Atlanta weather | Snow and kids — how are parents faring?

Indeed, bad weather days like these can put tremendous strain on parents with young children, especially those who still must report to work and figure out what to do for child care, said Carolyn Salvador, executive director of the Georgia Child Care Association, which has about 700 members.

“How many does that really impact, I’m not sure,” she said. “I don’t know what the actual population working on a day like today really is.”

If a child care center is open, however, Salvador estimated Tuesday that only 5 percent to 10 percent of the children they serve were actually able to reach them.

Center directors, she said, must walk a fine line when deciding whether to open or close during inclement weather.

“You want to be able to serve the families, but you don’t want to put your staff in harm's way to get there,” said Salvador. “It’s a balancing act.”

Hows King, owner of Discovery Point centers in Suwanee and Cumming, and Kim Kalke, owner of Kids R Kids in Alpharetta, are right dab in the middle of that act.

During the early morning hours Tuesday, King was busy shoveling and salting parking lots at his two locations preparing for opening on Wednesday.

“I’d announced up until Tuesday morning that we would be open to offer care to parents who needed it,” said King.

He quickly changed his mind, however, after driving from his home in Norcross to the Cumming center 24 icy miles away early Tuesday.

“It wasn’t difficult to get out of the neighborhood, but as soon as I got to McGinnis Ferry, it got worse,” said King. “It wasn’t worth putting my staff at risk.”

Between his two centers, King said he serves about 350 children, a third of whom are in the state’s pre-k program and are on either the Forsyth or Gwinnett school calendars.

Kalke found it ironic that she is facing icy conditions again this year. Her center was flooded after frozen pipes burst in last year's storm, but like King, she, too, was hoping to reopen Wednesday.

Kalke said that many of the 200 or so clients she serves are children of police officers, pediatric nurses and doctors, who need child care.

“We need to be open tomorrow so these people can get make it to work,” she said Tuesday.

Whether parents had to report to work or not, they tried to make the best of a bad situation.

McAllister, mother of two sons ages 9 and 11 from Roswell, said she enjoyed watching them sled in the backyard.

“Many of the kids have never seen snow, and the squealing and uproarious laughter is like a symphony of happiness,” she said.

Andrew and Gilletta Gray of Smyrna enjoyed the Monday off celebrating their son Ethan’s fifth birthday, sledding, snowball fighting, swinging from a frozen tree tire swing and making snow angels.

“He’s looking forward to sharing his adventures with his friends at Romar Academy when he returns to school," said Andrew Gray.

Lucky for Angela Cammarano, 34 of Douglasville, her 5-year-old daughter was home with the girl's father when the snow hit, so child care hasn’t been an issue.

That might change Wednesday, she said, if the roads aren’t clear and her daughter isn't able to return to school.

“I’ll just have to grin and bear it,” she said.

Like McAllister, Thomas Bose of Alpharetta and Kindred Howard of Powder Springs work from home.

“No problems, no worries,” said Bose. “And we didn't even buy any milk or bread. We so seldom get snow, we love it when we do. Everybody is stuck at home just like us. Enjoy it while we can, I say.”

Bose said that he and his wife, who works at a dental office, both like being with their sons, 8-year-old Jagger and 13-year-old Dylan.

“Ours are such good boys that it's a pleasure to have them with us anytime, all the time,” he said. “I know the snow makes it tough to cover all the bases. But this time, it seems that everyone is shut down all over town, so staying home is not such a problem. So many people can work from home now, even if it's only in an emergency like this, that it really helps a lot when taking care of the kids.”

But what if two were suddenly five and all under the age of 8, as in the Howard household?

“It is, as you might expect, not a boring home,” said Howard, father of a 3-year-old, a 5-year-old and a 7-year-old and 7-month-old twins. “When they're not outside playing in the snow and turning blue with borderline frostbite, things can get rowdy. Kids inevitably engage in munchkin conflicts.”

So how does he do it?

“I recommend a DON'T DISTURB THE PEACE RULE. Don't try to deal with everything. Just make sure the kids know that, if they disturb you, then no one will like what you do.”