CONGRESSWOMAN MOM : ON ROAD TO CAPITOL, NEW LEGISLATOR WROTE CHILD-CARE REFERENCE.

Byline: Gayle Vassar Melvin Knight-Ridder Tribune News Wire

Newly elected Congresswoman Ellen Tauscher may have to look for child care when she moves to Washington, D.C., but that won't faze her.

After all, the Tassajara Valley, Calif., resident wrote a blueprint for solving the child-care dilemma. ``The Child Care Source Book'' (Macmillan; $24.95) gives parents step-by-step directions to finding appropriate, safe care for their children.

The child-care search can humble even the most successful corporate leader, says Tauscher, while daughter Katherine, 5, plays nearby.

``It's one of those things that unifies us all. We all have DNA. We all breathe oxygen. And we all have child-care horror stories.''

``The Child Care Source Book'' applies sound business principles to finding and managing child care. Tauscher starts with the most basic question (What kind of child care is needed?) and helps parents sort through the confusing world of nannies, au pairs, family day care and day-care centers. She also provides easy-to-digest information on the legal and financial aspects of hiring child care. In other words, she treats managing child care like any other business.

``Lots of parents who are excellent managers in business have a hard time managing child care. But it's the smart approach to take,'' she says.

``The Child Care Source Book'' includes 35 sample forms parents can use throughout the child-care cycle, from a classified advertisement for child care to employee evaluations and contracts. And with a nod to the computer age, the forms are also on a PC-compatible computer disk included with the book.

Tauscher learned about child care the same way most new parents do: on the job. Katherine was born 12 weeks premature and needed surgery when she was 6 months old. While the baby recovered, her mom looked for child care. Like many working parents, Tauscher tried a variety of child-care options before finding one that worked for her.

Along the way, she learned some hard lessons. One au pair had to be sent back to England, felled by a severe case of homesickness. A nanny seemed ideal for six months, then quit because she preferred being paid under the table, something Tauscher advises parents against.

Most of all, Tauscher was appalled by the lack of regulations and information surrounding child-care options.

``Parents are flying by their guts. We shouldn't be operating like this with the thing we care about most, just because we have to go to work,'' she says.

Troubled by the inability to get background information on potential caretakers, she founded the Child Care Registry in early 1992. For $140, parents can get a seven-year background check on a potential caretaker.

``Parents need to have a fair chance to be able to verify quickly and reliably that the person who will be caring for their child is who they believe them to be,'' she says.

Registry clients came to Tauscher asking for more advice on finding and managing child care. ``People from all over the country are having the same problems,'' she says.

Eventually, Tauscher decided to write a book sharing her child-care solutions, but she had to write it quickly after all - she had a congressional campaign to run. She asked Registry vice president Kathleen Candy in Massachusetts to collaborate with her; the two wrote back and forth via e-mail.

The book was released in the midst of Tauscher's campaign. Some days, she'd have one interview about the book, and several about her congressional race. ``I did the `Today' show for the book, and didn't talk politics once. It would be a total non sequitur, to be talking child care one minute and then switch to politics.''

Or maybe not. While the Tauschers' child-care problems are resolved, Ellen Tauscher says she'll take her commitment for safer, saner child care with her to Washington. She calls the lack of child-care rules an ``overriding moral cause.''

``Here we are, on the front porch of the 21st century, and we don't have standards for caring for the most precious things in the world,'' she says.

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Photo

Photo: Congresswoman-elect Ellen Tauscher, at her Pleasanton home with daughter Katherine, 5, advocates a businesslike approach to child care.

Knight-Ridder Tribune Photo Service