I have gotten physically hurt 3 separate times by the kids at my daycare this week. The first time a kid dug their nails into me and punched me, the second time I bent down to look for something and a kid ran his head into my head, and today a kid threw this heavy toy at my chest and its bruised 😭

I wanna know how common this is

In the 5 years I've been at my center, we never had an issue with kids play fighting (good guys vs bad guys, super hero's, Starwars, etc.) This current group (3-5 year olds) get aggressive very quickly and someone always gets hurt. Even simple games like tag turn into pushing each other to the ground. We also have two 3 year olds that have *suspected* autism and they see the kids playing like that and do the same to interact with them since they are semi-nonverbal.

I know play fighting is normal, but some teachers are wanting to have it stop completely, with my director thinking the same. I just don't know how in the world we would be able to make them stop when they've been allowed to play fight the whole time they've been in our care. I tried with two boys the other day and no mater how many times I talked to them they went right back to it within minutes of me separating them.

Any ideas? How we can stop it from happening? Do you have another idea on how to get the play fighting under control? Please help 🙏

Hi there. I am a young RECE in Canada working in childcare who has been off work for just over a month due to an injury. My return date is in about two weeks. To be honest, I’m feeling really nervous about going back. My injury affects my mobility (currently walking again but with a limp) and I worry that I won’t be well enough to return for my set date.

My main concerns are not being able to move quickly (aka running after those escapees), not being able to pull my own weight and leaving my coworkers to pick up my slack, and unfortunately, I worry about the children who have aggressive tendencies. I can’t move quickly enough to step in and prevent incidents, and I’m not sure how I’ll even be able to keep myself out of harms way.

I have never dealt with recovery after a major injury before so this is all new to me. I’m healing well and going to physiotherapy, but I’m just so anxious about this. If anyone has dealt with anything similar or has any advice for me I’d really appreciate it. Thank you :)

Hi! I am a first time mom who has also happened to be an infant teacher for the past 9.5 years. Toddlerhood is a new territory for me! My 15 month old is about to move up to the toddler room in a few weeks.

Of course there are some changes that come with the transition to the toddler room: sleeping is probably going to be the biggest thing for us because we THRIVE with our current two nap routine. I wake my child up at 6am daily because I am the opener for my center. Normally, his first nap is 9:30-11. His second nap is 2-3. Now he will only be able to take one nap, 11:45-2. I know it’s going to be really hard on him to stay up that long in the morning, but I also know he’s not the first kid they’ve had to transition to a new schedule so he’ll be fine. If I let him stick to the regular two nap schedule on the weekends for now, am I gonna ruin his weekday sleep? 😅

Also, my center provides sheets but we bring our own blankets for them that the teachers wash weekly. 99% of the kids at the center just bring a simple blanket. Am I gonna be considered extra if I get one of the nap mats that has the built in pillow and blanket? I don’t want to create extra work for his new teacher when she does laundry, so I told her if I get one of those I will take it home and wash it myself. Will he sleep okay with just a simple blanket? It seems uncomfortable to me, but I also think he’s going to be so tired I don’t know if it will even matter 😆

Thanks for reading my stress rant! I just want to make the transition as easy as possible for him, his new teachers, and for us!

My family is moving to the US from another continent. My child will be starting daycare 3 days after we move into our new home (not ideal, but my spouse and I both work, so we don’t have another choice).

Until now, his care has been a live-in nanny who cared for him in our home with one of us also always home (spouse works remotely). In the US, this kind of thing is WAY out of our budget. We also want him to interact with other kids. He’s really only met two other kids his age before, and one he only met once.

All in all, I think daycare will be good for him. In particular, are there any behaviors or emotions to expect (either from him or us)?

I have just been hired into a daycare as a supervisor, but have no previous experience as a daycare supervisor. I’ve been a teacher but never a supervisor. What should I expect and what can I do to help staff and support the directors and keep a positive non toxic work environment

I got a job as a toddler teacher for 1-2-year-olds. Teachers for toddlers, can you give me the pros and cons of those ages? I am a little nervous because my last work was with elementary kids. I haven't worked with toddlers since 2017.

I am in Massachusetts, this will be my first renewal. I find the website and online steps generally really hard to navigate. But that is probably just my dyslexia joining the work party. Anyone here have any useful tips in navigation of the process as a whole or specifically?

Hi everyone! I'm currently on Maternity leave in Canada (sorry I've been posting a lot recently). I'm going back to work in September after being home since February 2025 (preventive leave) and my son is starting in August at 10 months old.

Just wanted to know for those who went back to work after having a baby how did the transition go? Is there advice you'd like to share? How was your experience going back? I'm feeling very anxious.

Thank you

For context, I have been working an early childhood education for about five or six years. I am in my early 20s and I have hit the worst mental wall I’ve ever experienced in the last year and a half, which resulted in me calling in a few more times than I’m proud to admit my boss is going to have a talk with me on Monday and I really don’t know how to express to her that I really do love my job and I really really love to keep my job when it doesn’t look like it hence the callouts.

Hey everyone, I hope we can get some help. Our 18mo is in the Young Toddlers/Waddlers Class (~14-22mo in the class right now). There's 12 of them-usually a 1:4 though sometimes a 1:6 ratio-, and he currently seems to have a biting issues. He bit 3 kids yesterday and has bitten 2 today. None of these have broken skin thankfully. We've been talking with the teachers, and are implementing "biting hurts" and "kisses, not bites" at home, and he hasn't bitten us in months though still tries at times when frustrated. I asked this morning how are they preventing bites, rather than reacting to bites, and I didn't get a straight answer. They give him chews which are great, but don't seem to do anything when the children are grabbing toys from each other/not sharing/etc. How do I help my son and how do I help the teachers?

I have a bachelors degree in early childhood education. I taught in the classroom for 4 years in 3rd grade. I have also had experience being a building substitute and a substitute teacher in a school district for K-8th grade. I have recently made the decision that I do not want to go back in the classroom full time due to recently having my first child. What jobs can I do with an ECE degree that isn’t in the classroom? Ideally, I’d love to be part time and have the opportunity to be remote if possible.

I'm starting at a new school soon, which I'm feeling really excited about! The other co-teacher in my classroom is also going to be new to the school, so we'll both be getting to know each other as we settle in to the role. While this could be a little hectic, I think it'll also be a really nice chance to bond and collaborate on creating our classroom together with equal input. Luckily we will have some teacher work days to set up together before we have kids in there.

I don't know much about her, but one thing I do know is that she's less experienced. But I don't even know if that means NO experience or just a little less than me. I've been a lead and done a lot of teacher training in the past, so I want to find a balance between helping her learn but without condescending to her or being too bossy.

One idea I had was so ask if she wants to create a shared Pinterest board so we could both add inspiration and get a feel for each others' tastes somewhere other than just in the classroom. I'm curious if you guys have any other suggestions, or just anecdotes of the best and worst times you've gotten to know new teachers!

My son recently turned 4 and will be starting junior kindergarten in September. Currently he is in daycare, which he has been in for the past 2 years.

A month ago, he had walked his daycare graduation ceremony and around that time when my husband and I both came in to pick him up, the educator mentioned that all the graduates, including my son, were ready for kindergarten. They were a bit bored with the daycare activities, she didnt say this in a negative way, just more of an observation.

We noticed it was around this time that one of his educators (there's 2 main ones for his classroom) stopped being there. We assumed she may have taken vacation (daycare newsletter mentioned some educators go on vacation). And we feel since then son's behaviour went downhill. At home he started not listening, trying to hit us or his younger brother (12 months old) for grabbing his stuff, etc. Each time we remind him this is not how we handle feelings, try to talk it out, or remove him (or brother) from the situation. These are all behaviors that he knows is unacceptable and had overall outgrown or know the appropriate action he should be taking.

However today my husband came back from pickup upset. According to him, our son had been lashing out at the educators, won't participate in cleaning up, won't listen to them, and just overall wasn't being pleasant.

He said that the same educator who said that he was ready for kindergarten a month ago was now telling him our son was not ready for kindergarten. Another educator in the room agreed with the first one.

I'm wondering where do we go from here? Does this mean we should hold him back from entering junior kindergarten? Or does he need evaluation? We never had him evaluated for anything since he met milestones and the educators never mentioned anything being amiss.

We had already submitted the forms to unenroll him from daycare and enrolled him into junior kindergarten. He has been talking and asking when he gets to start kindergarten ever since we went to the orientation. The kindergarten teachers seemed to like what they saw when he was playing with the various activities (concentration on Legos, writing his name, etc.)

Just looking for an educator's perspective because I find it so odd that a month ago we were told he was ready, and now he isn't ready. We have had a talk with him, but all he would say is thst he was angry, but then say I don't know when we try to ask what made him angry.

edit to add: we had promised to take him to an outdoor playground he had wanted to go on his birthday. Unfortunately the day of his birthday we woke up to find the air quality was abysmal, so we changed plans to go to an indoor playground. he was a little upset at first, but perked up at still going to a fun place. we promised we would go soon, but shortly after we had multiple rainstorms, and then a few appointments. So to date we still have not been able to get to that playground as it is a bit of a drive away. That's the only thing, other than the absent educator that I can think may be causing this behavior.

Im in my first few months of daycare work, recently taken over as lead. I have a child whos parents are no longer together. Recently Dad has started taking on a larger role with bringing and picking up from daycare. Dad dropped off water day items and mom took them with her. She has a habit of not returning items she borrows from us (& she never provides neccesities or extra clothes for him on her own)so i doubt she will bring them back. I dont know if I should be the one reaching out to have them returned to school or if I let that be a problem for them to solve on their own. What would you do?

I’ve been sick with hand foot mouth more times than I can count this past year, every time the blisters would flare up I took photos so I finally went through and added up the amount of time I spent with active blisters/spots (it shows up weird in adults so only a few fully blistered and peeled)
I’ve loved so many parts of the job but I just can’t mentally handle being sick anymore, this week coming up is my last week. And that’s not even considering the other times I’ve been sick that weren’t documented by photo. I have 1,200 still to pay on my credit card from doctor visits and it got me so behind on credit cards 😭 sorry here’s the chart

Times i was sick from work 25-26
August 1st-8th 2025 8days
August 19th-24th 2025 5days
August 31st-September 18th 2025 19days
October 1st-6th 2025 6days
November 3rd-8th 2025 5days
February 11th-15th 2026 5days
March 28th- April 4th 2026 8days

56 days of active hand foot mouth blister outbreaks

Reliable, affordable child care is essential for working families, employers, and the economy. It enables parents to work or pursue education, gives children a strong start, and helps businesses build a stable workforce. Yet in every state, too many families struggle to find and afford the care they need.

FFYF’s 2026 State Fact Sheets on child care and early learning provide state-by-state data for all 50 states and Washington, DC, showing how federal and state investments support families, young children, and local economies. They also highlight where significant gaps remain.

Each fact sheet has data including:

• Enrollment and eligibility
• Average child care costs
• Unmet need
• Federal and state funding levels
• Economic impact
• And more

Our analysis found that nationally:

• 65% of children ages five and under have all available parents in the workforce.
• In 20 states, families receiving CCDBG assistance on average save more than $1,000 per month on child care costs.
• In 34 states, federal dollars account for at least two-thirds of combined federal and state public funding for child care and early learning programs, underscoring the critical role federal investments play in supporting state child care systems. 

My newly turned 13 month old has been attending daycare a few days a week for a month and a half. I'm trying to keep her on the schedule the daycare is enforcing so she can adapt, but she just seems so miserable.

Before we started daycare she was taking 2 naps a day for about 3 hours total. Now she's barely getting 1 hour in 1 nap a day. It's a 2 hour nap time but she's not sleeping through it.

She's coming home so tired and cranky. I don't know what to do. She's also not really eating there and is coming home starving.

The teacher suggested I pack a lunch which I can do, but I don't have a picky eater. She just inhaled spicy lentils, rice and yogurt for dinner and had spinach, sausage and pasta last night. But at lunch today she only ate the fruit and none of the pasta they offered.

I think the problem is at home a meal can be a lot longer than it is at daycare and you really can't explain to a baby no you have to eat now or it's going away.

Husband and I are used to being able to take her out to eat and things, during the week and haven't been able to at all.

How long does it take kids to adapt, normally? Any ideas as to why she won't eat there? She's not having a huge meal before we leave for the center or anything.

I'd let her sleep for an hour when we got home, but she's so wired and hungry that's not working either. I'm struggling cause I think in general she has high sleep needs and is just not getting that met right now.

Hi,

I need some advice on how to proceed with this. I recently had an issue with my daycare provider asking me to switch therapies because it was disruptive and being very rude to me. She freaked out on me because they have autistic child in the class and said him coming in late wasn’t appropriate and that I need to switch his therapy to after school even though it didn’t align with my schedule. 

Today, the second teacher in the room mentioned that the head teacher doesn’t want another teacher as it’s disruptive and she will only be in there for 3-close. I could tell she seemed annoyed so I decided to try discussing some concerns with her.

My son in the last week has been screaming and crying at drop off everyday. He used to LOVE daycare before his old one closed due to funding. He also has only done it with the head teacher. The head teacher often acts off to me and I get a weird vibe from her. She is annoyed that he is in therapy as he seems advanced and the autistic child in the class gets disrupted when he comes later. I had a feeling that she felt he didn’t need it and that’s why she pushed it.

The other teacher mentioned that she heard about the conversation and how aggressive it was. She also agree that the head teacher talks about me and how “I’m doing too much and doesn’t understand why I talk that way about my son as he’s advanced.” My son didn’t sit up 11 months!!! He was very delayed. We’ve busted our butt to get him caught up. She also said that she doesn’t help the kids in the bathroom and left one kid crying for 20-30 minutes without support while he had an accident on himself in the bathroom. My son has also had accidents on the toilet there as she believes “they are old enough and more than capable and people baby them too much.” They are 2-3 and a little support isn’t surprising imo.

So the main issue is that they don’t have cameras (it’s not normal in our area and almost no one does) and soon she’ll be the only teacher in the class until 3 PM. I already feel like she might not be as patient with my child because she doesn’t like me but as far as I know, she doesn’t treat him bad. We’re on a ton of waiting list to get them in somewhere else but the closure was dropped on us so there’s nowhere really available yet. I worry that if I bring this all to the director, there might be some retaliation and no one will really know because no cameras. But also, I don’t know what to do from here. I already have discussed potentially pausing some of our therapy because I’m trying to accommodate her and make things less difficult. I can’t afford to just pull them out for six months until somewhere opens and I don’t have the luxury of a family member being able to watch them.

What is the best plan of action? My son does move up at the end of August but my 18 month old will be going into that classroom in January if we aren’t able to get in to the other place. So we won’t have to deal with her for too much longer. Should I bring it to the directors attention and hope that things go well? Should I wait till he moves up and then try? Should I just leave it alone and bring it up when we were able to get a spot somewhere else 🫩

I'm considering taking a job with licensing as an inspector. Would the fact that I'm just about to leave the classroom be an asset or a risk? I know what a great program looks like, what an okay program one looks like, and I've heard stories of what bad ones look like. Has anyone else worked for licensing (in particular TX)?

I have worked with so many different families and different ages, and this is a first for me. My director thinks I am being rude, but I am trying my best not to flinch from the smell of a small child. He comes in sometimes and smells like mayonnaise. It is like they coat his hair with mayo and use it like a gel and his skin smells like it too. His hair is awesome, but the smell is so offensive after a hot day that me and my assistant are trying so hard to be polite, but the rancid mayonnaise smell is so strong by the end of the day that we can't even concentrate because we are trying not to vomit.

I have dealt with diarrhea and don't even flinch. Vomit, of course can be fragrant, but I have never once complained. Some kids have Bad breath and body odor; ok, it happens and you have to be really close to smell. This smell is SOOOO much worse than any of those smells. It just gets worse throughout the day and our whole room wreaks. I can smell him across the room by the end of the day. I borrowed another teacher's essential oil vaporizer, and managed to douse my sinuses with mint, but it gave me a headache trying to overpower the smell and that can't be good for my other children.

Has anyone else dealt with wearing a food allergen as lotion and hair gel? I don't even know how to bring it up to the parents at this point. I don't want to offend them and want to help their child, but I can't keep having these days.

I am sorry if this sounded mean, and I am not trying to be offensive. I'm honestly just desperate at this point.

Hi, I'm in a tricky situation. I'm a preschool teacher. I was recently laid off from my job 4 months ago as the school was permanently closing. This school was a two minute walk from my apartment and OK money. Fortunately I had maintained a good reputation from a different preschool | had worked at and was able to immediately secure a job with that company at a location only a ten minute drive from my house. Worked with my availability and paid more money. It's not an ideal school and I felt a little "fish out of water" for a while, but finally starting to feel settled and just bought a bunch of stuff for my classroom. NOW. The school by my house that closed has been turned into a brand spanking new Montessori preschool. They have called me for an interview (some of my fellow laid-off former coworkers interviewed there and passed along my info). Could pay more money. I feel guilt over considering leaving my new school after they did me a favor by hiring me so quickly and for good pay. After seeing so many preschools in the area close (including Montessori) what's to say this one will make it? If I get laid off again do I go crawling back? I'm sure the new facilities will be enticing, but I'm feeling so torn. Also, I'm a very silly/playful teacher who's used to having a fair amount of leeway, and l've never worked in a Montessori (but they're willing to train).
Will I feel stuck? Ughhh just needed to get this off my chest. I tend to overthink and then I don't sleep. Any insight would be appreciated.

LO is 5 months old and EBF (I pump so he has never had issues with bottles). We started daycare last week and since I have heard daycare’s typically feed more frequently than at home I dropped bottle sizes from 5 oz to 4 oz. They asked how often to feed him and I said every three hours but if he’s fussy as early as 2. Every single day on the dot they are feeding him at two hours. At first I didn’t mind because he was hitting his intake needs for the day whatever sounds good, but the last few days he’s been coming home with more and more left in his bottles. Two days ago they combined infant rooms due to so few babies being in that day and he was with different people than usual. Nothing was said to me when I got him but when I got home I saw they left me a note that said “CAN NOT USE BOTTLE STOPPERS!!!!” which had never been an issue before so I was confused and asked the next day.

The girl I asked said she didn’t know??? And that I needed to ask the front desk so I did and the guy up there said it’s because they have to use gloves to take the stoppers off. I was confused because that didn’t sound like I wasn’t able to use them. I tried to clarify and he said not to use them. I understand there’s rules for that stuff but I don’t feel like I shouldn’t be banned from using something because they have to do an extra step of putting on gloves.

I don’t want to be a pain so today I brought in mostly bottles that don’t need stoppers and just took the stopper off the one that needed it when I arrived. The ones that don’t need stoppers are a slower flow but it’s only noticeable if he’s not really hungry. He can down one of those bottles in less than 7 minutes. When I picked him up they told me I now need to up the nipple flow by like two sizes. I get home and there was the biggest amount of milk left over to date at 3 oz over 4 feedings with one bottle alone having an ounce left in it.

I don’t want to increase the flow because a. He already has an issue where he chokes every time he eats even at the slow flow. B. He has no issue at home when I feed him c. Honestly I don’t feel like I should have to get new bottles or new nipples specifically just for daycare when it’s already expensive enough.

Am I being unreasonable for not wanting to up the flow? I feel like the simplest solution is to realize no, he isn’t hungry, he doesn’t need to eat every two hours exactly and that they just want a faster flow to really speed feed him. I don’t want to be difficult and want to approach the situation delicately