This Will Break Your Heart

A sixteen-month-old little boy died at a day care center in Lincolnshire, which is about half an hour away from where I live. The story is so sad... The day care worker was holding him, got irritated because the other children in the room were getting noisy, and hurled the baby to the floor so hard that he suffered massive head injuries. The saddest part is the description of how the baby grabbed his blanket and crawled to a bouncy chair, where he lay for a while until the day care worker realized he wasn't waking up. And the part where the mother said sometimes the  baby used to have trouble falling asleep, so she had to stay up with him, but how now she's glad because it meant she had gotten to spend more time with him. It makes me want to gag, thinking how that baby spent his last moments.
The saddest part is, I used to work in day care centers, before I started getting into working with kids with special needs. I worked at several Kinder-Care centers. And I can totally see how something like that could have happened. I mean, I remember horrid things happening in those places. I remember the lead teacher picking up a toddler by the straps of his overalls and shaking him. Another assistant teacher, who was watching through the door, went and got a director, who just told the lead teacher to take a break and asked me to take care of the 8 toddlers in the room on my own. I remember hearing about a teacher in the two-year-olds room who tied kids down to their cots so they wouldn't get up at nap time. The same teacher had once gotten in trouble for punching a kid. I remember babies being left in bouncy seats or swings for hours, and being told not to pick up or move the babies because it would make them get used to having attention.
Some people who work in child care centers absolutely love children and are very patient people. But not all. Some (even many) are just trashy people who cannot get any other jobs. I'm not trying to insult anyone... after all, I worked in many day care centers myself! But it is really easy to get a job in a child care center. If you have children, or younger siblings, can answer some basic questions about child development, and can pass a background check, you can work in a day care center. You have to have a certain amount of college credits to be a lead teacher, but that absolutely does not mean you won't be left alone with a classroom of children if you're not certified. I worked in places where 16-year-old highschool students, at their afterschool jobs, were left in charge of classrooms of toddlers. I remember one girl in the classroom next to mine took her toddlers outside to play, brought them back in, and left one outside! She didn't notice until some parents coming to pick up their children saw the little boy standing by the gate all alone. The "teacher" who left him out there was sixteen, you know? Watching eight toddlers! I remember two teachers getting into a verbal altercation and swearing at each other, right in front of the children. My nephew, who was three, was at the daycare where I worked, for a while, and I remember seeing his teacher yank him up by the arm, from behind, to take him to the bathroom before nap time.
If you have infants or toddlers, don't put them in chain daycare centers like Kinder Care or Minee Subee. They don't really focus on teaching these kids anything, or nurturing them. They focus on having as many children as legally possible, with as few staff members as legally possible, paying their staff members as little as legally possible, so they can make more money. They hang up  "lesson plans" on the walls for parents to see, but those lesson plans are never carried out.  At one of the jobs I had, I worked from three to six, and when I got there I was told to write on the dry erase board what activities the children had done during the day. I pointed out that I had no clue what the kids had done, since I hadn't been there, and the director rolled her eyes and told me to just make a few things up! Thats what these places are all about. I'm not trying to scare parents or make you feel guilty... but many chain daycare centers know exactly what they have to make themselves look like in order to get you to trust them, and exactly what they can get away with once you're gone. The best places to put children in day care are places like Montessori or Waldorf day care centers, or centers run by colleges or hospitals or social service agencies. Thats the best advice I can give you.
I guess this is a rant, but it just made me so sad, hearing about that little boy. :(
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Comments

[Mom2Amara]

Girl, I gasped aloud. This is just so sad.

[common mom]

Oh so sad :-( No child should ever feel pain like that. I just can't even imagine.

We are so lucky to have had great childcare . . . my youngest is in kindergarten at the Montessori school she and her brother both started at 3 (in-home daycare before that). We love it. But just because it's Montessori doesn't mean it's perfect . . . there are no "rules" that prevent you from calling yourself a Montessori school.

I guess the rule of thumb is be careful. Do your research, drop in unannounced and see what's going on.

I pray for this little boy's family :-(

[Kim]

And this is why I stay home with my kids.... I know I can trust myself (at least most days!)

[Nicki Mann]

Thanks for the note! Yes, you're right about Montessori schools, they're not all perfect, and the only way to be sure is to check them out. But I've subbed in Montessori schools before and it always seemed so much nicer and more orderly than the regular chain-daycares I'd been to!

[Pari Lobo]

Many centers claim to follow Montessori methods but in reality they may not do, so its better to do full research as a concern parents. Montessori method is a wonderful way to provide the balance between play and learning process and provider should have proper training and knowledge to utilize the benefits of the method in the proper way. Visit here for information on child day care http://www.childdaycarelearningcenter.com/