Do we as parents really know what’s going on behind doors at our child’s day care? Even if we hand selected the facility, trusted the owners, loved the teachers, appreciated the fact they have room to room monitors. Do we still know what is happening with our children?
Let’s face it, in this day and time we all have to work. We can barely make it with one income, so both parents have to work. Or it could be we are a single parent and have to work. We have to place our child where the hours are readily available to our work hours. Some place also that can transport to and from school if needed.
Day Care, Child Care, Learning Center, Romp and Play. We may hear these names many times over and over in our life, but after this article you will find I’ve been very open and direct, and the words used above will most definitely never be forgotten with you again.
I have worked in many day cares over my life time. Some were very good day cares and then others were very bad. I will enclose some of the things I as a mother and day care worker discovered, and some of the terrible mishaps and let you decide the rest.
My first experience as a day care worker was when my own children were two and four. I like many of you Moms out there needed extra income coming in, and something to do with my children. I thought what better way than to work and get to keep my kids at the day care for free.
My experience with this particular day care was, that they allowed those children who had accidents in their clothes, to be punished and they had to remain in a seat away from all other children in wet clothes to think about what they had done. My question to all parents is this, ” Think about what they had done”? Remind you this child was three years old. When I suggested to change the young lad I was reprimanded and told to take care of my job duties and to leave that situation up to them. This was by the way the owner suggesting this to me.
This particular day care has posted menus out in the hall area. Posted for all the parents to view. This is intended to impress those parents who show general concern of what their children are having for lunch. Well I was the cook. I was told what to cook and if we didn’t have enough in the fridge we quickly cooked something else. Spaghetti consisted of adding nothing but ketchup and water and making it stretch. This information is solely for those parents who pay $100.00 to $200.00 dollars a week or more so that you know where your hard earned money is going.
From me having placed my self in this situation and my children, I wanted to make things better for these kids. After all, it was not their fault that they were here and it’s summer time. I begin to try and punch up the flavor with their lunches. Try to sprinkle cheese on their day old bread, but I was quickly reprimanded again and again. I finally threw in the towel and left this employment.
My other experiences in other day cares were not great memories either. You have plastic car beds for the toddlers to sleep on and let’s just say, some of your teachers could care a less about the proper disinfection that needs to be used. So expect as it always happens for your child to come home with that wonderful gift. Head Lice. There procedures that are to be done and do you want to know if those are actually followed out? Especially if we are paying your child’s teacher $ 6.55 an hour.
I’ve watched other kids bite, push, hit, punch, steal, cuss, and this is all within one day. What do we do as parents? We have to work. Well more surprise visits and I’ll tell you what times to do them below.
1.) Show up at your child’s day care center around an hour after you already dropped them off. You can always use the oops forgot to give you their medicine or she or he left this in the car etc.
2.) Show up right before nap is to be over, generally if nap is from 1:00 pm till 2:00pm then go at 1:30 pm. This will allow you to see what environment your child is sleeping in and what the teacher is or is not doing.
3.) Expect the unexpected. If your day care thinks you always show up at this time or that time surprise them. Catch them off guard. And last but not least, listen and talk to other parents, usually their the ones dropping off their children once you’ve already pulled off. So if there is any crying or arguing with the teacher or misbehaving, these other parents can vouch that they saw something etc.
I will say that the room monitors are great! For those day cares that do provide them and actually use them and monitor them, than kudos to you. My experience with the day care I worked at, that actually had these, were getting paid allot more than the other day cares that didn’t have them. Were they used daily? No! Excuses were made that they malfunctioned, teacher got busy did not realize she had not flipped on her monitor screen in her room etc.
It is up to the owner of the facility to make sure that everything is running smooth. This includes their teachers. I personally don’t want a teacher watching my child that’s falling asleep at their desk, Do you? Trust me this does go on. It should also be noted that the bathrooms our children go into day after day are absolutely disgusting.
Teachers don’t get paid enough to try and watch children that are way over the state quota anyway, much less be actually concerned that your child’s bathroom is cleaned and sanitized. Yes, this is part of a teachers job, but so is not allowing your children to get hurt while at the day care is too. Ask to see the day cares weekly incident reports. Look at how many accidents are happening. Monitor the toddler room incident reports. They will all say, he or she bit because they wanted a toy. What their really saying is, I had my back turned and was trying to watch my limit of my class room and your child was bitten and I don’t know why.
Are there good day cares out there? Absolutely there are. But you have to search and take time to research them, ask neighbors and mostly ask neighborhood kids who have attended these day cares what they think. Kid’s are brutally honest, and if you ask them they will tell you the truth.
The final and last day care I worked in, did me in. My children had now all grown up. I love children and this is the field I wanted to remain in. I was a floater teacher as many will call it. I call it the eyes and ears of the day care. I drove children to and from school, I cooked, watched the two year old room, did summer field trips etc.
This day care had a marvelous owner. I’m going to call her Miss Janet. Miss Janet was loved by the children, and the parents as well. What Miss Janet did not know due to the fact she was not there but on Friday’s to issue pay checks was that some of her teachers were abusing the children. I watched teachers yell, scream, cuss, push, thump, grab, dump a child’s head down in the toilet, encourage children to fight all within the name of calling themselves a teacher.
I reported the teachers to the owner that were abusing the children. I was pulled aside and told that the teacher was being reprimmanded and instead of investigating her actions they simply pulled her from that room I was working in, and placed her in a room where as the owner put it, the children are older and can talk so if she does something to them they will tell me. That was the day I walked out of my final and last day care facility.
I as you, would have never imagined in a million years this could still go on in this day and time. The time where news and the media have so drastically opened all of our eyes, to child abuse within our day cares. Remember according to daycare.suite101 that we as parents should watch for signs of a teacher or owner who is not providing us with qualified teachers. Remember the old saying, We get what we pay for.
According to web page life.family education. com we as parents can feel secure about some of the day cares out there. But we have to be pretty keen on the idea to listen to our children and to watch for the clues that abuse is going on in the centers according to their article at life. family education .com.
We all as parents have to make a choice one day whether to rely on others to help watch our children while we work. As earlier mentioned, things to do are surprise visits, talk with your children and ask them questions, talk with other parents, get friendly with them and see if their children have complained. And ask to see incident reports. Most importantly is their state examination. Ask to see what they scored on that. This tells you if the day care stays up to date on rules and regulations or if their only doing what they need to do, just to get by.
To find out more information about abusive child care centers or where to find help you can call: 1-800- Attorney. Or visit the web site www.DayCareAbsue.com.
References:
Author: Candus Poyner/ Day Care Teacher
DayCareAbuse.com
Daycare.suite101.com