I see a lot of posts about bad directors/owners/staff/etc. I'm glad you guys are speaking up and I hope you continue to use your voice on here. On the other hand I want to know I'm not the only one who got a good school. I love my director and I love everyone I work with. I know I've only been here for a couple of months but overall I have good support and great days at work. Sometimes it doesn't feel like I'm working at all!

Thank you so much for teaching our kids. I cannot say this enough, but thank you.

My daughter came home yesterday and wanted to color with her crayons. 18 months old so in the Toddler 1 room, but she was in the infant room for 10 months also. Anyway, I asked her what crayon and she said red and grabbed the red one.

My mind was blown, which a lot of people have said is silly. They think kids just learn this stuff on the fly, but I've never done colors with her so I know it's her teachers. It seems like a small thing but is not at all. She identified 3 other colors too.

These kids learn so much from you all and you aren't given enough credit or money which is insane.

Thank you, thank you so much!

Ps. Maybe not the baby shark song though, bane of my existence at the moment 😂

*I posted this in the Teachers in Transition sub, but I hope it's okay to post it here as well.

Hey everyone, long-time lurker, first-time poster. I’m hoping to get some advice from those of you who might have been in a similar situation or who just have some insights.

I’m 34 years old and have worked as a lead infant/toddler teacher for over 10 years. Recently, I transitioned into an assistant director role at a small center, which means I still work directly with children in the classroom, just with some extra admin tasks on top. Along with this, I started my first semester as a birth-to-kindergarten master’s student, and I’m fortunate enough to have the degree covered by a scholarship.

Here’s the catch – I’m severely burnt out. Between the classroom, admin duties, and the coursework, I’m facing health issues, and my mental health has taken a real hit. It’s become clear to me that teaching is no longer something I can sustain long-term. However, I’m still incredibly passionate about early childhood education and the positive impact it has on children and families. That’s the motivation behind pursuing my master’s — I want to work on the policy, research, or curriculum development side of things, where I can help make broader changes.

The dilemma is that, if I leave my current job (which is likely to happen soon), I’ll have to forgo my scholarship, which covers my tuition. So, I’m stuck weighing whether it’s worth finishing the degree without the financial support, or if I should cut my losses and focus on finding a new career path altogether.

For context, I have a B.S. in Journalism and Mass Communications, and I’m wondering if it’s worth investing in this new direction, despite the financial and mental toll.

Has anyone been in a similar situation, or have advice on what to do next? Would love to hear your thoughts! Thanks in advance!

Hi! I’m currently a co-teacher at a preschool, and I’m a bit concerned about one of my student’s interests. He’s 4 years old and is the sweetest boy ever, but he is obsessed with Five Nights at Freddy’s (FNAF), Shin Sonic, and Art the Clown.

He first told me how much he loves FNAF (it’s his favorite) and how he always watches his mom play it. I was shocked because I would consider that video game too scary for a child his age. However, I didn’t think much of it at first since he seems to love it, thinks it’s fun, and said he mostly watches his mom play. I’m hoping he’s not watching any scary FNAF videos alone.

I only started to worry when he brought up Shin Sonic and Art the Clown. Admittedly, I don’t know much about Shin Sonic, but based on what he tells me, I can conclude it’s horror videos he watches online. He talks about how Shin Sonic stalks people in the dark and has the “best and scariest jump scares.”

What really concerned me, though, was when he mentioned Art the Clown. One day, he excitedly told me about a new movie he watched called “Terrifier”. I was stunned but assumed there was no way he was referring to the incredibly gruesome horror movie featuring a clown that tortures and brutally murders women on-screen for two hours. Unfortunately, I was wrong. He was indeed talking about the ADULT horror movie “Terrifier”. He described how scary Art the Clown is, how much he loved the movie, and even said he wants to dress up as Art for Halloween next year.

This is my first year working full-time in childcare, so I’m unsure if I’m overreacting or if this is something worth addressing. Do you think I should tell the lead teacher or mention something to his parents? I’m not a parent myself, so my biggest fear is coming across as judgmental, which I’m not trying to be.

It’s a tough situation because he genuinely seems to enjoy this kind of content, but I just can’t imagine that any of it (especially Terrifier) is appropriate for someone his age.

Any advice is appreciated, especially from those with experience in ECE!

(Just something I want to mention: I’m also concerned about him mentioning this kind of content to other students. He told many of the other students that he’ll be dressing up as Art the Clown and as you could imagine none of them knew what he was talking about. He then began to explain the movie “Terrifier” to them which led me to jump in to change the topic of conversation fast. Even if his mom is ok with him watching that stuff, I’m sure there are other parents who would prefer that their kids aren’t exposed to horror and gory content so early. It’s hard because I know he’s just excited to tell his friends about his interests but I’m afraid it’s not appropriate for the classroom :( What should I do?)

There's a semi-viral video of a mother who's several hours late to pick up, shouting at the childcare professional that she had to work and couldn't make it earlier. It's shot from one perspective , but apparently this has occurred frequently , she is several hours late and didn't call ahead.

The comments are surprisingly divided and I have been flamed somewhat for my take: I work with children as well, but have my own waiting for me at home/their daycare group and feel there is no excuse to be this late this often without notice.

My hours are 07:45 to 16:30, that's a long time to be parted from my young children already. Furthermore , if I'm late to collect my own, I risk losing their placement- at their Kindergarten your contract is terminated after the third incident of this nature. In how many professions are you expected to drop everything at no notice for (unpaid) overtime-apart from high paying fields with more responsibility , like medicine.

Your lack of planing is not my problem , why on earth do.you feel entitled to turn up whenever it suits you- and not even show the courtesy of calling?

So ECEP colleagues , am I being "heartless" and "cruel", lacking "problem solving skills" or should simply "do it for the kids"? It's like going through the looking glass....

My 2.5 year old son is in a full time daycare center in a room full of 2-3 year olds. This morning there was a concerning update shared in the app they use to post pictures, meals, etc.

The update noted that they had done an AI character generation activity where the kids apparently told them what they wanted the character to look like and created some images. One of the characters had a gun, and a gun was written into the prompt of what they wanted to create. My son does not know what a gun is and this is obviously not age appropriate. I’m also extremely triggered by gun violence in a school environment so this is deeply concerning. The second image was of a mermaid like character that was pretty sexualized- curvy, cartoonish body with tight clothes etc.

I immediately called the school to let them know this was concerning, didn’t feel age appropriate, and said I would like to better understand the activity and whether screens were being used to entertain 2 year olds. They said there should be no screen time (so obviously that’s one issue). They agreed the images were not she appropriate and that they would address this with the director and teacher who posted it. I’m waiting for the director to call me back. I also see they’ve deleted the post, so I’m sure a lot of the parents didn’t even see it.

I’m very concerned that this teacher does not know what is appropriate for a 2 year old. They have also recently been playing audiobooks for them and I’ve questioned if the books they play are appropriate. They have played some fantasy novels.. I think if you’re going to play an audiobook it should be something like Goldilocks or the three little pigs, not a fantasy novel..

My question is- what would be an appropriate response/course of action here? Is this a “strike”? Should the teacher be moved to another class with older life? Should she be terminated? I’m not sure what to expect and what would be appropriate for me to feel comfortable with the way they’re addressing this issue.

Overall we like the center and think this is an issue with the teacher pushing her own personal interests vs choosing age appropriate activities.

I’ll preface by saying I worked for my daughter’s current childcare center for over two years before leaving just last month, so I’m very familiar with how the place runs.

Two days ago my husband’s coworker told him that an old teacher from her child’s center pushed her child over, completely unprovoked. It was caught on camera, the teacher was fired and apparently can no longer work at any of that chain’s locations.

Well, it turns out this teacher now works at my daughter’s center. So I went into the director yesterday and told her about it to which she responded “Everybody here has to pass the same background check and she passed her background check.” I told her I understood that but wanted them to know the specifics and she stopped me and said “We knew.”

Am I completely overreacting to be upset that they are letting her just work with children still after she was caught (and lied about to multiple people) pushing a child? What can I do about this?

This is an update on a child in my class, S. I completed their fall assessment, which showed strengths and weaknesses of course. I did a write up in the comment area with many praises, but also strong concerns. When I sent it home, I requested a conference to further discuss because interpretation of a written document can vary.

I was kind and respectful, but instead of agreeing to a conference, I was given a written document with explanations (excuses) for what I see and how things are much different at home.

I am frustrated because I really want to help this child, but even after reaching out and pleading my case, I can't get the parent(s) on board.

I realize most of us in the US have schools or centers that fall under state licensing guidelines but I am interesting in seeing what your programs do for severe behavior students. Do you have a set number of strikes before you send a student home, for example?

We are documenting and having a student evaluated shortly, but there is a daily assault on some students and parents are beginning to complain.

(Using fake names) So about a year ago we had a situation with two students. One of our additional needs kids (Jack) was asked to come back inside from outside play. He was already over-stimulated and reacted badly. Staff managed to get between him and other students, but one girl (Emma) came back over to see what was happening and unfortunately Jack bit her before anyone could stop it. Staff then removed Jack from the area and dealt with Emma's bite.

Over the next few weeks, Emma would regularly tell staff "Jack bit me" and point to where he bit her. Neither were full time, so they only really crossed paths maybe 2 hours a week, and Emma largely just ignored/avoided Jack. She wouldn't really get upset or anything, just never seemed to be in the same area of the room as him. After a couple of months, Emma stopped really mentioning it, and there were no further issues as far as we were aware.

Fast forward to the start of this term, and Emma has now moved up to reception, while Jack is still in the Nursery but with increased hours. Emma has been having some general anxiety issues since the start of term, mostly linked to the new routine/staff/environment etc. (E.g., she will cry if her class teacher leaves the room without warning, is clingy to me as a familiar staff member, is easily upset by any sudden changes to routine, constantly asks how long until [next thing in the day] etc.).

In the past two weeks, Emma seems to have fixated on Jack as 'the problem' to focus her attention on. When she walks into the room on days he is here, her first question is "Who is looking after Jack?". If he comes in her vicinity, she will panic and run away, or duck behind a member of staff. She is incapable of focusing on an activity if Jack is present, and instead will track him and move away if he comes too close.

Staff has consistently reassured her that she is safe, that Jack is calm and will not hurt her/is not interested in her, that if he becomes agitated staff will move him away from other children etc., but nothing seems to help. Just today, Emma had a nose bleed at the same time as Jack coming near her (unrelated, and not the first time she has had a spontaneous nose bleed) and Emma spent the rest of the day insisting that she had it because he came over.

I wonder if anyone has dealt with a similar situation and had any advice on what we can say or do to help Emma.

My co-teacher and I are disagreeing on taking the kids outside. I posted about this a few days as the ECE hill you’re willing to die on. As I mentioned in that post, where we live, it is getting chilly, mid 50s upper 60s. I don’t think it’s that cold at all. It feels really nice out. The music teacher let us know that she had a switch our time, and I’ll let her know that that was our outside time, but we can just go outside afterwards. I got irritated with my co-teacher because she then suggested we don’t take the kids outside because it’s getting too cold.

TOO COLD?! we’re not even in winter yet! What are we going to do then?? The kids get to go outside twice a day for 30 minutes. They have jackets, they will run around, they will be fine. We can go out as long as it doesn’t get below 34°. Yes, Canadians and Minnesotans, I know that’s nothing 🤣 my director is supporting me on this, but I’m getting so irritated. What else can I do to communicate to my co-teacher that the kids need to go outside (as long as it’s safe to do so) 50° is not cold at all. Not to mention, you wanna stay inside all morning with a bunch of toddlers because you think “it’s too cold” for them?

Someone please tell me they share a similar frustration and what I can do 😩 I believe my director said she was going to send a correspondence to the whole entire school about outside time.

It's already snowed and cold where I'm at, and the toddlers do get taken outside still. What happened is that I dropped her off with her jacket (which I put on her after taking her out of the car seat), and by the end of the day, they had no idea where it was.

I'm pretty mad that her jacket got lost again, but tbh my toddler is also sick, so it's probably also stress from that. I was very kind to the daycare teacher about it, because I do understand mistakes happen, but she has lost 2 winter jackets I've sent for my daughter in 1 month.

I'm struggling financially. Due to me being on medical leave and unexpected costs (having to get my daughter medical care this week), I have zero dollars to my name right now. I spent my grocery money paying for my daughter to be seen at the urgent care (because my job is stupid and forgot to add her to my insurance, even tho I did all the work I needed to), and I also now will owe an ER bill because she had no wet diapers for 12 hours and I took her in.

Not to mention, I have been without an income for a few weeks due to my FMLA leave.

So needless to say, Im in no place to be buying jackets every week, even though I do buy them used at kid to kid.

I'm not angry with the staff, just angry at my situation and wondering how I can make it less likely to happen. 😭 I now have to magically conjur up $40-$50 so I can get her 2 jackets. I'm hoping having two will prevent her from going without if one gets lost.

My daughter has been staying home due to illness, but her teacher has been looking for her jacket for 3 days and finally messaged me today that it's nowhere to be found.

There are approximately 9 toddlers and 3 teachers in the class, so I do see how it can accidentally be sent home with someone else.

I guess I just want to know tips on how to help the teacher not lose it?

Deciding between ece or child development. One you get certified to teach, the other you don't. Going to byu idaho if that helps. Starting next year.

1. In which daycare and preschool environment is there more play based learning or is it almost the same?

2. And in which environment do you play with the kids more so they grow while playing?

Thank you

I'm doing a graduate apprenticeship in early years and I think I want to stay in this profession for about 5 years with the long term goal of becoming a play therapist.

I'm wondering if anyone here has done it and managed to get the qualification funded by an employer or the state. I'm in Scotland if that's useful.

I (25f) have been working at a daycare on and off for five years. I recently went full time in the two year old class and I’m genuinely dislike my job, I am seriously considering putting in my two weeks with no job lined up, that’s how mentally and physically drained I am. There is a child in my class who is downright awful. First of all, it’s seven boys and one girl in there so I’m already dreaming of quitting from that fact alone. But this one little boy just RUINS everything for us in the class.

The kids know how to play by themselves, they know how to be good, until this kid comes around. He gets in their faces, his way of playing is hitting, tackling and biting. So all the kids get upset, they start screaming and wrestling and hitting because that kid comes around. What does the office do? Nothing. We’re met just deal with him, he needs to learn to listen, or when we are told to report everything he does, still nothing is done!!! Then they wonder why we’re mad at them. I just don’t feel heard and appreciated by my director and the office staff who claims they’re always there for us. I’m at the end of my rope with these children and I know I should look for another job and I have been, but the job searching scene is awful too. I just don’t know what to do.

Hi all. Wanted to get some unbiased feedback on my current situation. I am a daycare teacher at a small program (we have ten kids a day give or take) and having a very hard time working with the director. I started this position because it seemed too good to be true that I would be able to have a full time job while also being with my daughter after I had her. But now it’s getting to the point where I feel like I have to record when I go to work to protect myself. From the beginning this person has shown that they have a very low patience tolerance with the children. Tells toddlers to stop crying, doesn’t stay consistent, and very hard to tell what kind of mood they will be in on a day to day basis. One day they are fine the next day they are putting a child in a pack and play to cry because the child put food on the floor. It’s very hard to stay calm and not let their toxic behavior rub off on me and I find myself even having a short fuse some days because of the constant toxicity and lack of consistency and it is affecting the children as well. I am the one they ask for all day when they need something because they are scared of her and know that whenever they ask for something most of the time that need is not met by her. I feel lost and not sure what to do. After having a conversation with this person yesterday it’s clear that they will not admit they are wrong in any scenario, as I was pretty much told “I’m sorry you feel that way”. And this is the third or fourth time now that I have had to express my concerns and made it clear that if there’s anything I can do differently to help to please tell me, yet they just say how great I am but then I’m met with passive aggressive comments and poor treatment again and the cycle repeats. Also every time something goes wrong like a child falls and gets an injury for example she sends me home early or talks to the parents outside which is super sketchy. Do I simply just give my two weeks and get out of there or do I address a specific scenario that was not okay and tell the person that things need to change or I will be leaving? I am not paid by w2 I am an independent contractor so technically I could leave whenever I want but I can’t morally bring myself to do that because of the kids and their families. Please help 😖

We have a child at my center who just does not listen. And no it's no fault of the teachers. We are all great. But this child comes in every single day and immediately as soon as mom leaves is running around the room screaming, hitting and bothering other kids. She's cursed out teachers, she'll spit at you, call you names, bite and the list goes on. We got a new director about 4 months ago. And I keep having in mornings tell her to grab this child because I can't teach the others. She'll literally be grabbing chairs and dropping them on floors, climbing on tables. Yesterday she caused a chair to fall and hit a younger child. And the director still didn't wanna grab her. And I got mad and told her this child needs to be expelled. She's a danger to the other students. And the director just git mad and said centers don't expell kids. That she has it under control. Like what!!!? This women never deals with this kid as she refuses to help in a room. And this child is becoming worse and a legit danger to other kids with her behavior. And it's to the point us teachers can control her.

Edit: TL;DR: Why is my LO's diaper initialed when it's never been before, and should I ask why?

Asked and Answered: The conclusion is overwhelmingly likely it is due to the transitioning of rooms and I could ask. Thank you for the kind responses. Bless your heart to the others.

Hi, 

We've been going to daycare for over a year now and my LO is transitioning from infant to toddler room. My son will visit toddler room when there is ratio to do so but he isn't moving up until a toddler moves up to the Twos. 

Today, I picked up from toddler room (I hadn't  seen that ECE before), picked up his bag from the infant room and drove home. After snack, I changed his diaper and I saw his first initial on his diaper. 

Because I'm a lurker, my first thought was to be offended that they didn't think I was changing him before drop off. 

What is a good alternate conclusion to draw here? And do I bring it up? 

My ideas:

We recently bought huggies and have been dropping him off with huggies on, but his cubby has a different brand of diapers. Maybe they initialed some diapers for toddler room to use since he doesn't have a cubby there?

We changed him yesterday at 630a before feeding him breakfast at home and he immediately had early intervention physical therapy which I attended at daycare following drop off. So maybe he had a wet diaper for 2 hours max?

Final idea is there is a worker there that is being watched/not trusted. 

Literally dread going in tomorrow. I instinctively grabbed one of the kids that ran off and after they started climbing stuff I tried to get him down but those kids can have death grips and you gotta basically tear them off sometimes yk. Well a parent saw this and decided to go complain to our schools principal. Parent told me next I had to talk to her kid instead of just grabbing him. Surprisingly from a distance of about 10 feet she didn’t hear that I actually had talked to him beforehand and told him to sit down and wait for the key to the gate so he could get out and go home. He just decided not to listen.

This happened once in the past too and she got pissed. Just instinctively grabbed him as he decided to bolt. Obviously not aggressively or angrily but still. I’d never hurt her kid. Her kid likes me and I do him. I care about him deeply. Ik I shouldn’t have grabbed him but it was off pure instinct because he ran and my coworker was left alone with a group of other kids. I was not angry or aggressive at all.

So administration may want to talk to me tomorrow. I’m more anxious than I should be but at the same time I don’t care. I feel stupid and useless and like I make everything worse but that’s fine. At worst I get fired. But if anyone has some advice or support it’ll be appreciated.

I’m curious if anyone has ever been rehired at a daycare that they had previously been marked as “non-rehireable” when leaving the company. I used to work for a pretty well known franchise of nationwide daycare company. Due to medical reasons that I won’t get in to on here, I unfortunately ended up having to quit without notice. Granted, there was a period of several absences and medical restrictions in place for a few weeks before I quit, so I’m sure they saw it coming. Nevertheless, I’m more medically sound now and I really miss working with the kids. I wonder if it would be worth my time and effort to try to appeal the “non-rehireable” status or if I should just find a different daycare or try nannying instead? I’ve worked for several other daycares before and none of them even compared to how much I loved working for this specific one, so I’m afraid I’d be disappointed working anywhere else. I’d love some thoughts or ideas. Thanks in advance!

Hello all! I’m a 19 year old infant room teacher and I feel like I’m getting treated unfairly.

So I’ll just let it all out! I’m only getting paid 10$ an hour. I assume it’s cause I have no experience? Idk but also I work 70 hours every 2 weeks and I come in at 8am-6:30 ish pm. I’m the only one who cleans the daycare at the end along with some others but it’s so tiring. I’m burnt out and stress & the other day I couldn’t even be in infant room because i was having the worse headache and it was barely 3pm and I still had 3 hours left & I just wanted to cry. I’m an infant teacher and basically a janitor and only getting paid 10$ an hour and sometimes she even comes criticizes my cleaning & tells only me to clean more stuff. I know I can just quit but it’s almost the holidays and my dad always says if I quit I need to move out and I’m just stuck in a bad position. I know I can talk to her but she’s just so rude and not very understanding. But yes that was my vent haha.Thank you in advanced

I love and appreciate my toddler teammates but one in particular will chit chat daily with one particular mom. I totally understand both POVs but the attention of teachers at pick up time, already chaotic, should be on all the kids. I also love the bonds we're creating but sometimes the length of conversation drives me crazy when we have 12 or so toddlers running around who also deserve our undivided attention.

Hi! So today I started at a center. I am currently studying for my AAS in Early Childhood Development, which is free via financial aid bc of my low income status. Today they tell me free 6wk CDA courses start in January. I would do both, if it is valuable to have both. Is it? I'd get a raise for being credentialed. Another question I had, is googling it it said I need 480 professional hrs to get my CDA. This means I can't get it, right? Because this is my first childcare job?

Thanks for any insight!

Semi-rant, but I do have a question, I’m interested in other professionals’ experiences of this.

I came to work in ECEC as a career change almost 5 years ago, leaving behind 9-10 years of well-paid corporate work to follow a passion and a calling. I have a bachelor’s degree in an unrelated field. I knew the change would cost me financially but I was willing to take that chance at doing work that will contribute to my long-term happiness.

I LOVE my work, and am passionate about the sector. But I have been told numerous times by people close to me that I am “too good for childcare,” or some variation with that sentiment.

It REALLY hurts my feelings. To me it demonstrates everything that is wrong with the social perception of what we do - it shows me how truly meaningless people think our work is and it contributes to my overall sense of burnout.

Have you encountered this before? How have you responded?

Has anyone else encountered this before? How have you responded?

I need some guidance here. I just finished my first year working in the ECE field.

There is a teacher at my center she been there for over a decade since it was built. She is very I don’t give a f*** attitude. Very drill sergeant teaching style. She was a 3/4 yr old teacher but has switched to pre-k (4/5). (but the kid in this post is 3)

I was outside with my class and her classrooms door connects to the playground. She brings this kid out who is crying and I know this kid has behavioral problems. I’m gonna try my best to replace this. We have this picnic table and it’s sits by the wall. So, she was sitting on the bench with her back leaning against the table and she lifts both of her feet to put them against the wall as she is sitting. She had this child trapped between her legs as kid was crying. She wasn’t being very nice to the kid telling him he shouldn’t play with his food and how he made a mess. Then she goes back inside with him holding his hand and she comes straight back outside with him holding his hand. Kid is still crying and she yells at the kid because he is still crying and he isn’t allowed back until he stops. So yeah yelling at the kid to stop crying. It made me pretty uncomfortable.

This happened yesterday by the way, I didn’t say anything to anyone higher up than me. I know she’s been there for so long that they play favorites.

Should I report? I never reported anything before so I feel lost in the woods. I wanted to say I did put my notice already in for this center and will be leaving tomorrow. (Gave them 1 week they weren’t the kindest to me) but I got a better job offer so pretty excited!

Hello, I'm a lead teacher in a Pre K class and need some advice.

Our center has 100 children (infant - PreK) maybe 50 staff (including part timers) and a whole office unit upstairs with about 30 people. Would you think it's worth the investment?

We are also about a 1 min walk from a clinic with an AED. There are currently no systems in place to use theirs in an emergency. Perhaps this would be a better option if we had a system in place? We are a non profit.

Personally I feel like we should get one, but our boss doesn't think it's necessary. I'm trying to compile some points/facts to help convince her. Thank you for your input.

Hey everyone! We have a group of boys who are all just a few months shy of being 3. They are all pretty easy to handle individually, but when they are even in the same vicinity they amp each other up and then make super unsafe choices together. They’re all only children, so at home this behavior isn’t an issue. It’s causing some serious stress in the classroom. We do our best to separate them but it’s tough when we have to work with other kids on their behaviors and they aren’t being monitored 100% of the time. Do any of you have any sage advice for kids this age, who don’t fully understand yet?

There’s about 20 of us total so it needs to be slightly on the cheaper side. Any ideas?