“Human beings are wired to learn with other humans younger and older than themselves,” explained author Céline Alvarez in a popular book a few years ago. What if one of the solutions was, to allow different ages to mix together, to install crèches in nursing homes or residences for seniors? This is the bet of the network of intergenerational crèches Tom & Josette, which this year installed its first structure in Ile-de-France, in Meudon.
And not in just any place: Villa Beausoleil strikes upon arrival with its green setting and its buildings, a veritable castle of bricks and wrought iron. To access the crèche, you have to walk a few more meters, before coming across a small wooden structure, where ten children are playing, supervised by four professionals. Julie Mullard, the director of the crèche, hugs Camille, who appreciates the contact, while other children sing “A green mouse”.
The children ask for “grandpas and grandmas”
Concretely, the link between children and the elderly is formed through workshops, once a week, around different activities: painting, singing, pottery… But also thanks to simple spontaneous visits, requested more and more often by the children, especially the older ones, who already make themselves well understood: “It’s a bit at the request of the children, at the moment they are asking us a lot for the “grandpas and grandmas”, last week we all went there in the afternoons. We walk around and meet the residents, we piggyback on the activity of the elderly, like a gym workshop or when a pianist comes,” says Julie Mullard.
For the moment it is more the children who go to the elderly, but “the long-term objective is that the residents can come and see us whenever they want. For the moment it remains timid, we have one or two residents who come from time to time,” adds the director. The nursery, opened in February this year, is still figuring out how to operate, but little by little, more and more things are being developed and built in two ages, and sometimes two sizes, like these planters installed today by the company Wild carrots, in which young and old can learn to create a vegetable garden.
“My daughter makes contact with adults more easily”
The principle of intergenerational crèches is not new. In Paris, the Saint-Sabin crèche in the 11th arrondissement has been experimenting with it for more than ten years, and in the 13th of the capital, the Maison des Boutchou got the ball rolling more than twenty years ago. But Tom & Josette has made it its specialty, now with eight establishments in France that connect generations. “It’s a big problem in modern society, we have divided the generations,” comments Anne, mother of little Victoria, 2 and a half years old.
The parents who chose this intergenerational crèche system seem fully satisfied, several months after the start of the experience. “Victoria spontaneously goes much more towards older people when she sees them,” rejoices Anne. “My daughter makes contact with adults more easily and I think this crèche helps with that,” adds Élodie, the mother of Aimée, 2 and a half years old. “Children learn slowness and patience from older people. And my daughter now smiles big at the “grandmas” when she sees them like the other day in the metro,” also believes Céline, mother of a little girl Raphaëlle, aged one.
And the staff also benefits: “Here, we are lucky to have four professionals for ten children. We have time to do activities, to observe what they do,” explains Julie Mullard, who says she is “reviving” in her profession after having worked for several years with large groups that are too subject to the imperatives of profitability, according to her. . And to conclude: “A company that works with children and the elderly can only be a caring company. »
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