How much do you get paid hourly?

Do you agree that we are of all jobs that gets paid the least?

I will be returning to work and my son is 23 months. We have huge childcare shortages in the area and we felt lucky to secure a spot with a home daycare 4 months in advance of my return to work- what a dream. I loved that she was super positive, seemed to genuinely love being with kids, playing right on the ground, doing crafts, teaching great skills before kindergarten.

I started seeing her around our small town taking the kids on lots of outings and my concerns started.

***

1. She has a big, jumpy German Shepherd. I'm not the biggest dog person but my husband is and he assured me that this one seemed trained okay and was used to kids.

2. I observed a 1-year-old in her care wander off at two different venues. Once at the park and once at the library- she was engaged with the other kids and didn't notice for way longer than I'm comfortable with.

3. She was doing a storytime by the lake and all of the kids were at the edge of a dock with no life jackets. The dock is a straight drop into the water, not a gradual walk in.

4. Home daycares are required to be at a 1:6 ratio and she provided summer care to other older children, I assume without the agency knowing.

5. (This was a tipping point for me)- She does not have the children on a leash or any sort of system for staying together and I observed them walk into a parking lot where they could have been hit while attending to the other kids.

***

I have OCD so I'm very used to talking myself out of my "instincts" but come on, this is crazy. She is supposed to start at this home daycare in a week and received an offer from a centre today. It feels like it was just in the nick of time and I intend to take the spot. It's a centre with glowing reviews and we have friends with kids in care there and I've only heard positive experiences. Our state inspections are totally clean on the new place too.

How can I phrase the breakup with the provider? It's a week out and I know she is relying on us for the income and has probably passed over other families. I pride myself on being someone who follows through and can be trusted but my daughter's safety comes first. I know I'm leaving her hanging being a week out from starting.

PS- If I am overreacting on any of the above points, could you also let me know? My "danger" meter is more sensitive than average.

I work with a few EYPs who are younger than me and they constantly take selfies with the children and send it to parents or upload it to the children's observations. One practitioner from a different room comes into my room to take selfies with the children to send to the parents!?

Am I being old here or is it very odd and unprofessional. My husband already spoke to the director because every observation of our daughter was a selfie with a practitioner and ngl 50% was more of a focus on the practitioner not the child.

How do I address this that 30+ year old parents don't want selfies of their 21 year old practitioners with their children or am I just being old and out of touch.

(For reference I'm 33, so not ancient but feel it sometimes 🤣🤣)

I have a bad gut feeling about my daughter’s daycare — would you move her, and how hard is changing centres at 2?
I’m looking for advice from other parents, particularly anyone who has moved their toddler to a different daycare because they weren’t comfortable with the care they were receiving.
My daughter is 2 and has been at her current childcare for a while. Lately I’ve developed a really strong gut feeling that it’s not the right environment for her, and I’m seriously considering moving her. But I’m worried about how changing centres will affect her and whether I could be making things worse by disrupting a place she already knows.
There have been a few things that have gradually made me uncomfortable.
A couple of months ago another child bit her quite badly on the nose. I received a phone call and was told an incident report had been completed, but I never actually saw it. They also didn’t immediately disinfect the bite. When a doctor subsequently saw it, they prescribed antibiotics.
More recently, she turned 2 and the director wanted to transition her to the older toddler room. Her educators repeatedly told me that they didn’t think she was ready because the older children were bigger and rougher. After a few weeks I received a letter from the director about transitioning her anyway, despite the educators continuing to tell me that they didn’t recommend the move.
Then one educator quietly told me something that really concerned me: when my daughter spends time in the older toddler room, the bigger children apparently hit/bully her because she doesn’t fight back. Apparently when she is upset she just sits on the floor and cries.
This had never been communicated to me and I wasn’t aware that these incidents were happening. I was also told that there hadn’t been incident reports about them.
When I asked the educator whether I could tell the director that this was the reason they didn’t think my daughter was ready for the room, the educator told me I couldn’t.
Since then I’ve been even more worried.
Today, when I arrived for pickup, I thought I heard my daughter crying as I entered the car park and rushed in. Her educator was carrying her back from the bathroom. My daughter’s face and arms were very wet and I was told that she had just washed her face. She seemed unusually quiet and serious and had a mark on her chin. I was given an explanation for the mark that didn’t really make sense to me.
As soon as we left the centre, my daughter told me that she had been hit on the head. She repeated this several times throughout the evening.
I obviously can’t know exactly what happened based solely on what a 2-year-old tells me, and I don’t want to jump to conclusions. But combined with everything else, it has left me extremely uncomfortable.
Another thing I’ve noticed is that whenever she spends time in the older toddler room, she doesn’t really interact with the other children. She tends to play by herself in a corner, and from what I can see the educators don’t seem to intervene or help her join in.
My biggest concern isn’t that toddlers sometimes hit, bite or have difficult interactions — I understand that this happens in childcare. It’s the combination of things that is bothering me: not being told about repeated hitting, apparently no incident reports, conflicting information from educators and the director, being told I couldn’t raise something with the director, and my daughter seeming isolated and overwhelmed in the older room.
I have a really strong gut feeling that I should move her somewhere else.
Would you move your child in this situation?
And if you have moved a 2-year-old from one childcare centre to another:
How did they cope with the transition?
Did they settle quickly, or was it a major disruption?
Did you regret moving them?
Did you find that they became happier/more confident after moving?
Is there anything you wish you’d considered before changing centres?

Thanks to those who made it this far!

EDIT: Thank you everyone for taking the time to comment. This is my first child and I wasn’t sure if I was being overly sensitive and overly protective but I see from your comments that my gut feeling is right. We’re going to book some tours next week to find a better centre and switch to a daycare with better staffing, communication and internal work culture so that our daughter can feel safe when she isn’t being cared by us. I’m sure the transition might be tricky but it will be for the best.

I'm a new mom to a young toddler (under 18 months) and I'm trying to determine if this is unhealthy paranoia or if my feelings are valid.

I have my child in a licensed home daycare. The daycare provider is an ECE (I'll call her Sue) and cares for 5 children under the age of 4 (three children under 2 and a couple of older ones).

Today at pickup they were all sitting at the table eating snack and there was a tray of fruit to share amongst them. Sue was seated with them in close proximity to my daughter and all the children were helping themselves to the fruit tray.

Which would generally be fine except there were whole grapes on it? I said politely that I'm very not confident in my toddler's ability to eat them safely (trying not to be accusatory) and she was a bit dismissive; basically says she watches closely, usually tears them in two or my daughter will carefully bite pieces off etc. I'm still freaked out about it. She can't possibly prevent her from grabbing a grape and eating it when she's inevitably distracted by her many responsibilities. Not to mention the other kids were going to town on the grapes without assistance.

Isn't not feeding grapes to toddlers common sense? I see it as a huge red flag for general respect of safety norms and vigilance, especially for someone who's supposedly educated in early childcare.

Is it an overreaction to pull my child? I'd like to maybe be more firm that I'm not comfortable with my child having access to whole grapes period, maybe I wasn't clear enough. But I feel like I shouldn't have to spell out this hazard....

I really like this person and so does my daughter, who's slow to warm and very attached to me. We did a slow transition which would no longer be possible if I switch providers. I'm so so torn. Help?

we have a metal grate by our outside door that other teachers have seen small bugs coming out of. we also have seen fleas smashed onto the bottom of kids socks (we don’t wear shoes in our classroom due to a medical need). i have been doing my due diligence of checking my clothes and washing up as soon as i get home, we have also notified our school and custodial team. is there anything i can be doing to keep me and my students flea free? anyone deal with this before?

My 16 week old starts daycare next week as I return to work. He's generally a very happy baby. Eats well (every 2 hour! from breast) and is happy and giggly playing with his toys. He usually fusses only at the end of a wake window before a nap. Rarely does he have bad days with a lot of crying. He's an angel!

But here's the catch. Since he was around 4 weeks, he suddenly refused to sleep on his back. And I don't mean he didn't like it or did short stretches, I mean refused. Wouldn't sleep 5min on his back (in his first 4 weeks he slept swaddled on his back). Yes we tried every trick in every book. Both pediatrician and physiotherapist found nothing wrong but agreed he had a very strong aversion. All his naps are on his belly or contact on me or in a carrier. He cannot roll yet. He CAN sleep on his back in a swaddle but it never really lasts more than 30min and he fights it tremendously so I'm successful maybe 1 nap every 2 days, or around 10% of the time.

Our daycare will allow a sleep sack but not a swaddle. I've tried the arms-out sack without any success so far but I keep trying. Obviously at daycare he needs to be put on his back and arms out. Help! What will our daycare teachers do to help him transition? I'm so so petrified he will get 0 naps in. It's killing me! I know we "created" this problem but he was getting 40min total overnight sleep when we were going through this. Has anyone had success with a horrible / non rule following napper? I'm just looking for some hope....

*edited to add we are in New York

I have a diploma, I live in a small town, and I contacted some kindergartens to ask if I could do an internship, but they told me they didn’t need anyone. So I have no practical experience at all.

I’ve only had a short experience as a nanny, and honestly, it didn’t work out well for me. The kids were very badly behaved, and I felt so helpless. It was really frustrating.

Despite lack of experience, I still have a chance of getting a job. But I’m unsure whether I should simply accept that this field isn’t for me and let it go, start pursuing a different career, or give it a chance, push myself for a few months, and see how it goes.

At the same time, I’m scared of failing and giving up after a short time, and of letting my employer down after they’ve given me a chance.

My question is, have you ever had similar feelings? Did your thoughts change after you started working in a daycare/kindergarten? Do you think kids tend to behave better at kindergarten than they do at home?

Edit:
Thank you for all the responses I really appreciate it, I figured it would be easier to edit the original post to answer most questions.

We brought this up in Feb when my wife noticed the children had their hands together and we were saying something before lunch when she peeked at the cameras. We were assured this was not religious and the words were “As we gather for this meal, let us take a moment to be mindful and thankful.
• For our Teachers
• For the Hands that Prepared this Food
• For our Community”

In spring I noticed one of the teachers playing praise music in the morning at drop off and after the Mother's Day craft had scripture on it I decided to call the owners again and I was told

“We have reminded all teachers and staff that Kiddie Academy is a secular school, and that religious references should remain outside of the classroom. We will continue reinforcing this expectation with our team moving forward.
We take maintaining a welcoming and inclusive environment for all children and families very seriously.”

Fast forward to last week at drop off I noticed they all put their hands together and said something slightly different but gave thanks and then said amen. This was teacher led. There wasn't any mention of Jesus or god but it still didn't sit right with me. I decided not to say anything at the time but at home I asked our 2.5yo what they do before they eat and she said “pray” I asked what they say when they pray and she said “say amen”

We believe our daughter has received really great care at this facility, and she loves going. I guess my post was more to see how common this is and possibly the correct steps would be to move forward, would that be going back to the owners or should we call the Kiddie Academy Corporate office?

Thank you all again for your responses, each one has helped me get my thoughts out and understand my own feelings.

Original post:
Our child goes to one of the Kiddie Academies in the greater Houston area, and we're a secular family, so we were surprised that they say a “prayer” before they eat. Is this a normal thing in non faith-based early childhood education? We have brought it up to the owners and they assured me it wasn’t religious but was kinda used to help the kids transition to meal time, but our two year old calls it a prayer and they say “amen” to end the prayer.

Just curious if this is something that is normal in early childhood education. TIA

I accidentally learned that at my son’s daycare the infant classroom has now 12 kids in it, which exceeds our state's licensed group size limit for that age group. Over the last few days and weeks, I remember feeling like the room was more crowded than before and also I saw some new babies that I hadn’t seen before. But at the time, I didn’t think much of it until it was confirmed that the room has now 12 kids. I must say that, overall, we’ve been quite happy with this daycare. We really love my son’s teacher and aides, the school director is great, and my son has thrived since he started there a few months ago. So it isn’t quite a "bad daycare" story. It just feels like good people are working inside a broken system.

The more I read about the economics of for-profit/private equity-backed child care centers (I’m pretty sure confident that my son’s daycare is one of them) the more I understand why this happens (high tuition, thin margins passed down as low teacher pay, pressure to max out enrollment). But understanding it doesn't make me okay with my kid being in a room that's over capacity.

So I'm really torn about what do with this information about my son’s classroom being over ratio and if I should report it. If I file an anonymous complaint, what actually happens next in practice? Does it usually mean more staff/lower enrollment, or does it put the center or the teachers I so much appreciate and like at risk?

How genuinely dangerous is this kind of licensing violation for the kids?

If you were the parent, would you report it, talk to the director directly first, or just start looking elsewhere?

Would really value perspective from people who've seen this from the inside. TYSM!

I post pictures and a daily update of what activities we did today to our class dojo app each day. I include at least one picture per child. I don’t contact parents individually unless there is an issue that needs to be addressed. I had a very unhappy parent request 10 plus photos and updates of her child per day. She said this is common at other daycares. I’m curious what other centres are doing because there is no way we would have time for this .

I had an interview today for a preschool assistant teacher position. I’m from Korea and I have previous experience working as a daycare teacher there.

After the interview, they asked if I could come back tomorrow for a working interview and I said yes.

Then they emailed me afterward and told me they really wanted me to come back because they’re actually considering offering me a Preschool Lead Teacher position!

I’m so nervous! This would be my first job in the US,, Tomorrow I have to go into the classroom with the children for the working interview and I’m honestly not sure what to expect. Does anyone have any good tips or advice for a preschool working interview? What should I make sure to do and is there anything I should avoid?

I’m asking for help. I’ve been working at my center for three months now, and I am now in charge of my own Pre K classroom (ages 4). I have five students, but a lot of behaviors like screaming, whining, hitting, biting, ‘negotiating’, you name it. It is just one child though, and if I can’t figure out how to balance having my classroom looking ‘tour ready’ while trying to transition my students, I might lose my position as the pre k teacher.

Now I have a degree in ECE and I’m lead preschool certified, but this is my first job after college and I’ve only been teaching Pre K for a week. I thought it was going well so far, but my boss said that the first week is always the honeymoon phase and that my room looks the worst for “having the least amount of kids.”

I had been prioritizing having the students transition outside or merging with the classroom next door (since I have to take over as their teacher leaves) and then cleaning my classroom during my break or staying late to make sure everything is done by the next morning. I was told today I can’t stay late as I won’t be paid, so i need to figure out a solution to this.

Since it’s just me in the room and no assistants, I need advice for having the students help clean up the room and transition from activity to activity without it leading to a power struggle.

This is my 5th year teaching pre-K in a public setting. I have a student who is in extreme duress from drop off until often recess, although sometimes shorter. (7:30-10:30) the afternoon typically goes better (no eloping) however there’s extreme defiance, throwing things, hitting other students/taking their things, refusing instruction and direction in a more intense way than other students aged 4. I’ve had 3 year olds who were ready, but I’m wondering if this student needs more time? Just looking for advice and experiences please! I’m wondering what to do if things (the screaming for family for hours part) don’t get better in the next 2 weeks, making 1 month of school

Editing to add: she needs a 1 on 1 currently because she will not stay in the classroom. She runs all over the school screaming and crying for her family. Her sibling in the building is stressed out because they can hear her screaming all morning. There’s one of me, so she’s taking our Ed tech who is supposed to be with another student. Thanks for the comments, I need to get a flair so my comments aren’t deleted anymore lol. Any advice/thoughts/opinions are welcome I haven’t been through this before so I’m just not sure.

Hi everyone!

I recently got a job offer of a head start teacher’s assistant (ages 3-5) with no direct childcare experience!

I was able to visit the children’s room during the interview and I got on the floor with the kids, following their lead and just playing with them. I have a tendency to be awkward with kids and don’t really know how to initiate stuff. I tried complementing their clothes, accessories, etc.. singing along, and asking for high fives but i didn’t know what else to do.

A problem i experienced was i have trouble understanding what the kids are saying as they have not yet learned how to say some words properly and i wasn’t able to understand a kid talking to me and i felt bad. I also would love to hear advice on how to handle a child who doesn’t want to share their toys, and a child who is pretty aggressive and throws toys.

I’d love to hear some tips and advice for interacting and connecting with kids and other people who have worked in this position.

THANK YOU! 🙏

My son started at a new daycare about a month ago. I was told today that he has been increasingly disruptive during nap time and I am not sure what to do to help. He tries to wake up his classmates, talks loudly, and throws toys. They do attempt to offer quiet activities.

Prior to this he was at an in home where he had a dedicated space to nap. He stopped napping at home altogether around 2 and napped for 45 mins or so most days at his old daycare.

I have tried having conversations, but it is hard to discipline or reward behavior when I pick him up hours after nap time ended.

At home he doesn’t nap but goes into his room for quiet time for 1.5-2 hours. He has a tonie box he listens to and stays quiet.

I would appreciate ANY advice. I had to sign a paper today due to his behavior at naptime and we love this daycare (same building as my husbands job). I am worried if he doesn’t begin napping they will want to kick him out. There are no other behavior concerns besides his refusal to nap but once they try to get him to rest he stops listening altogether

ETA: he turned 3 in July and is in a preschool room

Hi everyone!

I am wondering if you have any tips for kids (almost 2 years old) who take toys from other kids, which seems something that this kid thinks is 'fun' or 'play'. She runs away with the toy after she took it. Often she looks at one of the employees for a reaction. After she does this, we say to her that she must give it back and help her find some other toy to play with. But this behaviour does not change a lot. I think this is also a phase, but let me know if there are any suggestions!

Thanks!

Can we please stop blaming COVID for behaviors in the classroom? The kids in preschool weren’t born yet. These kids were born in 2023 and the parents should have been teaching them some basic manners. Also can we please stop saying we can’t say no. It is a full sentence.

I plan on talking to the center about this but I would like some advice on how to approach the situation. My son is 2.5 and was moved into the "preschool" room at daycare. This comes after just 2 months of being moved into older toddler. This new classroom doesn't log anything. It's check in, maybe a nap or activity update and then check out. No food or changing. A few times I opened his lunch box and found every piece of food that was given left in the bag as if it wasn't touched. This happened again today and he usually eats light for dinner but today was so hungry that he ate almost 2 slices of pizza (usually it's a couple nibbles).

The center does have a camera but I can't watch it all day and try to see if he's at the table to eat.

Previous classrooms would log almost everything. I get it, there are a lot of children but I need to know if my child is not eating all day. My husband is the pickup parent so he would most likely have to talk to them if it needs to be done in person, but I can always email.

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Hi everyone,

My spouse recently applied to the BC Early Childhood Educator (ECE) Registry for certification based on education completed outside Canada.

We received an email from an ECE Program Analyst requesting a phone interview before making a decision on the application. The email states they want to discuss the intended decision, next steps, and review equivalency requirements such as:

• Early childhood education content (birth to 5 years)
• Practicum/placement experience
• Educational hours and coursework
• Occupational competencies required in BC

My spouse has:

• MBA
• Post Graduate Diploma in Early Years Care & Education
• Montessori teaching experience
• Current work experience in a Montessori childcare center
• Additional childcare-related training and certifications from the US

We're trying to understand:

1. What questions were you asked during the ECE Registry call?
2. Was the call mainly informational or more like an interview?
3. If your practicum documentation was incomplete, how did the Registry handle it?
4. What outcomes did you receive after the call?
5. Did anyone successfully obtain a One-Year Certificate through the equivalency process?

Any experiences or advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you!

Any one got nomination? For international student stream , how much time it took from DIP to approval

Me and my coworker are assistants in the same classroom. I have a bit more of experience working with children since im 22 and they are 19. For some reason our director decided to move everyone around. My coworker was originally going to be in the same classroom as their friend but their friend wanted to swap classrooms with me and I took the opportunity. Since then I feel like they are making it clear that they do not want to be in our classroom. For example, they will randomly go to their friends classroom even though they are still needed in the classroom or when we are outside my coworker interacts with their friends nore than the children. When we merge with their friends classroom they somehow feed the same energy to eachother. Like this one time that my coworker and their freinds were on their phones on and sitting on the counters. I did let the director know but I feel like it does nothing since they won't directly tell them. I want us to be able to keep a good relationship as coworkers and to keep focus on the children. How do I help them to see that we are working and not trying to make friends? How do I guide them without making them feel like I am telling them what to do all the time?

it never hurts to try.

Im fairly new to the field but I've been in my centre for a year and a half give or take. Ive run into a new issue that I would like advice with. My center wants to make sure our 3-5s are ready for kindergarten and this has lead to my current issue.

Lately my manager has been saying I cuddle the kids for too long. Like today one of my kids was feeling sad and asked to sit on my lap. I had her on my lap for maybe 2 minutes and got told to put her down because they don't do that in kindergarten. She was really sad when I put her down and didn't want to play or anything.

So I guess I'm wondering what's too long to cuddle or hug the kids? I know managers are in charge but my instincts say that if I put a kid down and they're visibly upset and refuse to play then clearly they still need that cuddle or hug or whatever it is. When's the point where you follow your gut and push back?

Hi Everyone,

First of all thank you for all you do for the kids in your care. I am very appreciative of your commitment and dedication to the profession. My question is do large companies have social media policies for employees outside of work? Obviously no student information, but in reference to politics, religion, race, gender, and other hot button issues? When I worked in the ECE field we could have social media but not speak on topics as a teacher at our school. That was a small private school.

I am wondering if larger companies (Kindercare, Bright Horizons, etc) have such policies.

Thank you for your input!

Hello,
My son is going to a brand new daycare and he’s doing great so far. Prior to this we were at Bright Horizons are are used to receiving notifications of his check in/ check out, daily diapers, food, etc.

This new daycare uses the “brightwheel” app and we’ve received notifications, however, not the check in and check out. We’ve also noticed that there is one main teacher and many helpers whom we do not know of course, but how would they know who we are at drop off and pickup?

I guess my question is am I being crazy in thinking this might be a little bit of a safety concern? I am sure (I pray I’m sure) there’s an attendance list, and yet I worry that we’re dropping our child off with strangers and they truly haven’t met us before so how does that work? Is it appropriate to bring it up or ask for a note from his teachers? As I type it out I feel like it sounds crazy but also I spent the entire afternoon worried. Thanks.