'They all have part of my heart': Stewartville child care provider finishes her business chapter of 39 years

STEWARTVILLE — Renate Glahn has lots of friends. They work on coloring within the flower petals, practice saying their full names, ask ‘Why’ questions all day, and they love to dance.

Glahn’s spent the last 39 years caring for more than 100 children. “I feel like it was half of Stewartville, and lots of them from Rochester.”

She shares the same attention, love and understanding with each child. They’re still a handful — make no mistake, the fulfilling days are also long as a child care provider for nine to 12 children at a time.

“For me all my life, what I’ve been striving to do in my 39-years career, build something so all those children (could have) what I never had as a child,” Glahn said. “The reward was for them to be happy and safe, and that they had a place to go where they always felt safe and where they always can come to the rest of their lives since they all have part of my heart.”

She squeezed in final hugs and lessons with her last day as owner of Kids Will Be Kids Daycare on Friday. After retiring due to a health issue, she’ll soon spend time with her six grandchildren. Her retirement also leaves a hole in Stewartville's in-home providers with a child care shortage continuing in Southeast Minnesota.

The two to 6-year-old children wiggle from one room to the next. Their small dining room table coloring spaces turn to a dance floor and then they’re off to share utensils while playing kitchen. In the flurry of activity, Glahn pauses for a question: “Can I have another color?” She takes the time to answer, and find the right color to turn the flower’s leaves purple.

The snow covers one of their favorite spaces, the backyard playset, though it still shines as the most colorful. The park-like area includes a 1972 McDonaldland train. The train has chugged along from station to station, though it likely first entertained families and kids in St. Paul.

When Glahn purchased the train about three years ago on Facebook, “it was broken in some areas and there was holes in it. And we blasted them and fixed them all back up. And just refurbished it.” She sanded and painted for weeks with the help of her neighbor.

“She’s very selfless and will do whatever for the kids,” said Melissa Glahn, her daughter-in-law.

“It’s like magical when you’re on my playground,” Renate Glahn said. “In the summertime, it’s just gorgeous.”

If you were lucky or naughty, the train tracked with you through timeout. Mostly, the kids “just had fun” between eating snacks, playing store and climbing on the caboose, Glahn said.

The original colors were created by Setmakers Inc., which designed the McDonaldland experience for various locations across the United States in the 1970s. As the first in Minnesota, the west St. Paul McDonaldland opened in July 1975, according to the Minneapolis Star.

With 18 different pieces of equipment, the train took kids to visit Officer Big Mac, the Hamburglar, Mayor McCheese and Ronald McDonald. The characters also came in smaller versions of children’s toys.

“The train has been part of our lives for, I think, about three years now and everybody just loved it,” Glahn said. “They were loving to play on it and eat on it and just everything. That train is just part of us.”

Glahn is again using Facebook to find the train its new home. She hopes the new owner will appreciate and love the train as much as they all did.

“It was definitely worth it to buy it and refurbish it. We got a lot of good use out of it,” Glahn said. “It’s a beautiful train. It’s going to last forever. That train is going to be getting old some day, real old.”

As the children grow older, they’ll have spent their childhood learning the alphabet through letters hanging from the ceiling, finding how amazing people around the world are and helping each other in the process.

“We learn on the go. Our day is so filled up with questions and answers and then more questions, of course. Then we look things up what we don’t know about and we sing and dance, and we’re just ourselves,” Glahn said. “We just grow with each other and help each other to understand things (about) how life is. They’re learning that life’s not totally easy, that there’s always challenges in the way and they’re also learning how to cope with certain things.”

Glahn said her day care offers children space to be themselves, let loose and feel safe. And she said children feeling seen and heard is the most important. These are the rewards that mean more than her “many sacrifices” through the hurdles and happiness.

“They also impact my life and made me grow to be a better person, to be thoughtful and kind and loving,” Glahn said.

“I’m going to have the rest of my life so much love in my heart and people who care about me,” Glahn said. “And I feel like this is what God chose for me.”