Shocked by daycares.

That’s an awful center and you should distance yourself between you and them yesterday.

This field has a high turnover rate due in part to low pay, high stress, high burnout rates and low support.

How staff treats children is one of the biggest indicators (from what I’ve seen) of how well the school is run. If you’re being yelled at, by anyone, it’s time to reevaluate.

I've worked in a center like that before. The families seemed really happy, the center had great reviews online... If only the families knew what the culture there was actually like!

I got out of that place as fast as I could! Ended up getting my current job, and I've been here 5 years now. It's so much better! A lot of times, it really does come down to the director, how they treat staff, and what things they let slide.

Start telling parents. I had to do it subtley when my daycare was leaving me unsafelty out of ratio. They started getting more workers in at an amazing rate after some parents started complaining and threatening to unenroll.

If staff is aggressively handling kids, that's even more concerning. As a parent, if I knew anything like that was happening to my child and it was being ignored, I would have some serious words with the owner and staff member and get my child out of there as fast as possible.

The parents deserve to know what goes on during g the day. I feel like not letting parents know is just as bad. They are trusting you with their most precious beings. It makes you compliant in the behavior even though you aren't actively doing it. Childcare workers are mandated reporters, and if your supervisors are not handling it appropriately, then you have every right to go over their heads and report them to the state. I bet things will change very quickly after that.

Oof. Well you know why it has a high turnover! Toxicity in the education field does need to be addressed like yesterday. This field in general does attract some of the worst of the worst people. I said this before, in the general teaching subreddit, that a lot of emotionally immature adults just love this field because they get to rule over children who don't have much power... It's like a sick d/s power fantasy for them.

Hopefully, I do hope that if you continue in the field you will find a center that is kind and supportive to staff and the children under their care.

I've been out of ECE for 20 years and my worst experience ever was working in a "for profit" center. It was truly terrible and was breaking me down. It was such a contrast between working in a Methodist pre school/Mothers Day Out. We followed "best practices" and we had students from all religious backgrounds and none. We didn't push any sort of "religion" on anyone. We celebrated lots of cultural holidays from all backgrounds. I directed the "Parent's Day Out" for several years and we had wonderful teachers who were well paid and well supported. The hardest part of my job was getting some of the parents to pay their tuition. And it was usually the most wealthy parents who needed to "catch up". In the summer we had day camps for children up to 12 and did a lot of fun community service projects. After we moved to Houston I did work in a couple of centers and I was appalled at how staff and children were treated. I started as Lead Teacher for 12 older 2's. I had an assistant and we did very well together but then she moved to London. They added another 7 children one was non english speaking "biter" who was a year younger than the rest of the children and my "assistant teacher" was gone more than present so we never established a working partnership. I quit after 6 months for my own well being. I immediately went to a really nice Methodist preschool and earned way more with much less stress. I finished up working for one of my students' family as a Nanny. I was finishing a degree at the time and it was a great fit. I made about $50K yearly with bonus and they treated me with much respect and kindness.

I don't believe that either children or elderly should be warehoused in "For Profit" situations because the incentive is to make money/profit rather than provide quality nurturing care.

After working in an office for 10 years before switching to teaching with an even mix of genders, I often wonder how ECE would be if it it wasn’t a profession dominated by women. My first centre was large and had about 25 women. They were so cliquey and if you weren’t part of their group you would struggle and be excluded. I’ve been at a few places where the team were kind and welcoming. So it’s not all bad, sometimes it’s just bad luck where you find yourself.

When you have competent administration that focuses on growth, training, and support for staff the environment is not like this. When it is, there's nothing you personally are going to fix. Start looking, vet the organization better next time, and when you find another position, quit.

Can confirm. Two teachers lied about another one in order to get her reported to cps. Nasty people

In my experience, two kinds of people get into childcare. They're either Miss Honey or Miss Trunchbull. Either they're there because they love kids and want to build them up, or they're there because they like feeling powerful and kids are easy to push around. It sounds like you work in a place full of Trunchbulls. Find a different place to work, this one is toxic.

As someone who is a certified teacher (my degree is in education and have a teaching license) I left public schools and ended up teaching at a childcare center. I left after a few months because the staff were so untrained, uneducated, and extremely rude to children, some to the point of abuse and I had to call DHS/licensing. This is one of the biggest reasons I don’t want my kids going to daycare

30 years ago I called the health department on the Daycare I was working at. The ants in the kitchen , live mice in the trash can to the wooden steps into the building being really loose. The Health Department came in on Friday and told them to fix it by Tuesday Morning or they would be closed down. The stairs were fixed Thursday morning, and the ants were gone on Monday. It took them six weeks to figure out where the mice were coming in. To fix the hole.

Sounds exactly like the one I worked at, I worked there for 5 years and seen nothing but abuse towards staff & children all from staff & management. I inly stayed so long because I live in a small town so there was not alot of other options. I left when I had my first child, I've now been at home with my kids for 3 years because I refuse to put them into any kind of care.

I would put in a complaint to ministry/whoever it is that “governs” makes the rules for daycares in the US. I’m in Canada so we call them ministry. If it’s a chain, complain to the person above your boss too. If you can audio record , call fax (child services) Do everything anonymous or under a fake name. Leave google review If they are on glass door , leave a review there as an employee. Not every daycare is like this but you have to weed out the bad from the good.

Sounds exactly like the place I worked it. It had great reviews but was such a toxic work environment and some staff were abusive towards the children. I reported it a couple of times and a couple of my coworkers reported it. It was a highly rated childcare center. I’ll never send my kids to daycare after that experience.

unfortunately education does attract people with a superiority complex

One reason I left childcare. At our center there were 4 women in particular who had been there a while and took it upon themselves to bully every new member of staff. I spoke to the manager about it and was told it was just ‘the way she was’ ultimately they were the only 4 staff members who had stayed longer than a year and the manager didn’t want to say anything bad to them!!

It does not happen at my daycare. The staff is caring. There are also cameras everywhere so it may have a role to do with it. If a new staff were to have some kind of attitude like this, they’d be let go. What I really hate though is that they send staff home and combine classes to max out ratios and it makes the rooms so oversensory for the kids and myself. Our government being conservative, they do not care about childcare, raised ratios and gave less money for early intervention so the case load per EAs has doubled. Half of the classroom is ND and as ND myself, that makes me want to leave where I’m. I come home exhausted not able to take care of my own kids and this week end I have having a burnout. I’m close to quitting.

Many daycare facilities only care about the money and pay the workers as little as they can get away with legally. Often, you get what you pay for. These centers often get the worst daycare workers because most good workers are at centers that pay a bit more.

When you work extremely hard in an extremely gross environment (lots of bodily fluids and germs from lots of kids), it's easy to become disenchanted. When you factor in the lack of respect and not making a living wage, it's not a mystery why so many people in early childhood education are bitter and basically dead inside.

You get what you pay for. Pay quality wages and attract quality people who stay.

I'm currently working at such a place. It's scary how people don't practice what they preach to the children. Usually ot starts from the management. Once certain staff get away with wrong behaviours, the rest will follow. Most parents only get marketed the good stuff and they don't know, until there's physical abuse.

I worked as an aide for 3 weeks. I watched on of the openers hit her own kids twice. The director didn’t seem to care. The ways that some kids were treated because their parents dropped them off at open so they cou,d get to their job on time was horrible. The blatant discrimination due to skin color also gross. I quit. It was horrible.

They’re not all that way, but a lot of them are. I’ve worked at several and it’s so heartbreaking to see the kids treated that way.

Get out of there

Unfortunately, I saw this at a private “Christian” daycare I worked for before going to a corporate daycare. The biggest issue with the private daycares is that they don’t seem to follow their own rules, blame underpaid overworked teachers for everything, and they will not stand up to a parent who is just wrong.

I currently work between 20-30 hours per week depending on their needs, and you mentioned working part time also. That’s HUGE. I usually come in around lunch time and the full time teachers are already on the brink of burnout. I’m full of energy just starting my shift, knowing but I only have three or four hours to go.

Of course, I also work another part time caregiving job, but I’m not sure I could work full time at a center again. I’m turning 40 in a few days and it’s too physically demanding for me…honestly don’t know how the teachers in their 50s and 60s are doing full time!

I worked in a centre like that and it was horrible. Some of the staff spent most of the day gossiping instead of actually engaging with the children I hated being there every single shift. My next centre was really small with two sweet older ladies who loved the kids and their jobs. It was a day and night experience. If you are able to I would start looking around to see if there are other centres hiring.

These types of places are so emotionally draining. Get out while you can and leave them bad reviews. Report them.

That the YMCA? Because their childcare put me through hell...The nastiest old ladies run the show, management only cares about money, and it is draining mentally...

I work in childcare. There are many issues with my boss, but never things like this. In our service the respect for the children, treating them as people, it is just the way it is. There is not many staff, all there a good few years. We have our issues, mainly with management and things that would never affect the day to day of the kids or their ongoing experience. That place you describe, it is toxic. Report and be the change you knowcneeds to happen. There are trying children in our service, complicated by other issues too. But they are all absolutely treated with respect and dignity.

I worked at a center like that for three years- it was my first daycare job and I thought it was how they all are. I finally left and found a new daycare and the difference is night and day. It’s refreshing to work at a daycare where the teachers actually LIKE children!

Unfortunately any caring job will attract some bad eggs. There was a lady at my old center who was just awful to the kids. I was a lead teacher and if I came back from a sick day she’d tell me how ‘naughty’ and ‘bad’ my kids were for her… like chill girl they’re 12-24 months they have no concept of that. She’d also tell my kids to ‘catch a bubble’ (first time I ever heard that) if they were talking and I was like EXCUSE ME WE PROMOTE THEM TALKING IN HERE!!! LET THEN TALK! They’re learning!

I called her out a bit too much and so she really hated me. I didn’t care because I was always going to stand up for those kids!

I've worked at a childcare center for 14 years. When our turnover rate was high, it was stressful, covering breaks and classes. When we had a stable staff it was much better. As for your director, it won't get better if she doesn't. I'm not gonna lie! There are days there is yelling and stress. But most days are good if not great. Because we have a very supportive and amazing director.

You are a mandatory reporter. Part of your job is protecting kids who are possibly being harmed by staff. If you have concerns of possible abuse (grabbing and moving children aggressively. Screaming at children.) you should be reporting the facility to children’s services, they have a 24/7 intake line. You can report anonymously if you fear retaliation.