A New Life: Kathleen Cummins tells Claire O'Connell the lure of working with children was irresistible
Four years ago Kathleen Cummins heard a radio item that changed her life. It was a feature about Lifestart, an education programme that helps parents understand how their children develop from birth to age five.
Its approach of empowering parents with information immediately struck a chord with Cummins. So she went to her nearest project, which was in Ballymun, and signed up to train as a family visitor.
The organisation, which has charitable status, runs around 20 projects in Ireland.
"It's a very good, common sense programme," says Cummins. "You are talking about the children's physical, intellectual, emotional, social and language development."
Over five years, parents can get up to 60 monthly visits, each one dealing with an issue relevant to the age of the child.
"The whole thing is to empower the parents, and the ethos is recognising childhood as being the important days of life," she says.
It's the kind of programme Cummins wishes she had been on when her own children were younger.
A former training manager at a paper converter company in north Dublin, she chose to stay at home with her children, Caroline, Clare and David, for seven years.
"I always had a passion for parenting and while I was at home I did some parenting courses because I liked the psychology of it," she says.
As the children grew older, she decided against going back to work full-time. "I was only ever interested in going back to a job that gave me flexibility. All the years I put into them, I still felt the kids needed me around when they were at school-going age."
So when her youngest child was starting school and she chanced upon Lifestart on the radio, she took the plunge and trained for six months to become a family visitor.
Now she visits 28 families each month on the programme, bringing age-relevant material from a developmental series called the Growing Child. She also offers art supplies and books on loan from the organisation's library.
"We try to instil that parents spend a bit of time with the children, even if it's only reading, so that reading begins very young."
Understanding the child's abilities is also the key to introducing the right activities, says Cummins.
"The best way to bring on child development is to say what is the child capable of now. If it's too challenging, it will switch it off, if it's too simple it won't be stimulated enough. You want enough that you can say 'you're great' and they can feel good about themselves and can build on that."
In addition to the home visits, the project organises group activities like parties, story-telling and art sessions. It also encourages families to attend sessions about topics like dental care for children and to link with other community initiatives.
For Cummins, the satisfaction comes from seeing the positive changes the programme can bring. "When you see progress being made it's very rewarding," she says. "Like when you see where a mother has been trying to get a routine going, and then they achieve this bedtime or mealtime routine and they are absolutely delighted because it means they are more relaxed with less stress. Or when they say they love the books and then they go and join the library."
While parents could go and find out parenting tips and strategies for themselves, Cummins feels the one-to-one visits are what make the programme a success, and the personal contact is a part of her work she especially loves. "The relationship is crucial between me as a family visitor and the parent," she says. "They are very good mums and they are doing great jobs."
That supportive contact can often encourage parents to sign up for the free service again if they have another child, which is another rewarding aspect, says Cummins.
"I had a family and the son was on the programme for three years and as he was coming up to five, I said I'm going to really miss you. Then the mother told me she was going to have another baby and she still kept the programme on for that baby. So they see the child in their own uniqueness and I think that's fabulous."
And for Cummins, working on the programme has helped her own parenting skills, even though her children are older.
"It's about listening and valuing and respecting them and them respecting you and the principles of self-discipline. And if you are not going to allow them to do something, to explain it. You don't have to stop doing that when they are five."
Does she have any regrets about signing up after the radio programme four years ago? "None," she answers without hesitation. "I just think it's a very worthwhile area, and I would do it all again, exactly the same."