grandma’s soul food in the oven, and felt like an unexplainable sense of comfort and security— the kind of safety that only comes from being wrapped in the embrace of people who love you the most. As an infant, I lived in the magic and wonder of their presence as my parents worked. FFN care was an intentional choice for my mother because she believed since her own childhood was so beautifully shaped by her parents’ love, it was inevitable that my care would be no less. In the words of my mother, “I knew that they were always going to put you first”. For her, entrusting me to her parents was not a gamble, but a continuation of a gift she was certain would be passed on to me.
The beauty of my FFN care story can be one described as a powerful return to quality care. While my mother chose and deeply trusted her parents as my first
caregivers, I eventually transitioned into center-based child care once I became a toddler. When the cracks in my new child care’s shortcomings began to show, revealing a lack of quality care that met my family’s standards, my mother decided to return to a form of care she could trust: FFN care. Without a doubt, she describes this choice as one of the best decisions she has ever made as a mother— because she now sees the fruit of the very seeds planted in me within the safe haven of my grandparents’ home.
Today, I have the pleasure of extending this legacy to my own son, gifting him with the same joy-filled experience with his grandparents that I once knew. I see the excitement in his eyes when he shares how much he loves going to “Grandma’s house”, I feel the deep peace of knowing that he is in a safe and affirming environment and I truly believe that his FFN care is priceless. Gifting my son with the same experience that was given to me fills my glass with the peace that comes with truly trusting his caregivers because they are the same kind of caregivers who once shaped me. As a dual beneficiary of Family, Friend and Neighbor care, I hold the privilege of witnessing its legacy come full circle. FFN care is more than a practice of necessity— it is an inheritance. Passed down like a family heirloom from generation to generation, it has blessed both my family and community to know what it truly feels like to dwell in abundant love, to dream while wrapped in affirming care, and to stand together rooted in legacy.
Melanie N. Latson
