Boys figuring with their action figures, heroes and villains. Girls toying with their toys, butterflies and fairytales. Everyone is happy, everyone is free. Everyone playing a role they’ve never rehearsed before and staging a play for no one but themselves. This is the scene from a windowpane behind a big, locked door inside the Associated Students Inc., Children’s Center; this door is to ensure the children’s safety and well-being and only staff members and parents can gain access to this room.

Now, just imagine for a moment, taking on your current load of classes, required readings, tests, quizzes, papers, the whole nine yards. Then take your 20 hours of work, double it, add mortgage payments and bills and finally top it off with a real-life baby. Well, you’ve got yourself a day in the life of a student parent here at Sacramento State.

Jim Gilbert, also known as “Nacho” around the Spanish and art departments at Sac State, has a son, Riley, who he drops off everyday before work and picks up every evening after class. Gilbert says it’s not easy juggling school and parenting, but Sac State sure takes some of the weight off his shoulders.

The Children’s Center, located right behind the University Union and alongside Parking Structure II, allows student parents, such as Jim, to pick up, drop off and even come in during a break between classes and play with their children.

Riley is among an estimated 252 students enrolled in the Children’s Center, says director Teri Mahan. This program lightens the load of so many student parents because it allows them a caring place to leave their child while they attend class. However, that’s not the only thing the Children’s Center does to help student parents manage.

“He’s an only child, so he doesn’t have anyone at home to play with. It’s great for him to learn how to interact with other children and it teaches him things I try to teach him at home; he loves it there and can’t wait for Mondays to come around,” Gilbert says.

Gloria Engman, already having put one child through the program and now another, raves about the center, saying the staff workers really care for the children and she, alike many other parents, are seldom nervous while in class and away from their offspring.

“It’s like she’s the only child in the class — that’s how much attention she gets.” Engman says.

The Children’s Center blossomed in the fall of 1980 and has been accommodating student parents at Sac State ever since then. The center is very popular among student parents, and even though there are 800 current parents waiting to get their child enrolled into the program, that figure is somewhat misleading. Mahan cites that sometimes student parents see this number and get discouraged to sign up; parents on the waiting list do graduate and children do get too old for the program, which means spots open frequently. Mahan says that in actuality, there is not as long of a wait as many think. As of right now, there are openings for part-time students for the pre-school program.

Not only does the Children’s Center accommodate almost any child whose age ranges from 6 months to 7 years, it is also very cost efficient when it comes to funds, which makes it somewhat easier to be a student parent these days. Since the California State Department of Education gives subsidy assistance to the foundation, it allows some qualifying student parents to get the care for free. For those who don’t quite qualify, a mere $1.10 an hour is all that is required to house and feed that young tike of yours.

Possibly even more accommodating than the Children’s Center are the husbands and wives of the student parents, who have been just as helpful with the juggling act that is working, parenting and trying to earn a degree. The strong family bond is what keeps some parents able to go to school and do all of the other things necessary to maintain a living. Engman doesn’t know where’d she be without her husband.

“I have a super supportive husband that makes dinner every night. If the kids are sick and should stay home and I have an important test that day, my husband will take off from work to help out,” Engman says. And how about Gilbert?

“Me and my wife share the responsibilities, so I’m lucky,” Gilbert says.

It’s certainly not easy to do a balancing act everyday, balancing school, work and parenting. Ask anyone and they’ll tell you that raising a child is the hardest thing in the world. With all of the expenditures, the sleepless nights, the fighting and the yelling, it’s tough enough to endure parenthood for 18 years. Throw in work and trying to get a degree 15 years after you last set foot into a class, well, you’re in for a real treat. Though, for many lucky parents such as Gilbert, all of the hard work does pay off in the end. Gilbert, with a gleam in his eye, says that there’s an ultimate goal, being done with his scholastic work, which keeps him going.

It’ll never be easy to be a student, or a parent, or a student parent. But, it’s sure becoming a lot more manageable these days because of the day care programs offered on Sac State’s campus. Even David Smothers, the husband of a student parent, says while picking up his son, that there’s a lot of flexibility with the Children’s Center; he can even come in throughout the day to read to his son, which is actually considered parent participation, the significance of that being a sizeable discount in the monthly fee.

This ever-helpful program allows parents some time to unwind; once all classes are said and done for the day, they can maybe even sneak a peak of the final act of the play their children and others are staging, making all the hard work worth while.