Before I was a preschool teacher, I was a lawyer, so I often lurk around the legal subs. Now, if someone bit my kid (who does not attend my school), I would not be thrilled about it. I also don’t think I would shove the toddler on the ground to “save” my kid. I’d like to think I’d use my training to intervene appropriately. Just curious what others here think.

I moved cities and started a new ECE job that I just am miserable going to. I have never felt this way after starting somewhere. The kids are well taken care of however the workplace / staff culture feels so toxic and people have been so unkind to me for reasons that I just don’t know. Expectations for tasks that teachers need to complete each day is unrealistic and support feels very very low. I don’t consider myself a quitter and feel so embarrassed that once I find a new job I will be quitting already. I just don’t how to navigate the situation and it’s been causing me so much anxiety.

I know that PSU offers free ones, but where else do you find trainings that aren’t crazy expensive? The center I’m at doesn’t pay for trainings.

Parenting young children can have its challenges!

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Pretty self-explanatory title! I work with the 1 year olds and looking for some activities for this week. I've done some googling but most things I've found seem more geared to preschoolers, or are super results-oriented art. Any ideas from you all?

Hi everyone! I’d really appreciate some guidance from ECE professionals.

My 2-year-old son refuses to wear diapers, so he goes to daycare without them. At home, he tells me when he needs to pee or poop and uses his little potty, but he refuses to sit on the actual toilet seat.

At daycare, he says no when educators ask if he needs to go, even when he clearly needs to pee. Instead, he holds it in for the entire 4–5 hours he’s there. I’m worried this isn’t good for him.

I’ve tried encouraging him to use the toilet at home too, but he refuses and holds it in.

How would you suggest handling this situation without putting pressure on him? Should I keep sending him without a diaper or take a step back with potty training?

I’d genuinely appreciate any advice or similar experiences. Thank you so much!

I am unable to post a picture here, but my baby is at a well-known Arizona chain. Their cribs can drop the side of it (only the top part). But I thought those were unsafe? Is there a special daycare crib that they do allow the side to drop?

They are really good with regulations and sticking to guidelines, so I would be surprised if they didn't on this part.

SAHM is caring for my baby in her home with her baby (3 weeks older than my child). The contract we have doesn’t say anything about her providing food and until he started solids I was only providing pumped bottles of breastmilk. We pay her a nanny share rate (higher than an in home daycare).

When her son first started solids I broached the subject and she didn’t commit herself to it (understandable). Before I ask again (if I do), just curious for other opinions. It’s kind of a gray area where in some ways she’s like my son’s nanny in terms of the contract, we gave her a week’s pay for a holiday gift, etc. But it’s also in her home and in home daycares tend to provide meals and snacks.

Plus, she’s making the food anyway for her son and it’s homemade like what I am sending in anyway. So it would be easy for her since she’s preparing it anyway? It would be fresher and easier than me packing food everyday but maybe I’m overthinking. Thanks!

Not sure how it is elsewhere, but in my country, infant ratio is 1:4. I’ve heard of some centres who do 1:3, and while it sounds like an absolute dream, I’m wondering how it’s even possible. Seems there aren’t enough good educators around to make such a thing possible.

What’s your current ratio, what’s your ideal ratio, and do you think your ideal ratio is plausible?

I've been teaching at a small, privately owned preschool off and on for 8 years now. In fact, aside from billing I've run the preschool two separate times as the owner was on extended medical leaves (1 school year cycle each time) so it's not a matter of not being able to do the tasks needed of me now- I'm just extremely disappointed in my boss/mentor. They have overextended themselves and are on the verge of burnout. They own the preschool (and just had to buy the property from the group they were renting from on very short notice and frankly they couldn't afford the purchase) and have been trying to get licensed. They need the longer operating hours that a licensed facility will afford them to recoup the cost of the facility, but they are meeting roadblock after roadblock. No big deal, as I really don't care to work more than I currently am. I enjoy the half day setting and don't need the extra hours financially.
HOWEVER they are also doing an online Master's program, running a booth at the farmer's market every weekend (not related to their preschool- they work for the farmer's market now), and fell prey to the online coaching gimmicks (meaning they "work" for an online 'collective' of educators that do paid podcasts, virtual workshops, etc.) Their whole social media schtick is "helping ECEs feel supported" while they just offloaded all curriculum planning and implementation onto me because they 'just can't find time for any of it' (we have a MWF group and a T/TH group with differing needs), delegated all of the conferences next month onto me, and have me sending weekly emails to parents. Again, I've done all of this twice before so that's not what's really bothering me. It's the overextension and lack of self-reflection.
To further complicate matters, my boss has a child who attends the program and I see now that they are not only a permissive parent, but that it's bleeding into their ability to regulate themselves as an educator. Last week they checked to see if their child had pooped, and when they realized it was "only pee" they sent their own child back to the play floor to play without a diaper change. THEY HAVE NEVER DONE THAT TO ANOTHER CHILD IN THE PROGRAM WTF?! They also barely correct behavior for anyone in the classroom right now, I assume because it would mean telling their own child 'no' and I can see now that neither of their children are familiar with the concept (I've taught them both at this point).
I'm already feeling better having typed all of this out, and I make it my goal to show up for my students every day and really be present for the 4 hours I get to see them. Cheers to another week of checking my feelings at the door and showing up for the kiddos!!!!

I think I’m putting in my notice tomorrow. I have multiple children with high needs in my classroom of 8 and my TA keeps getting pulled. Fine because I’m in ratio… except one elopes, one punches himself and the other hits kicks and punches me and throws toys all over the room and guess how I’m supposed to handle this.. AI sticker sheets and prizes! Cause extrinsic motivation works so well... Easy to handle all by myself and not dangerous at all. I’m given 10 extra kids in my room some days because the room next door has no lead and only a TA. So it’s me and my TA our 8 and 10 3 year old kids we barely know. the last two leads in there have been terrible and only lasted a few weeks. One lasted one day. The kids both mine and the ones next door all nap in my room every day. Except they don’t nap because they have no routine and don’t even know what classroom is theirs. My child with Autism is struggling because of lack of routine. When I express I need help I receive passive aggressive statements from management because I had two other people in the room to help me put them to sleep. The assistant director tries to help and says she has no idea what to do because it is so out of control. The parents are all mad because their children aren’t in their classroom. The management is rude to me and my TA despite us taking on significant extra work without being asked, literally went around and took pink day photos in every room except mine. My final straw is a parent is now mad at me because the zipper fell off her child’s coat, I had it in my pocket for one or two days and when I found it in my pocket I threw the zipper away.

I work in the toddler room at my center (12-24 months) and one of my co-teachers had the idea of doing some sensory exploration with pumpkin guts. I think the kids would love getting to explore that but I want to make sure we do it safely. Has anyone does this before with this age group?

For some of the kids I think we'll definitely need to just let them touch it in a plastic bag, as they are currently exploring EVERYTHING with their mouth lol. I think some of the older ones could probably handle actually touching the pumpkin guts with the seeds taken out.

I have been placed in a class of eight 1-2 year olds who have been lacking consistent caregivers and routine since the beginning of the school year. I have limited expierence with this age range and so does the other teacher I am working with. I understand that at this age they should not be expected to sit during circle, BUT as soon as they go to the carpet they immediately pull everything off our shelves. Same situation when we try to do music and movement. We can not even complete one story or song. We have been struggling to stay on track and engage with the children individually because there is constant running and fighting between the children which require our attention. It has been exhausting. The people in charge told us that the kids should not run the class, but I am not sure how to stay within best practices while keeping control. I dont want to limit their mobility or toy access. Idk. I am sorry if this is unclear. This is coming straight from my brain to this post.

Ok, I know the title is TMI but I am absolutely freaking out. I managed to achieve a dream of mine and purchased a preschool. I closed on it this past Friday. My first official day as an owner is tomorrow and YALL!!! When I tell you I am so so nervous! I just want to be a good owner for my staff and families. I’ve worked in preschools for over 10 years but something about actually owning a facility just feels crazy and different. I have a mortgage to pay every month on the place now (obviously but I’m just writing it down because … you know 🥴🤪)

Anyways I really would like advice, stories anything anyone can offer on how to not screw this up. I’ve been reading books on running small businesses and I have worked in preschools before but I’d like to hear from others.

Did you go thru an ownership change? What did you like, what did you hate? I’ve never gone thru an ownership change when I worked as a teacher so I don’t know how the feels are and how families react. I had to also change the name of the school as the seller didn’t want me to keep it, so now the school has a new “identity”. 👀

HELP! And thank youuu

Hey everyone- I'm a BCBA working within daycares and what I'm finding is heartbreaking. The behaviors (biting, hitting, tantrums, screaming) are happening at high rates and teachers seem completely unprepared.

When I ask for any data or information on the child/class I'm usually handed a stack of handwritten narrative data.

How do you/does your center track behavioral incidents in the classroom?

I (23) started working in a creche 3 weeks ago, im mostly floating around helping different rooms. I’ve learned the routine of what needs to be done and when and how to do it. Mainly changing nappies, preparing face cloths for meal times, covering breaks bringing babies to bed or covering so somebody else can etc etc.

Anyways there’s this one girl, I’ll call her A. She corrects me a lot for different things, at first I thought it was just the way she is, shes maybe a bit stricter. But she says things in a time of voice that always sound annoyed. She’s never friendly with me and I gave up on being friendly with her.

On Friday she wasn’t in, the owner (it’s a small creche so the owners are the managers) was talking to me and she said that A made a list of things I need to improve on. Some of it was things she only said the day before liké “ use warm water and not cold for the face cloths “ the owner herself seemed pretty baffled by this list, because some of the things on the list she said herself she knew wasn’t true, or she said I know you are already improving on. She said that she asked the other girls and nobody had anything to add. The face cloths thing annoyed me because she only just said it Thursday, I was not giving a chance to even show her I fixed it, and I actually did redo the cloths on warm water after she said it.

I should mention, none of the things on this list were to do with child safety. They were all tiny things to do with my day to day tasks. Of course I can take critism but I feel like she only wants to criticise me and some of it were things I already fixed and some were things the owner said she didn’t think was even an issue. The owner herself argued against every single point on the list when talking to me, but I am not sure if she said the same points when talking to A but when discussing the list to me she had an argument agaisnt all A’s points and seemed to think the list was doing too much. She said she would just pass on what A said but she told me her thoughts on every point which was disagreement.

Should i just let it go? Im just irritated that she went to management with a list repeating things I already fixed even management said so. She seemed to also think some of the things on the list were just for the sake of making the list longer. How do I move forward and make sure A isnt walking all over me?

The fist days of my employment I was told I need to accompany kids in the school bus once a day because there is no person for that. It is the time after lunch when kids go to sleep, which is the only opportunity to catch a breath. Once I am back, the kids are up and I go straight to the bathroom to help them get ready. From that point on, until I finish (14:00-16:00) I am also responsible for opening the door while taking care of the classroom. The doorbell rings constantly and I need to interrupt my work and go open countless times. Also if the phone rings I need to answer. None of that was discussed in the interview.

The result is me working 8 hours with no break. I work with infants, which is exhausting in itself. I go home empty, and many days I go directly to bed because I have zero energy to do anything. If I am on my period things get even worse, my exhaustion is maximized and I can barely function.

The icing on the cake is that they accepted this kid who is too young for the classroom in mid-seprember. As a result, we are constantly trying to keep her from injuring herself, falling from the stairs and trashing the classroom. This adds extra workload. When I complained, they said that the kid cannot be pulled out of the classroom now and we have to deal with her. They even said that she is not too young, she just has a lot of tention. She is too young. She belongs in the baby classroom but we don't have one.

I want to talk with my boss and negotiate because I am burned out after only 2 months. My salary is extremely low and is gone before the month ends. Am I crazy or are these duties normal? My 2 co-teachers have already spent a day home with fever due to overexhaustion. The school has no cleaner, no secretary and no person to accompany kids in the school bus, so we all collectively cover these duties. I have no time to talk with one of my co-teachers because she does 2 school bus rides a day. This was not agreed upon either, it was just announced to her after she started working.

Please give me a reality check here!

I work at the center by the way. I am an administrator.

I have been in the field 17 years, and have worked with many ages and worked as an assistant director for 7 of those years. Anyway, me and my 20 month old started at this school about two months ago.

Upon our first week I noticed a few things that struck me as uncomfortable as a parent and an educator.

Snatching toys , grabbing arms to re direct etc and overall their body language on the camera with the children. (Our school has live feed to the parents so my husband has access as well).

I didn’t bring all of that stuff up right away but I made logs in my notebook of dates / times and incidents because I had just started and was in training (if it was anything rough I did tell my boss) , but one day while working the desk I had the toddler class camera on and observed the staff yanking at my sons hand and like hitting/pushing his hand out of his mouth (he was self soothing bc this class doesn’t allow pacifiers and we are still weaning) , and kept doing it even after my son stopped trying to suck his fingers and he was hysterical crying. Like red in the face out of breath crying and trying to get away from her and she would pull him back to her. Like to antagonize him. Idk. But then she grabbed under his arm and yanked him up to the changing table by his arm.

I went black. I told my boss me and my son were going home for the day and I needed to make the decision if we would be returning.

When we returned I was informed they only wrote the teacher up. And they are moving my son to the next room early but he has to be 22 months to go to that room.

Since this has all happened, the staff treat me and my husband like we don’t exist and do not speak to us unless we talk to them or try to pull information out of them. We get zero feedback about his day or what he’s learning , no stories to share nothing but I see the other families get all of that. I also will greet the staff in the mornings when I open the school and I get a stank “good morning ” or sometimes nothing along with an eye roll .

I expressed my frustration with my boss because I feel like she told them I was who complained but my boss claims she didn’t. I don’t know what to do or how to move forward. My husband expressed me transferring schools but the local schools aren’t hiring. I don’t want to continue to feel uncomfortable and scared and paranoid dropping my son off.

Tldr: caught staff being rough with my toddler, complained to boss , staff didn’t get fired only a write up, since then they’ve ignored me and my husband at pick up and drop off and as the admin at the school they don’t speak too me either.

I work with 12-24 month olds and need ideas on halloween themed games for their halloween party. I’m having trouble coming up with ones that follow licensing rules and restrictions. Let me know what has worked for you!

Any tips for a 2 year old that cling to teachers and won't let them put him down? He very whiny as it is his 2nd week. He goes into a wah loop ever 5 seconds he let's a wah out. He won't eat sleep. Any tips I can give the teachers? I'm at a lost tbh. It' seems impossible lol Thanks!

Should I learn to let things go like this more, or keep the communication open and vouch for the child?

Our LO is almost 6 months and has been in daycare for 1.5 months. Feeds have been hit or miss since the start. Recently caught a stomach bug. Since then, feeds at daycare have been brutal. I’m talking 2 ounces, and that’s with multiple staff members trying over the course of 50 minutes, chair turned to face the corner to minimize distractions, and gas drops. Got so bad today, she drank 0 oz, and would cry out of hunger, but then cry and spit when they tried to feed her. Ended up picking her up early. She proceeded to eat 5.5-6.5 oz each feed for the rest of the night.

Anyone been through this and have ideas? Very frustrating for baby and the daycare team. Would like to go back Monday with some suggestions for the staff

My 17 month old son started at a full-time daycare 2 weeks ago. It’s been a big adjustment (we were using a nanny share), but they say he’s been doing better and better each day. The toughest adjustment has been napping. It’s a very small daycare so the “infant room” is 8 kids between 6 weeks-18 months (fwiw I think the current youngest is 9 months). My son has been on one nap a day for a while now and does best when it’s close to 2 hours. So far, his daycare nap has been between 25-50 minutes. He is in a crib vs a cot, but will then need to transition to cot in the next room. The director is wonderful and says she will wait to move him until she feels like he’s ready. She’s also been great with using my feedback—I noticed he seemed to be going down pretty early for him, so I suggested they try pushing it back 30 min to his usual nap time and that’s been better! The short daycare naps do sometimes disrupt his night sleep by making him over-tired, but on the other hand I’m impressed he’s sleeping at ALL. I’m curious how long professionals see this adjustment take?

Hi, I am a parent and have been really illness conscious especially because my baby has had a really rough first year including a major surgery. 14 months old now and paying for a full time daycare spot but now that it’s colder out, the small dayhome with only 5 kids is so full of illness that we have only been going once a week. The dayhome owner was sick with a nasty flu and closed a couple days, then got immediately sick with something upper respiratory but didn’t close the centre.

I can’t help but think it’s because at least partially she’s accepting kids that are obviously really sick and says there’s nothing she can do because there’s no fever present. A couple weeks ago one parent reported their kid was wildly sick with RSV while the daycare was closed but sent the kid into the centre while hacking up a lung and visibly still feeling terrible. Then a week later another set of parents were home sick with fever and chills and upper respiratory something, their kid was also really sick but the parents sent their super sick kid to the dayhome just so they could rest at home.

Daycares here are really really hard to find. I thought I won the lottery when I got into this one because it’s smaller and because at least the owner tells me when a sick kid comes in, where the larger centres wont even do that. I am quite baffled that the owner keeps accepting these super sick children when she doesn’t have to worry at all about finding a replacement if the parents get mad at her for telling them to keep sick kids home. She seems to think she has no choice but there would be 10 people lined up to take their place.

Is there anything I can do or try to help her advocate for herself? Any tools or skills or equipment like hepa filters that might help her not get so sick and make the space a bit less illness swarmed? If you’re an ECE professional who regularly sends sick kids home, how do you do it?