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!
They do and it's quite funny/embarassing. Nothing like daddy's other mommy, but they reveal what happens in the bathrooms and bedrooms at their house. One told me that he found mommy and daddy wrestling in the kitchen after a food fight (draw your own conclusions). Another told me that he saw mommy and daddy showering together and they told him it was because they were running out of water at the house and they were trying to conserve. one pre-school class, we were drawing pictures of our favorite toys and a little girl drew one of her mommy's favorite toys...needless to say it was a spot on drawing and it didn't make it into her art folder.
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Our Director sets up appointments and "tours" of our facility and makes sure the teachers of the potential child are aware that a prospective student/parent are coming through. I try to get a floating instructor in the classroom just in case the parent has any questions or concerns so that me or the assistant teacher can answer them to the best of our ability without having to look over our shoulder at the 15-20 kids in our classroom. We do have a "trial" day where the child can come in at no charge for a half day to see if they enjoy our program and we obviously give the parent a complete rundown of how their son/daughter did for the day. I've had parents ask a million questions that may seem like a pain in the butt for me, BUT the more involved the parent is the better. Communication is key in this industry. An excellent director is key to getting a new member into our facility. It can be difficult to stop your classroom and answer questions (both my assistant teacher and I try every time there's a new face at the door to answer any question but sometimes it's just not possible!) when a new parent goes on a tour so the director must be your eyes and ears for you and be very knowledgeable of the programs. I have had amazing directors that know everything and a parent signs up immediately and I have had directors that barely do the tours and have no clue what's going on in each classroom.
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That's one rule that has been the same at pretty much every facility I have worked at and the answer is no. It is one of the rules that is consistently broken by the staff, and if caught, the punishment from certain daycare centers is termination.
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It is strange to have a man working in a pretty much all female environment. I've worked with male teachers and they always teach the older kids (pre-k and private kindegarten). While it is weird to have a male in a daycare facility, parents have loved the two male teachers I have known and so have the kids.
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This can be the most difficult part of the job because you cannot make everyone happy. In terms of disciplining a child in class I tend to side with the parent and whatever method they use at home we try to use in the classroom. Everything else gets out of control. One parent wanted me to change the whole classroom's food schedule to accommodate her child's needs and that just can't happen so she began bringing her own lunches to give to her child which is fine (as long as it's peanut free!). If there is something that a parent is a stickler about I will try to make it work, but I can't have 20 different ways of doing things for each child. For the most part parents are respectful of that and let me do my job.
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It's so strange because when I was in preschool and elementary school, we had no peanut allergies around whatsoever. I ate peanut butter and jelly sandwiches at lunch and we could actually bring in homemade cupcakes and cookies to your class when it was your birthday! In no way am I mocking a peanut allergy, it truly is a serious issue and I have had kids in my classes that have had this problem. Do i feel that they are overblown, a little bit yes, but understandably so because of the severity of the allergy. I've had parents that wanted me to send flyers home when they found their child was allergic to peanuts so that the other parents in the class would know about it and every time one came in the room for a pick up, the mom would jump on them to explain her child's health situation. That's a bit overboard...my daughter happens to have an allergy to peaches but I am not writing about it in the sky for everyone to see. All I can do is enforce the peanut free zone in the school (which all teachers do) parents need to understand that we take their children's health as seriously as our own.
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I do get kind of sad. You spend so much time with these kids developing their skills and helping them meet their milestones. It's a proud moment when they move up and are prepared for the next level of education whether is be kindegarten or pre school or even going from the infant room to the toddler program. You definitely miss the kids (and families) but once some of them leave your classroom you have a whole new crop of kids to grow and care for. I like to keep tabs on the kids i've taught if they aren't leaving the daycare facility yet. I will pop in their new classrooms and say hi on my break or at lunch to see them and even help them with their transition to their new class if they're having a tough time.
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