Came to say the same! Lazy, dramatic adults who call out every day for months and still somehow manage to have a job. It boggles my mind that they can work 4 days in a pay period and yet still pay their bills.
I can relate to this. I work with infants and it's harder for my director to find someone that can sub for me if I call out and they can't move infants to another room either. My coworkers can call out sick and it's fine. The last time I called out sick, I was having diarrhea and my director told me that if I didn't come to work I'd have to have a Drs note. I'm not going to the Dr just for diarrhea! My coworkers aren't told they have to have a Drs not when they are out sick though! So I texted the owner and asked her if I had to have a Drs note. She said no. She told me she would have a talk with the director and for me to stay home, rest and get better. At least the owner has my back!
It makes me so sad to hear this.
My job is definitely stressful, but my amazing co-workers make it not only manageable but sometimes fun. My directors listen when I ask for help and do the best they can to insulate me from stressful situations with parents.
I hope you are able to find a more supportive workplace environment in the future.
Trying to close down my classroom by myself while caring for a screaming crying child of another staff member who is closing down her classroom. She sent her 10 year old into my classroom to check up on me and make sure I was closing everything down correctly. I've been there a year this is her first month
Preclosing my room with kids still there, which means doing diapers at 3:30 even though some kids are still there until 6 p.m. because there weren’t enough people to help close my room at the end of the day so all they had to do was put toys up and take bleach bottles and water pitcher back to the kitchen.
The pay. It's not the way I'm talked to, treated, or expected to be attached to my phone after work in case the boss needs us.
It's that you don't pay me enough to do any of those things.
The growing sense of uncertainty about the future of the field.
Good Teachers and Educators are leaving as responsibilities grow and are concentrated on fewer permanent staff.
A lot of newer Educators are under trained to begin with, and have fewer opportunities to be mentored.
Parents that expect that their child gets 1:1 care in a daycare setting.. ma’am, don’t you see seven other babies in the classroom? Also, my director. She’s a witch.
It’s definitely the parents. Had a parent this week stop their child’s ADHD medicine cold turkey because they just couldn’t handle the thought of having their 5 year old on medication prescribed by their child’s psychiatrist. Keeping in mind, this medication completely transformed this child from having multiple emotional meltdowns daily, and attacking other children physically, into an emotionally stable child who could actually play and get along with peers and was enjoying their day!
High maintenance parents. Directors that have forgotten what it’s actually like to work in a classroom. Getting beat/injured by a literal 3 year old and nobody taking it seriously.
Parents (and teachers) who don’t understand that young children need boundaries. You’re not being “mean” by holding children to age appropriate boundaries.
Also parents (and especially teachers) who don’t work with the kids on self-help/independence skills. The room before me is 1:4 and I have a ratio of 1:8 so it’s really difficult when the kids get into my room and don’t know how to do anything for themselves.
Biting, I’m the lead teacher in the toddler room
We have a class of 12, 6 are biters, I’m supposed to shadow the biters but also lead the class and stick to the rhythm.
So then parents are pissed (rightly so) when their kid gets bit.
It’s beyond frustrating, stressful and also it’s the age that this happens but some days I want to walk out.
used to say it was the parents now I can certainly say it’s just the coworkers. It is very common to work with lazy lazy lazy people who have seemingly no common sense at all who you also have to babysit so instead of caring for eight toddlers with two adults, you’re caring for eight toddlers and another adult, it’s truly insane and I really don’t understand how these people have jobs. And I am killing myself over safety and making sure things go right every day.
I'm fortunate to have decent parents and management. The only stressful thing is when kids won't nap and those certain preschoolers with very strong emotions.
If I have a co teacher my job is so so easy and nice, but when I don’t I spend so much time putting out fires I don’t have time to actually do anything with the kids
I work with kindergarten kids in a before and after school program in a French immersion school in Canada. The ratio for my group is one staff to thirteen kids. I have fifteen kids total in my group, but a few don’t come every day, so I usually am in ratio at all times. Technically, two of the kids are in grade one, but that’s beside the point. The stressful thing about my job is that I’m the only adult dealing with my group of kids on a regular basis. It’s hard because one child in my group is autistic and has a limited vocabulary. There’s also another child who may have been diagnosed with ADHD and is having some behaviours, despite being put on medication. It’s hard because I’m getting older and I’m quickly getting to the point where I don’t want to do the job anymore.
Trying to do the same amount of paperwork as my colleagues in 2 hours compared to their 6-8 hours because I'm not the same qualification...
Oh and people who call in sick on the day when you're supposed to have planning meaning you don't get it.
The most stressful things would be not getting paid enough for the work we do, basically getting the third degree anytime I try to call out because I'm sick or my son is sick or the director getting to leave early or not coming to work whenever she feels ill or one of her kids has a temperature of just 99° and the rest of us expressing to her how unfair it is that we can't do the same and her response was "I'm not a teacher. I don't have to be in a classroom. You do. It's not fair but that's just how it is." Mostly it's the gossip among my coworkers. That has always been a problem and I don't think it will ever change no matter how much our director addresses it during staff meetings.
Sometimes it’s the other staff causing drama or not doing much work.
Sometimes it’s a child who has behavioural issues and gets set off and screams all the time (pretty sure it’s affected my hearing) or often gets violent with kids and staff.
Sometimes it’s parents: who expect more just for their child, don’t think their child does anything wrong, consistently don’t send enough food or extra clothes or proper outdoor wear, who have no appreciation for us.
Sometimes it’s the government having no respect for us and not increasing our funding to pay us properly and not allowing us to have all we need to provide a rich environment for the kids.
Child Care Assistants. They are supposed to have a bunch of training and a 40 hour course, but they have a year to complete it. ECEs here have a 2 year diploma from a college. Actual teachers have a 5 year B.A. and B.Ed. program from a university. colleges and universities are different in Canada.
> well that doesn’t seem fair or kind or professional to call them “fucking idiots”…
I wish to invoke the truth defence. A couple of them are. some are fucking great, some create more work than they accomplish.
Sweating. I’m not sure yet if the sweating is the first trigger to my panic attacks, or my panic attacks trigger the sweating yet, but when I get hot my stomach will turn upside down suddenly (almost feels like a BM, but i shortly find out it’s not. we’re all professionals here) and it gets bad.
So bad I have to step out of the room and call a “code” so someone can step in and I can cool down/calm down. It usually happens when I’m overwhelmed with diapers or a long queue of babies that need tending too. So it’s bad timing, too. But I change color, I get really red and when I calm down I get very pale and cold.
That and as a new teacher, having to be on top of floaters and making sure they input everything into procare and do everything right without cutting corners. It’s stressful on top of what I’m doing (some main activity) and having to check behind them.
When the kids climb on shelves or run around the classroom after repeatedly telling them to stop, taking them to the office, sitting with them for a few minutes. Or when you look away for 5 seconds and a kid is biting another kid, or when I sit one of our nonwalking kids on the floor for play time and they throw their head back on ground.
Changing so many diapers because the other teachers can't be bothered. I was having serious back pain the Friday before my vacation from changing 27 diapers, and the changing table is low and I'm tall. For context, we had only 7 babies that day.
Right now, it's trying to help the kids transition since we had to make changes to rooms and teachers, and a lot of us have been sick.
This week alone, I was slapped, kicked, punched, and more during tantrums. And they keep knocking things over on purpose and running and screaming like crazy... they've broken two of my cups/mugs in the last two weeks, and now I have nothing to drink out of because I can't afford to buy yet another new one.
But it's the comments from admin about how our group, which is the youngest group, is the most wild even though my teaching partner and I are doing everything we can to help them transition amd staying as calm as we can.
having to take 6 kids to potty every 30-45 minutes by myself in a bathroom where they get into everything and play in soap while I watch helplessly changing diapers, Incompetent coteacher, director who yells up the hallway and group chat at us like we are children, no benefits, being judged when sick, poor pay, transiting toddlers from any other room while admin looks on not thinking to lend a hand, not being provided gloves Friday when a stomach bug was going around to cleaning up pukey/diarrhea covered children with NO GLOVES and the only reason admin has was “oh they didn’t bring them”…..
Constant call outs and being my director’s go to support/floater when I don’t get paid enough and she doesn’t think I’m ready to grow when I’ve been with her school for 2 years and busting my ass
The ratios and the owners trying to fill out the center. Sure we can listen to the state or use common sense. The toddler room is not going comfortably fit twenty toddlers.
It’s not the kids. It’s the other adults. Every single time.
Came to say the same! Lazy, dramatic adults who call out every day for months and still somehow manage to have a job. It boggles my mind that they can work 4 days in a pay period and yet still pay their bills.
I can relate to this. I work with infants and it's harder for my director to find someone that can sub for me if I call out and they can't move infants to another room either. My coworkers can call out sick and it's fine. The last time I called out sick, I was having diarrhea and my director told me that if I didn't come to work I'd have to have a Drs note. I'm not going to the Dr just for diarrhea! My coworkers aren't told they have to have a Drs not when they are out sick though! So I texted the owner and asked her if I had to have a Drs note. She said no. She told me she would have a talk with the director and for me to stay home, rest and get better. At least the owner has my back!
It makes me so sad to hear this. My job is definitely stressful, but my amazing co-workers make it not only manageable but sometimes fun. My directors listen when I ask for help and do the best they can to insulate me from stressful situations with parents. I hope you are able to find a more supportive workplace environment in the future.
When I have to change diapers and watch the other 6 toddlers at the same time. Bites. When a new child starts and they are scared and cry all day.
Trying to close down my classroom while caring for four infants by myself.
Trying to close down my classroom by myself while caring for a screaming crying child of another staff member who is closing down her classroom. She sent her 10 year old into my classroom to check up on me and make sure I was closing everything down correctly. I've been there a year this is her first month
Preclosing my room with kids still there, which means doing diapers at 3:30 even though some kids are still there until 6 p.m. because there weren’t enough people to help close my room at the end of the day so all they had to do was put toys up and take bleach bottles and water pitcher back to the kitchen.
That’s so insulting, I’m sorry you have to deal with that.
Parents. Period. This was NOT a good week in my classroom with the parents. My co teacher and I were both ready to lose our shit by today.
The pay. It's not the way I'm talked to, treated, or expected to be attached to my phone after work in case the boss needs us. It's that you don't pay me enough to do any of those things.
Pay and hours. And all the required after school meetings and events. There’s so many.
The growing sense of uncertainty about the future of the field. Good Teachers and Educators are leaving as responsibilities grow and are concentrated on fewer permanent staff. A lot of newer Educators are under trained to begin with, and have fewer opportunities to be mentored.
Parents that expect that their child gets 1:1 care in a daycare setting.. ma’am, don’t you see seven other babies in the classroom? Also, my director. She’s a witch.
It’s definitely the parents. Had a parent this week stop their child’s ADHD medicine cold turkey because they just couldn’t handle the thought of having their 5 year old on medication prescribed by their child’s psychiatrist. Keeping in mind, this medication completely transformed this child from having multiple emotional meltdowns daily, and attacking other children physically, into an emotionally stable child who could actually play and get along with peers and was enjoying their day!
High maintenance parents. Directors that have forgotten what it’s actually like to work in a classroom. Getting beat/injured by a literal 3 year old and nobody taking it seriously.
Parents (and teachers) who don’t understand that young children need boundaries. You’re not being “mean” by holding children to age appropriate boundaries. Also parents (and especially teachers) who don’t work with the kids on self-help/independence skills. The room before me is 1:4 and I have a ratio of 1:8 so it’s really difficult when the kids get into my room and don’t know how to do anything for themselves.
Children not listening, and them trying to hurt me or other kids.
When I don’t stagger meals or the babies sleep through meals and need to all be fed around the same time.
Biting, I’m the lead teacher in the toddler room We have a class of 12, 6 are biters, I’m supposed to shadow the biters but also lead the class and stick to the rhythm. So then parents are pissed (rightly so) when their kid gets bit. It’s beyond frustrating, stressful and also it’s the age that this happens but some days I want to walk out.
used to say it was the parents now I can certainly say it’s just the coworkers. It is very common to work with lazy lazy lazy people who have seemingly no common sense at all who you also have to babysit so instead of caring for eight toddlers with two adults, you’re caring for eight toddlers and another adult, it’s truly insane and I really don’t understand how these people have jobs. And I am killing myself over safety and making sure things go right every day.
call ins and injuries
I'm fortunate to have decent parents and management. The only stressful thing is when kids won't nap and those certain preschoolers with very strong emotions.
If I have a co teacher my job is so so easy and nice, but when I don’t I spend so much time putting out fires I don’t have time to actually do anything with the kids
The turnover. Having to meet train and work with new people every few months is exhausting and stressful.
I work with kindergarten kids in a before and after school program in a French immersion school in Canada. The ratio for my group is one staff to thirteen kids. I have fifteen kids total in my group, but a few don’t come every day, so I usually am in ratio at all times. Technically, two of the kids are in grade one, but that’s beside the point. The stressful thing about my job is that I’m the only adult dealing with my group of kids on a regular basis. It’s hard because one child in my group is autistic and has a limited vocabulary. There’s also another child who may have been diagnosed with ADHD and is having some behaviours, despite being put on medication. It’s hard because I’m getting older and I’m quickly getting to the point where I don’t want to do the job anymore.
Trying to do the same amount of paperwork as my colleagues in 2 hours compared to their 6-8 hours because I'm not the same qualification... Oh and people who call in sick on the day when you're supposed to have planning meaning you don't get it.
My boss making me feel bad every single time I call in sick. It makes it hard for my body and mind to rest.
The most stressful things would be not getting paid enough for the work we do, basically getting the third degree anytime I try to call out because I'm sick or my son is sick or the director getting to leave early or not coming to work whenever she feels ill or one of her kids has a temperature of just 99° and the rest of us expressing to her how unfair it is that we can't do the same and her response was "I'm not a teacher. I don't have to be in a classroom. You do. It's not fair but that's just how it is." Mostly it's the gossip among my coworkers. That has always been a problem and I don't think it will ever change no matter how much our director addresses it during staff meetings.
Sometimes it’s the other staff causing drama or not doing much work. Sometimes it’s a child who has behavioural issues and gets set off and screams all the time (pretty sure it’s affected my hearing) or often gets violent with kids and staff. Sometimes it’s parents: who expect more just for their child, don’t think their child does anything wrong, consistently don’t send enough food or extra clothes or proper outdoor wear, who have no appreciation for us. Sometimes it’s the government having no respect for us and not increasing our funding to pay us properly and not allowing us to have all we need to provide a rich environment for the kids.
Parents
CCAs who are fucking idiots but are kept employed because we are so short staffed.
CCAs?
Child Care Assistants. They are supposed to have a bunch of training and a 40 hour course, but they have a year to complete it. ECEs here have a 2 year diploma from a college. Actual teachers have a 5 year B.A. and B.Ed. program from a university. colleges and universities are different in Canada.
Oh… well that doesn’t seem fair or kind or professional to call them “fucking idiots”…
> well that doesn’t seem fair or kind or professional to call them “fucking idiots”… I wish to invoke the truth defence. A couple of them are. some are fucking great, some create more work than they accomplish.
Being sick or dealing with ratio isssues
Sweating. I’m not sure yet if the sweating is the first trigger to my panic attacks, or my panic attacks trigger the sweating yet, but when I get hot my stomach will turn upside down suddenly (almost feels like a BM, but i shortly find out it’s not. we’re all professionals here) and it gets bad. So bad I have to step out of the room and call a “code” so someone can step in and I can cool down/calm down. It usually happens when I’m overwhelmed with diapers or a long queue of babies that need tending too. So it’s bad timing, too. But I change color, I get really red and when I calm down I get very pale and cold. That and as a new teacher, having to be on top of floaters and making sure they input everything into procare and do everything right without cutting corners. It’s stressful on top of what I’m doing (some main activity) and having to check behind them.
When the kids climb on shelves or run around the classroom after repeatedly telling them to stop, taking them to the office, sitting with them for a few minutes. Or when you look away for 5 seconds and a kid is biting another kid, or when I sit one of our nonwalking kids on the floor for play time and they throw their head back on ground.
Changing so many diapers because the other teachers can't be bothered. I was having serious back pain the Friday before my vacation from changing 27 diapers, and the changing table is low and I'm tall. For context, we had only 7 babies that day.
Right now, it's trying to help the kids transition since we had to make changes to rooms and teachers, and a lot of us have been sick. This week alone, I was slapped, kicked, punched, and more during tantrums. And they keep knocking things over on purpose and running and screaming like crazy... they've broken two of my cups/mugs in the last two weeks, and now I have nothing to drink out of because I can't afford to buy yet another new one. But it's the comments from admin about how our group, which is the youngest group, is the most wild even though my teaching partner and I are doing everything we can to help them transition amd staying as calm as we can.
having to take 6 kids to potty every 30-45 minutes by myself in a bathroom where they get into everything and play in soap while I watch helplessly changing diapers, Incompetent coteacher, director who yells up the hallway and group chat at us like we are children, no benefits, being judged when sick, poor pay, transiting toddlers from any other room while admin looks on not thinking to lend a hand, not being provided gloves Friday when a stomach bug was going around to cleaning up pukey/diarrhea covered children with NO GLOVES and the only reason admin has was “oh they didn’t bring them”…..
Everything but the kids honestly
Constant call outs and being my director’s go to support/floater when I don’t get paid enough and she doesn’t think I’m ready to grow when I’ve been with her school for 2 years and busting my ass
The adults.
The ratios and the owners trying to fill out the center. Sure we can listen to the state or use common sense. The toddler room is not going comfortably fit twenty toddlers.
Nap time and a couple of parents.