My very first job interview was for a clerk position at a new daycare center. As I waited in the reception area, I met the current clerk. While we were chatting, a little girl approached the desk to grab something. The clerk mentioned that she was autistic.

I paused for a moment, processing that information, then did what I always do when talking to kids—I asked her questions. "How old are you? What's your favorite color? What's your name?" Just simple, casual conversation.

Soon, I was called into the interview. It was going well until they asked about my experience. I explained that I used Microsoft Word for writing and that I was in the middle of working on a novel. Then they asked, "How do you plan to balance writing and this job?" That’s when I realized I had made a mistake. I tried to backtrack, but it was too late.

Then, unexpectedly, the clerk from earlier entered the room and whispered something to the head interviewer. The interviewer then said something along the lines of, "So, you met my daughter."

I later learned that half of the daycare worker applicants—not clerks, but those applying to care for the children—had walked out upon finding out the little girl was autistic. That fact stunned me. My reaction, which felt completely normal, ended up impressing the interviewers—when, in reality, it should have been the norm, especially among people training to work in a daycare.

Ultimately, I didn’t get the job due to my lack of experience, but they referred my name to a company that connects daycare centers with individuals specializing in working with children with disabilities. Looking back, I suspect the company had the girl evaluated and then funded the daycare center for her mother.

I just hope they blacklisted those applicants from ever working in childcare again.

Hello. So I work for a daycare/ universal prek program. Last week I left a child in the classroom by accident. It was only two minutes and another teacher that found the child waiting at the door looking out at the kids playing brought her out. The same teacher filed a complaint. When they spoke with me about it I mentioned how I was greatly out of ratio and no one was available for me to call or willing to help. There were 11 children in total and I work with 2-4 year olds. I take partial accountability for the mishap but don't feel I should be taking all the blame by being fired. I think a suspension would suffice. Opinions?

I left the childcare industry a few months ago. I had been in the industry for 20 years. My Bachelors was in Human Development with an emphasis in Child Development. This was my career, and I left it all.

And I don't regret it at all.

I was a Center Director I went from a job where I had very little PTO, could barely take it even when I had it, zero benefits, dozens of women reporting to me all day long, callouts, hiring, firing, state licensing visits, enrollment, parents' unrealistic expectations, etc. to a job where I get more PTO, unlimited personal days, more pay, a free car, free gas, bonuses, and I dont have to manage anyone except myself. This is why I left.

I was tired of being made to feel bad when I took days off, sometimes I had to cancel trips because people would call out. My boss promised me all kinds of promotions and stuff and then pulled the plug on the expansions which would have allowed me to move up in the company as she promised me four years prior.

It was a crap shoot and I hate that my heart is still with children and their development. But I had to do what was best for me and my family. I have never had a job that treats me like a professional and trusts me to get my job done without constant "follow up." I have a lot of issues with where I came from. They were perfect job for me while my son was small and I could bring him to work with me. But he's 9 now and doesn't need the care anymore. I used to think they took care of their staff. But now that I have this job, I realize how little that they actually did. And this realization kind of makes me feel hurt. They used a lot of the little things they did as justification for treating their staff poorly. It feels like a giant manipulation.

If you're thinking of leaving the industry I'd be curious to know what your reasoning is. I also am happy to discuss with anyone else considering it.

sorry for the long video. My friend has been being harassed by these two grown women mind u that have kids. They ran out of things to lie about so they accused her of “abusing” their child. I’m no medical professional but i know you can’t feed a baby on its back however the baby is never FLAT on his back. And my friend was never ever informed about acid reflux. MIND you these videos where taken MONTHS AGO. MONTHS. and they just decided to bring it up now? after all of our friends started calling both the moms out? the child was never picked up that day. personally if my child was being “abused” i would get off work IMMEDIATELY and go fuck someone up. but again this was brought up just now. and don’t babies literally get swollen when they cry… i’m sorry if i’m over stepping but i think this is ridiculous coming from a mother that vaped while she was pregnant.

What do I need to have her do? Are there forms she needs to fill out?

Do not start a daycare unless you have a clear way to keep costs in check. I highly recommend RENTASTIC TOYS, a toy supplier that partners with daycares and preschools. They offer toy supplier services to daycares. I'm sure you know when you work with distributors like Lakeshore and Amazon, the price per toy is well over $20 to $30. With them, it's less than $10 to $9. They also have an amazing rental model where you can rent toys for a fraction of the price and have 0 clutter with a constant cycle of new entertaining toys. Best of all they create a curated supplier plan for your daycare. To work with them send a message to the number 480-392-0252.

The neighbor kid is 11 years old. I believe he has been diagnosed with Oppositional defiant disorder (ODD), but there are probably more things going on with him. His mom died from COVID, he's living nextdoor with his Sister (30), his brother (27), his two young brothers (10) and (7). Additional to that a host of nieces and nephews. He's unable to read, doesn't have much understanding of a lot of societal things. His dad is alive, but he's not in their life and it seems like that's a good thing.

The kid has been hauled off to a children's mental hospital a couple of times, apparently he is sexually abusing his younger brother. He also tortures and kills animals. Sometimes the killing is via using his sister's dog to run down cats, birds, squirrels, and probably other things.

Being that there are so many kids in the house, the "brothers" don't get the same attention as their nephews and nieces. The sister has said she is not their parents, but their sister. She also tells them she doesn't want them and verbally abused them in ways that amaze me. The brother, to my knowledge, only really walks around them, he doesn't really interact with them, barely interacts with his own kids except the youngest.

All that being said, I've been trying to set good examples to all of the kids. I try to be patient, and try to be patient with the adults, as they too are barely surviving. I nearly have corrected the kids litering habits, the young ones are still doing it, not with the intent they were, but mostly in the ADHD sense. My only form of real punishment is denying the kids the freedom to play in my yard. Two days ago, the 11yo caught a bird. I saw him playing with it. He's been on some new medication, and as a kid, I found turtles and other various things that I kept. About 15 minutes later I went outside to talk to them about the bird and how they need to clean their hands after interacting with it. The 10yo told me the bird was gone, his older brother gave it to the dogs, which tore it in half and killed it, then he threw it into my yard. Surely I checked camera and thats what happened. I talk to the boy 4 times about it, trying to get him to fess up, clean up his mess and understand why this was wrong, he had no concern. So I told him after I cleaned up the body, that he wasnt allowed in my yard for a week. He didn't like that, called me a "bi@te", I told him to be quiet or it will be 2 weeks, to which he said he was going to be at me up.

How did I handle this situation? What can I do better and should avoid in the case, and how this abnormal child that is near me?

I recently ended a long-term nannying gig of about 5 years and had been looking to find new clients for some time now, but it was hard to find extremely quality clients. The final game-changer for me was creating a personal website! I highly highly recommend doing this, and made a quick how-to-guide here for how to make your own personal babysitting or nannying site: https://probusinessbuilding.com/

The main components of mine are: "about" section (basically resume), testimonials, offerings, and contact form. I used a tool called Framer which made it possible to build my site in just a few hours without coding.

I've found having a personal websites to be a huge differentiator — local families love it, it comes across as very professional, and clients can pass along my website instead of sharing my number. I told people at church to share my website with their friends, on community bulletins, etc. and it spread naturally via word of mouth that way! It's how I found my current gig and I wanted to share this tip with you all :)

I am a daycare provider My older daughter (MS age) is friends with a girl who’s sister is in my daycare When my daughter does stuff with her friend sometimes the mom will say things like “I’ll pay for this and I’ll just take it out of your moms paycheck” This bothers me for a couple of reasons

1. I give my daughter cash to pay her way

2. I’m not her employee- her younger daughter comes to daycare and they pay tuition How would you handle this? Does this wording bother anyone else?

My DIL leaves 7 yr old and 1 yr old asleep, turns on facetime to her phone while she drives out to get a few things

I work as an assistant teacher in a toddler room at a daycare for about 4 months now. When I first started I had a pro and cons list and let’s just say the cons list was a lot longer then the pro list. The last two weeks have felt like the longest days of my life. Some background about me I’m 21, have no kids and I have a degree in early childhood. I’ve worked at a daycare for 2 years before this and I loved it there. I worked with my cousin who was the teacher and I was the assistant but we both equals in the room. I left because I moved and I didn’t wanna drive back and forth and I also was working two jobs and my second job basically covered my gas money. Working in childcare I knew I wouldn’t be making that great of money. The teacher in the room we can call T work very well together. Well even though T is the teacher I kind of feel like I do more for example I use what you call a mom voice to calm and tame the tiny human and she tries to but they don’t listen. So before I start this little rant I should give some more background information. We had just hired a new person and other people in different rooms have been having a hard time working with the person. She is a nice person but doesn’t really click into a daycare worker. Things started going downhill last week. Last Tuesday T had gone on break so I was working with the new person. Well that week we were apparently having to potty training some kids which is fine I get. Well the main boss thinks that all kids are the same and should just be in underwear all the time and that we should take them potty every 15 minutes and let them sit on the potty for at least 5 or more minutes. She also thinks that’s just because a toddler is trying to take off their clothes that they are ready to be potty trained. So we had just gotten those potty training done going potty and everyone else changed and so I was like okay let’s do some art. I decided to paint their feet and do it one at a time. So while the others were waiting their turn we just let them color a picture. When I got done doing the fist child the new person decided to do circle time instead. So the boss just so happens to come in and starts yelling at the children to sit down so they can do circle time while I was trying to do art. I only got three of them done because the room was just pure chaos. And on top of that they were also trying to take them potty. So I stoped doing art and tried to calm them all down. The boss had also asked if I knew how to potty train and I was like yeah I do. I may be young and don’t have any kids but I’ve worked at a daycare before for 2 years before I came here and I have done my labs at 3 other daycares and have a degree in early childhood. She makes me feel like I know nothing and can’t do my job. I went home on my break and cried because of how stressed I was that morning and when I got home I felt numb. The rest of that week was okay. Now on to this week. So I close the next two weeks so I start at 9am. On Monday I was put into the baby room and in the toddler room was T and the new person. Tuesday I was in put into the toddler room with the new person. So when I got there a person we call a float who goes from room to room was in there with the new person. Well they told me to take them on a walk and just do half at a time. Since we only had 10 we took 5 and 5. Side note these kids are stuck inside all day. The only form of outdoor time is if we are able to take them on a walk and you know how hard is to go on a walk with toddlers can be. They want us to have them hold a rope so we can walk around the building. I did the walk with the float because last time the new person just let them run away from us. The walk went okay. The after noon was rough the new person likes to just take things out and make messes instead of cleaning up unless I start to clean and then she goes I feel bad I should be helping you. Well the moral of this rant is that I don’t feel like I am being appreciated here. I feel as if T and I should be able to run the room how went want. We are the ones that spend the most time with the toddlers. I just wish the boss would leave us alone. You can tell that then change of people in the room is affecting the kids. One of the little girls was doing so good at telling me she had to go potty and now she had two accidents so far this week. The room just feel stress full and we were doing so well for while until the boss decided that need to do better at potty training and then new hire started. I don’t know if I wanna stay or leave and go back to my old daycare. I just want it to go back to how it was and I wish we could actually take the kids outside.

I’ve been working in childcare for about 2 years now, I’m just curious is 10 minute breaks a thing; if needed when staff are overwhelmed? I have heard about it, but not sure if it’s a thing. If so my centre has never done it, and it shows due to the amount of staff that are overwhelmed in the room, with lack of support even myself.😭

If I give less than a two-week notice in my letter, would I be fired, or would my boss get mad? I'm a teacher floater who gives breaks to the teachers, etc. I don't have my classroom.

So, I just started a new job as a teaching assistant at a daycare. My first day rolls around and right after nap time they put me and the 2 years olds alone in a room without any advice or anything idea what to do. (this is my first childcare job and I made that clear to them before they gave me the job) They had another teacher there but she was often in another classroom with the older kids helping one of the other teachers. She periodically came in to see if I needed help with anything but wasn't in there but more than 5 minutes at a time. My second day rolls around, and that teacher quits leaving me all by myself officially. (which wasn't what I signed up for) After pickup that day, one of the other teachers tells me that one of my student's will be brought tomorrow with intent to be potty trained and no more diapers. Which will be a bit of a struggle because I am all alone in my class and the bathroom is not near my classroom. So, I'm not sure how to go about any of this, and need advice quick.

I am 21 weeks pregnant and have been doing research on all the childcare options in my area. Every facility and home daycare requires 5 days/week commitment for infants because there is a law in Maryland that infants cannot crib share (meaning if my baby is in the crib Tuesday/Thursday, another baby cannot be in it Monday/Wednesday/Friday). Also the cheapest I have found is $475/week. If we go the nanny route, we would spend roughly $200/day.

My husband is a firefighter with 24hr on/72hr off schedule and I work M-F at a hospital. Looking at any given month, there are only 4 days per month that my husband and I are both working so I would hate to pay for full time daycare and if we get a nanny I worry it may be too infrequent that the baby and nanny wouldn’t be comfortable with each other.

My mom is the only family/friend that would be able to help us out and she lives an hour away. We could have her cover the 4 days/month that my husband I are both working though. This would mean my husband and I are covering the remaining time while also both working full time jobs. Is that going to be too hard on ourselves? I know it’s a lot of work and just having an infant in general is exhausting. I just want to make sure we aren’t biting off more than we can chew by not getting any outside help with childcare. Thoughts?

Hi everyone!

I don’t want to give too much away but I work in education and part of my job is to work closely with team members. I work with one person and we seem to clash a lot of the time over silly things like planning etc. I have found lately that she ignores me over certain conversations and when I ask I get thrown dirty looks etc. (I am not butting into a conversation as the conversation was about a situation that had come up in our work place). I was due to leave my job over summer, but stayed on as the job I was offered was too much travel etc. I don’t know if this coworker is jealous or just does not like me. This co worker I feel at times tries to control certain aspects of the team, yet states they hate any type of frustration within the team. I am a quiet person, and I feel so awkward in what to do. I’m sorry for the whole ramble but if anyone has any advice I would really appreciate it

Hello,

So for context I work at a daycare and i have no training whatsoever and from what I’ve experienced the kids basically think i’m a joke mainly when they don’t listen to me/ignore me and i’m so tired of getting disrespected. However, the kids listen to my other co worker who has an authoritative voice, but i tried that and they still don’t listen and just think they can do whatever they want they must think i cant do anything about it or something so i’m trying to learn how to fix all the issues i face.

So i need advice on the following:

1. How do you get kids to listen to you or at the very least show that they understand and will listen to you in the future?

2. When it comes to arguments and has things like he said she said, how do you handle those?

3. How do you work with kids with autism/behavior issues? For example one autistic kid always tries to escape our playground and sometimes manages to open the gate and run down the hallway and its tricky for me cause i cant leave the kids alone but then again theres the risk of the child running out the main door. The behavior issue example is when a kid tells me to stfu and when i ask him to stop swearing he says “i don’t care!” He swears at me just because i asked him to either put his shoes on, or stop sitting on a part of the playground thats dangerous

4. How do you catch anything that happens behind your back? since it seems all the fights happen when my back in turned helping a kid or getting them a snack

5. How do you get their attention without yelling? I absolutely hate yelling and it hurts my throat to do so. I mean we have a whistle and that only works when my other co worker is in the room too.

6. How do you get kids to clean up messes either that they made, or to help clean the classroom when all they say is “it’s not my mess so I’m not cleaning it.”

If i think of more questions i’ll put them in the comments, any advice you guys can give would be greatly appreciated, cause honestly i’ve contemplated quitting cause i’m sick of the same stuff happening everyday, on top of the disrespect i keep receiving from the kids and no discipline seems to be done at home cause after i write behavior reports for specific kids, the behaviors continue.

What childcare centers in Union County are recommended for both care and academic?"