Miss DayCare
Charlotte, NC
Female, 30
I work in a highly respected, franchised Day Care Provider. I have taught in Toddler classrooms as well as Pre-Kindegarten classrooms. It's a wonderful and rewarding profession and I love every minute of it. I have become friends with many of my parents and they all ask questions which is why I want to open a dialogue here so I can be as honest and open as possible about your most prized posession's early childhood education and what really goes on in the classrooms and hallways!
Look at the cleanliness of the facility and the rooms, also when walking around the school peek into other classrooms and not just the ones that your child(ren) will be in. See what the teachers are doing, are they interacting with the kids or just sitting there? Ask to see when the kids play outside and how interactive the instructors are with them. We shouldn't be just sitting on the ground yelling at the kids when someone does something wrong. We should be running around, playing tag, pushing them on a swing, etc....Another big one is if there is "outside" food in the rooms (we aren't supposed to have any outside food or drinks in the room), and you would be surprised at what some teacher leave out....I was coming back from lunch and one of my co workers had a bag of peanuts out during the kids' nap! Also, see if the center has a reference list of parents you can call to see how they like the school. Parents put themselves on it and it's a mix of positive and negative reviews so you can get answers to questions you may not be comfortable asking the director
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Placing a 2 year old in a time out his first week? That seems kind of crazy to me too and as a mother myself I wouldn't be happy either! As much as I want to answer a stern NO to your question, I cannot. The reason why I say that is because timeouts are a simple and effective way to dealing with a problem (especially at 2 years old). I personally do not use a timeout method for disciplining my own child or the kids in my classes, so I have had no complaints in this department. I only answer this way because I have seen this in every facility I have worked in when parents are unhappy with a disciplinary measure taken in the classroom. The director is always going to side with the parent (after all they are paying for the service), notify the teacher, and it's up to the teacher to uphold the agreement of not using the time out method (in your case it seems a bit extreme, I cannot believe they did that to a two year old!). Until your child can communicate with you and tell you every aspect of his/her day in the classroom, you must trust your teacher (and that builds over time) that they aren't going against your wishes and if they are find somewhere else to go because there are plenty of places that are fantastic and wouldn't do that to you or your child. I can understand making a mistake once but if it happens again and you've already had an agreement in place, that's unacceptable. I hate to sound negative or put you on edge, and I wish I could have a more definite answer for you. My gut is telling me that they are continuing with the timeouts because I have seen it over and over again even after a parents asks them not to.
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There's really not much you can do. There are centers that have a policy that for each minute they are late after closing time, they owe one dollar. Unfortunately, that doesn't deter parents from being late, they just hand you cash when they walk in to pick up their child. If you have a chronically late parent, and you have to stay past close, you just have to grin and bear it and wait for that child to graduate to the next classroom so that parent can become another teacher's problem!
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That was worded wrong, I meant that I had known teacher who have known kids that have been asked to leave the center because of their behavior. Sorry for the mix up!
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No there's no "hazing." Whoever gets hired knows going in what position they are getting (infant teacher, toddler, pre-school, etc.). If someone is hired for the infant room, they know they're gonna be changing diapers and all that stuff so they know what they're getting into. The turnaround in this industry is pretty high and every teacher in the center I am at has pretty much worked with every age group at the other facilities they have worked in so people who get hired are pretty well rounded.
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I do not think less of parents who stay home and their kids are in daycare. Some want them to have the social experience and that's fine. I do have a problem with parents who just want their child out of their hair so they can go about their business. And I can spot those parents from a mile away. Why even have a child (and have the ability to stay home with them) just so you can put them in a daycare facility for eleven hours a day five days a week? One parent was a stay at home mom and I never met her, the housekeeper would drop her kid off and pick her up. That child was in my class from 7 AM until 6 PM Monday through friday. The housekeeper would feel awful for the child and pick her up early and take her on daytrips because she wasn't allowed to bring her home before 6. Ridiculous.
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I've never had a child abandoned at a daycare center, but there has been instances where there is a custody issue (and again communication is key in this situation) and the other parent picks up their child without consent from the other one and then they get to school to pick up their child and they're not there....you can imagine the chaos that ensues...and I have seen that happen more times than I can count. I have never even heard of someone of just leaving their child in a daycare facility and not picking them up....and I hope I never do hear of something so awful!
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