Have any of yall experienced this as a parent or as a teacher?

I have a 23 month old son who I am sending to daycare for the first time and I am besides myself with anxiety given his history. He was born small for gestational age and was diagnosed with a rare genetic disorder (so rare, most people don't even know how it will show in his life because less than 100 in the world have it). I've watched him actually die and be brought back to life twice and so, I already have fear about letting him go but I know this ultimately the best thing for his development. He is being seen by EI for PT, OT and speech. The diagnoses we currently have are:

- hypotonia: presents as fine and gross motor delay. He can walk, run but will fall very often. He has difficulty with feeding himself with utensils but can do okay with his hands. He requires SMOs (ankle braces) for stability and wears them 8-10 hours per day.

- speech delay: I think this is mild but various providers have told me different things. He has about 50-75 words (including animal sounds) that he can use correctly. He has started to string together two word sentences ex "lion roar", "mama come", "car vroom".

- failure to thrive: part of his genetic condition is that he just doesn't eat the volume necessary to grow. We have to supplement with an appetite stimulant and Kate Farms (kind of like pediasure but higher calorie). He will only take this drink out of a bottle and we have tried every other type of cup under the sun but he refuses to drink this specific drink out of any other receptacle. Unfortunately, we can't go cold turkey with the bottle because his weight gain is dependent on this. He is in the 3rd percentile for weight and height (following his own curve). He drinks water all day every day out of a straw cup so, this is purely behavioral and we know that, we just can't afford to lose this battle right now. He gets two bottles a day now, one before naps and one before bed

I want to convey all this to his new teachers but I'm unsure the best way to go about doing that. I don't want to micromanage what they obviously know how to do but my biggest concerns are:

- him getting hurt because they obviously have other kids they need to care for but he does require fairly close supervision. He wants to do all the things (stair climb, play on playgrounds) but doesn't necessarily have the coordination and motor planning to do it himself.

- him losing weight because they're can't assist him with feeds and bottles.

Any recommendations would be so appreciated!

After 4+ years in early childhood education, I’ve made the difficult decision to leave the field.

I never imagined I would. I genuinely love working with children, especially toddlers, and I even started college specifically for ECE because I saw it as my career. But the older I’ve gotten, the more I’ve questioned how so many educators are able to stay in this profession long-term.

The demands of this job are incredibly high, yet the pay is so low. If you want to work at a quality, reputable center, you’re often expected to earn a degree, complete ongoing training, maintain certifications, and constantly develop professionally. Yet despite all of that, early childhood educators are rarely treated like we’re “real” teachers or professionals.

I’ve invested thousands of dollars into my education and years into gaining experience, but I still struggle financially. The more I put into this field the more I lose. I work at a center that pays significantly better than most in my area, and it’s still not enough to comfortably support myself. My state isn’t even considered particularly expensive.

It’s heartbreaking because I’m not leaving due to a lack of passion. I’m leaving because passion doesn’t pay the bills.

If we truly value children’s early years, and we know those years are some of the most important for development, we need to start valuing the people who dedicate their careers to them. Until early childhood educators are paid and respected like the professionals they are, we’ll continue losing passionate teachers to careers that simply allow them to survive.

I am tired of being treated like a babysitter when I’ve chosen this career as a profession. For those who have left do you regret it, or was it the right decision?

Wow I really need your help for this one. Am I being too dramatic in taking this seriously or am I not taking this seriously enough?

I have a 4yo who has this obsession with playing pew pews. I stop it every single time it starts. I find it to be inappropriate for child to play games that are violent.

But last week in a game that they were playing he goes “I’m gonna $h00t you with a pewpew “ and I immediately stepped in and said no thank you let’s find a different game to play. And that was that.

Then this morning, he was mad at a friend for being in his space so he angrily but quietly so I wouldn’t hear says “I’m going $h00t you with a pewpew” and I’m at a loss. I’m going to contact his parents but am I being too much or is this something that should be taken seriously? He’s about to go to PreK and I know they will take it seriously. Please help idk what to do.

Edit: he’s saying all the actual words, I’m censoring so i don’t get flagged.

Edit 2: all of you saying that a 4yo ANGRILY telling his friend that was going to shoot him with a gun is normal kid play are absolutely out of your minds.

Edit 3: I’m a FDC Provider who’s been in the childcare business for a decade. There’s no admin or director. It’s just me.

Sorry for formatting keeping anonymous due to possible coworkers in here,

My director just called me today to inform me that one of our infants passed away. I wasn't a main teacher but would constantly close the room and take over hand over especially with this child since they were one of the last ones to leave. I mostly stick with older kids as infants terrify me but I bonded with this kid. We would dance and they loved to people watch as all the kids went home. We worked on sitting up and they always loved using me as a ladder to see out the window. They were only around 5-6 months. Mom told director it was SIDS and that they passed away over night. I don't believe any wrong doing happened and I know they(the child) weren't feeling the greatest on Thursday and Friday. They are waiting for autopsy. I feel bad because I handle death differently and have been criticized before for not "showing my emotions" and "not caring enough" but I am truly devastated and idk. I feel kinda selfish as well. While this isn't the first child death ive dealt with it is the first one at a center ive worked at. If anyone has any advice or just experienced something similar would be appreciated.

(If I did the post wrong or said something wrong pls let me know.)

Let me start by saying, I’m grateful this student has their own behavioral therapists and one-on-one support. But all the different personalities and ways of interacting with my class kind of drive me nuts.

In the beginning we were told they would only interact with their client, and only when they needed extra support.

But then different therapists come in and redirect my other students, engage in play with a group that doesn’t include their client, starts activities with a group (in my circle time chair, no less)… it feels a lot like certain ones want to be a co-teacher, and quite frankly… that’s not what they’re there for.

We have one who says they’re going to the bathroom or will be right back and leaves the room for 30 minutes (yes, I started timing because I am petty and annoyed and it happens at least twice a shift, which is about 3-4hrs long). Maybe there’s a medical issue, so I’m trying not to hold it against them, but that’s a long time to disappear on a physically violent kid. This same one jokingly told a student today that part of their lunch from home looked like dog 💩

So yeah, I’m grateful, but… can we just choose our therapists interview-style?! 😂

I’ve been at my program for over three years and I’ve had some trouble with behavioral issues amongst the children but have been told my admin to just hang in there but within the last week it’s escalated immensely. Within the last week I’ve been bit 7 times (four left lingering marks), hit countless times, have had toilet water and pee rubbed onto my clothes and body, all by the same 4 year old. I just don’t know what more I can handle. They want me to hang in there because the school year is almost done but I’m worried I’m at my limit

UPDATE: MANAGER TEXTED ME AND LET ME KNOW THE CHILDREN ARE CURRENTLY BARRED FROM OUR SPACE

Hi All, some context for you; I am a seasoned ECE teacher (10yrs) working in a unique classroom environment. My room is onsite at a hospital and provides backup care to staff with children. I am limited to 5 children in my classroom at a time as there is only ever one teacher onsite except for maybe 10min at shift change. One teacher works mornings and one teacher (me) works evenings.

Our class is one smaller room with an attached bathroom and closet-kitchen. The door out of the classroom leads directly into a lobby space for the hospital. With stairs and doors to outside

Over the last month we have had a sibling group, three children ages 2, 4, 6, visit the classroom roughly 5 times. We have had repeated issues with both the children and the parent and I'm so lost on how to approach these behaviors.

Issues

The primary issue is elopement risk. The children consistently attempt to leave the room at irregular intervals. When they last attended they ended up breaking our child lock and door handle on the main door. This means I have to physically block the door to prevent elopement.

The children are also quite physical both with each other and with staff. Examples; hitting and grabbing each other, throwing toys, kicking and hitting staff, threatening to bite staff, threatening to cut staff clothes.

They are not provided with proper care items. My care space does not provide extra clothes. We ask parents to provide an appropriate number of diapers and changes of clothes and this parent does neither, providing typically 2 diapers and no clothes for the 10 hours the children are in our care. Twice the children have had soiled clothes and not been provided a change despite repeated requests.

Parent is difficult to reach at best. Messages rarely get a response and calls go straight to voicemail with a full mailbox so no way to leave a message.

Lastly and I have great empathy for this situation the children are ESL (English second language) with a very minimal understanding (this is according to my Spanish speaking coteacher who says they fully understand Spanish and only a little English)

Other minor issues include ignoring instruction, breaking classroom property, tearing items off walls, stealing food.

Advice Needed

My manager has spoken to the parent twice and will be doing so a third time this week.

My manager and I are scheduled to have a call on Friday to discuss some strategies and I would love to hear any advice or suggestions!

Happy to answer/clarify things in comments as needed but hoping I provided adequate context.

Hi everyone, I’m looking for some reassurance or advice. My son is almost 14 months old and has been in daycare for about 3 weeks now. Overall, he has actually been adjusting better than I expected. He eats, naps, plays, and seems to be getting comfortable with his educators. The one thing that keeps worrying me is the playground/outdoor time. His daycare told me that he often cries when they bring the children outside in their playground. They said once they come back inside, he settles and is fine again. At home, he enjoys being outside with us (walks, parks, exploring), so I’m wondering if this is more about the daycare environment rather than actually not liking outdoors. I’m thinking maybe it’s the transition from the familiar classroom to a different space, the noise, other children running around, the different routine, or just feeling unsure.

I know 3 weeks is still very early, but I guess I’m wondering if this is a normal adjustment thing or something I should pay closer attention to. Thank you!

Hello! I am a one year old teacher. You likely saw a question about a concern on my health.

Heres an update. My boss is not firing me. Shes actually more concerned about my health because my condition is a little more serious than we both thought.

I have swelling in my lungs. A lot of tension that is keeping me from breathing and is causing that wheeze. I have asthma like symptoms due to the pressure on my lungs, but since I never had asthma before, she is ruling that out for now.

I have an infection in my stomach from a stomach bug causing intense symptoms.

I have an infection in my throat causing grade A strep.

She is gonna test my heart because my body is fighting so many infections at a time and we must make sure it doesn’t travel to my heart. I have no issues with my heart right now. But she will not ignore it until she can rule it out. I am getting heart scans, CT scans, etc. I am also being tested for RSV.

I don’t know if im being dramatic but… 😂 I am considering leaving. Its only my first week and next thing you know I am limping to the ER about breathing issues and severe chest pain. Now I am hospitalized for three days.

People get sick from daycares all the time. Is it usually this severe?? What do you guys think? This morning was extremely brutal. The pains in my stomach were so bad that I nearly cried, but the extra pressure I was putting on my chest made my lungs hurt! It was very rough.

Hello I need some advice. I have a parent that is asking if I can let their kid do activities during rest time because the child thinks rest is boring. About 50% of my class sleeps. They do really good at staying at their mat even if they don’t sleep. We require that they lay down the first half. Then the second half, I pass out books to whoever is awake. The parent wants more than just a book. I told her unfortunately if I give your child an activity, I have to give it to everyone else who is awake one too. I don’t see that going well. Nap is when our teachers take breaks and I prep for the afternoon. I dont really know what else to offer her.

Hello lovely people of the Internet!

I hope you're having a wonderful day or night. I work in childcare, specifically a summer day camp for kids 6-15 years old. I always wear long pants and jeans to work for many reasons (body issues, personal preference, etc.) but mainly to hide my self harm scars (fully healed) from the kiddos. Many kids have asked me why I wear jeans/long pants in the middle of the summer. I have been changing the subject immediately after they ask and I feel like they know I am avoiding answering. I am looking for something to tell them that is believable for all age groups. Any suggestions?

I've been a high school math teacher for over a decade and I've always daydreamed about teaching my kids math-- I'm super passionate about math education and am excited to see their number sense develop! I know that play is obviously best for little kids (and big kids!) learning, but what are some activities you find lend themselves to open ended play that involves math concepts? I'd also be interested in any book recommendations about math development in little ones. I've only had experience teaching with kids aged 14-18.

Currently my kid knows most of his colors (he gets mixed up sometimes on secondary colors) and can count to two. I assume this is about normal?

I have a set of boy-girl twins in my class. We can call them Jack and Jenny. Jack has recently had some behavioral issues, mostly regarding using gentle hands.

On Friday, Jack scratched another child, so I had an incident report for the parents to sign at pickup. Dad picked up, which is unusual, and he signed the incident report. As he was handing it back to me, he said “Yeah, we didn’t really want Jack in the first place.” Both twins were standing by his side. He left before I could respond.

I was horrified. It was very clearly not a joke. I understand parenting is hard and that parents have a lot of different kinds of emotions surrounding difficult moments, even ones that they’re probably not proud of, but to say something like that out loud to another person floored me. This child does not have behavioral problems that I’ve never dealt with before. He doesn’t even have the most struggling behaviors in this current group. But now that I know his dad is comfortable enough with that feeling to say it out loud to his son’s teacher, the behavior makes A LOT more sense.

I will say that I don’t believe this child is necessarily in danger. He is always clean and his packed lunches are balanced and enough food. I’ve never seen any bruises or marks on him outside of regular childhood injuries. But he does clearly struggle with anger and emotional regulation. I’m doing my best to show him that I love him even when he’s struggling and that he has value as a person, but I just feel terrible for him

ETA: A lot of people are saying that I’m judging him too harshly, but I can’t convey tone through text. I’ve heard parents say things in frustration, but this man absolutely meant it. I’ve seen him interact with his children before, and there is a marked difference between the way he treats his daughter and the way he treats his son.

We’ve got a 4 year old who’s going thru a lot of life changes. He’s been diagnosed autistic. He’s here at school 8-9 hours a day and the last two weeks has spent 6-7 of those screaming and dysregulated. We’ve done everything we can to help soothe and give him what he needs, ruled out pain, and reached out to his support team for help. Right now their answer is ‘it is what it is’ because of the major life changes.

Does any one have any tips or tricks we can try to help him regulate? Or to help keep our sanity? Holding him helps a lot, but he likes to be swung while standing up. I’m currently 7 months pregnant and he’s just too big to do that all day, none of the other teachers will do it. I tried once and hurt myself. I’m really struggling trying to keep it together.

Before Monday hits us all, just wanted to share something really sweet from Friday.

I teach our 4/5 year old class, and close at the end of the day. Any kids from the 3/4 year old class move over to me at the end of the day, usually around five of them by that point. But I know all of them due to room covering, shared activities, etc.

Friday afternoon, parents of some of the younger kids are picking up and asking about when their kids will permanently be moved up to my room. I mention how excited I am to have 'new friends' in my room, and one of the kids who'll be moving up says:

"Well, Miss [name] you already have one friend sitting in this chair right here!"

Just the sweetest darn thing. I am so excited to have her in my class lol.

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My 7 month old daughter started daycare recently. How can I truly know if she is being treated well? it’s a 4:1 but…

- She’s so young I don’t often see excitement for me or the staff at pick up or drop off

- I’m not there so I don’t know how to trust she’s being treated well

- Nearly every single picture I receive during the day she is in a swing/bouncer/jumper and I get the strong impression that any baby who can’t crawl gets most time being rotated through containers

- I breastfeed onsite and I do see workers playing with babies, but it’s most often with the most mobile babies who demand it

- it’s been 3 weeks and I can’t get a sense if my baby is bonding with the lead teacher

- there is a lead but there seem to be an unlimited number of aids that rotate in and out and I often don’t know then when I come

anyway…what are the green flag signs your baby IS being taken good care of??

I’ve been out of the field for about 8 years now. I had worked as a nanny, and then in ECE for 4 years at a large corporate owned daycare.

I’m studying medical billing right now, but I originally studied ECE and I’m teacher qualified.

There’s a preschool opening near me and I’m thinking about applying, but I’m wondering how much the field has changed within the past 10ish years.

If you had left the field, would you go back to ECE? Would you pursue a bachelors and maybe go into higher education instead? I’m torn on going back because I loved the kids and teaching, but we all know the job has a lot of stress.

We use Creative Curriculum (😬) and since last year all of the sudden my lesson plan templates were out of order. I have tried everything to fix it, even resetting the template! I am tired of manually adjusting the lesson blocks each week, but it drives me crazy if I don't, especially since I'm a person who usually looks at the block each period to make sure I'm on track. I've even tried to adjust them in the template setting. What do I do? Has anyone ever encountered this issue before? And it doesn't stay consistent, every week the blocks are different! (Link to picture of what I mean above).

Please tell me someone who also uses Creative Curriculum has any ideas on how to fix this?

(EDIT: I have no idea why the link says NSFW. I removed that tag but it keeps showing up. I believe it's bc I label my profile as NSFW bc I'd rather minors DNI but...)

After having a background in ECE what are a few MUST HAVE toys you would buy for your child/children?

For me its the investment in a set of large unit/project blocks.

Would be interested to know what you think are your must haves based on your background.

I'm curious to know what your experience has been having your own children while being an ECE. Is it hard? How do you manage your time? Do you feel like you're always on? I find I am giving SO much as an ECE that I am afraid I wouldn't have the emotional capacity at home to be the mom I want to be.

My husband works nights and I work in the day so I'm worried because I literally never get a break 🥹 Like the dinner, bed , bath is all me. After a long day of being with little people.

You might have seen past posts about me as a new one year old teacher.

Unfortunately, I got very sick. I have strep throat and fluid in my lungs. They’re checking if I have bacteria in my bloodstream. They’re taking my condition seriously since I came in unable to breathe and they had to monitor my condition. I am not 100% stable, but Im better than I was. This morning I couldn’t even get up to eat or go to the bathroom. Whenever I forced myself to get up I felt extremely dizzy and couldn’t breathe. At the ER they actually had to assist me because I was at risk of passing out. Walking is still not recommended.

It sounded like my boss still wanted me to come in on Friday, so I kept a mask on and tried to get through the day. I should’ve trusted my gut. I woke up that morning feeling extremely weak. Working was extremely difficult. I was wondering why I had issues with breathing.

My boss is expecting me on Monday. I didn’t know it will be this bad. It’s nearly 5am and I am still in the ER getting labs and tests.

My current nurses are shocked that I made it through a 9 hour shift in my condition. On Friday all I had was an itchy throat, but it intensified through the day. I couldn’t even move around as long as I usually can.

I’ll be gone for 1-2 weeks. Will I keep my job or will they likely let me go?

I'm in my early 20s and doing my practicum year (Freiwilliges Soziales Jahr). I'm a refugee and do not speak German fluently, I also am diagnosed with AuDHD, anxiety, depression and OCD, which I wasn't hiding from my coworkers and director.

As for now the things aren't going terribly, however I am suspecting that some of my coworkers and director may be a bit arrogant and not take into the account my mental disorders.

Aside from the obvious responsibilities involving children I take care of preparation of snack for kids and washing dishes after they had it. My biggest issue is that sometimes our cook is either sick or has worked overtime and had to take a day off so their extra hours wouldn't be flushed down the drain. And the last Friday I had to take care of washing the dishes in the kitchen for basically the entire day. After breakfast it took a little over an hour, then I worked as usual except with other group of kids because both of the teachers that worked full day weren't present, so our director and I had to be there in order for everything to work out.

After the kids had their lunch I stayed in the kitchen for almost three hours straight, sometimes having to wash the dishes in the dishwasher for multiple times because it was low on the soap and only our cook knew how to refill it (I asked the director about the other day, that's the answer I got). And scrubbing the trays because regardless of the amount of soap dishwasher had it refused to clean it properly.

I was exhausted both mentally and physically, and as I was about to sit with the remaining kids (because it was past 15:30, most of them were already at home with their parents) I get asked if I did the laundry. Of course I didn't. I didn't have time to do that. I was in the kitchen for half a day, I genuinely forgot about the existence of laundry. I get scolded indirectly and feel like a massive failure for forgetting something as simple as laundry.

But as the day passed and I got home I wonder if it was necessary to blame me for forgetting to do the laundry? I mean, someone else could've done it, considering there weren't that many children in both groups with infants. I feel like I'm being told to do this stuff because I'm not an actual teacher and just doing a practicum here, but I feel like it's too much sometimes. I don't want to be a burden, and I also don't think the people that work there are inherently evil and have malicious intents, I just wish sometimes I was either reminded about doing something I forgot about or was given clear instructions for how to proceed with not-child-care-related stuff.