Daycare

[Chipl95]

Did anybody else go to daycare as a child? I was at a daycare in the adult high school while my mom went back to finish, starting when I was 2 and a half. I stayed there until I went to Junior Kindergarten at age four, then I went to another daycare before and after school. Both of these places were really good and I have fond memories.

The place I went to for after school care in grades one to five was a different story. The daycare workers thought I was spoiled for wanting a blue cup and stopped letting me have them, even though the other children could. I was not allowed to be called by any nicknames by anybody, or sign cards with them. I ended up not being allowed to sign cards period.

I was the only child who had to have perfect behaviour to be allowed to bring my DS on Gameboy Fridays. If I misbehaved once, I couldn't participate. No other child had to follow this.

Speaking of the DS, Gameboy Fridays suddenly ended, but the workers purposely didn't tell me. I brought mine and played it, and they threatened to take it and keep it.

They were out of ratio a lot and the owner constantly tried to get the director to over enroll. In addition, he wouldn't provide money to buy toys or art supplies.

I'll come up with more stories later, for sure. That place wasn't good.

 

[Chipl95]

Here are some more I remembered-


-I was sitting at the snack table after finishing my tiny portion of snack. I wasn't even eating anything and one of the teachers put me in time out for hogging the snack. I wasn't allowed snack for a week after that.

-On Christmas party day, we weren't given snack until 4 pm. My school ate lunch at 11 am and we weren't even allowed to eat something from our lunches.

-Snack portions were extremely tiny, for example, two carrots and maybe some dip. We were told "Snack is not supposed to make you full. If you eat too much, you won't eat supper."

-I had a special comfort item that I always had with me. The daycare teachers regularly took it away from me for any kind of infraction. There was one day I said the wrong thing and had it taken away all day. (During the summer)

-I remember once I did something wrong and a daycare teacher took my comfort object out of my hand, held it behind her back, and screamed right in my face.

-I was wrestled by a much larger daycare teacher and had my special comfort object forceably taken because I refused to give it up. I told one "friend" about it, and she said "At least you weren't molested"

-The teachers tried to shut down my imaginary worlds and tell me that I was too old for them.

-I was beaten up and attacked by other children, and the teachers said maybe I caused it. Same for any teasing I experienced. Teasing was even encouraged.

-My classroom teacher would allow me time with the class hamster if I behaved that day. The daycare teachers would get so mad if I held the hamster before coming down to go to daycare. They tried to ban that because "It wasted time" It only took five minutes and that hamster brought me joy.

-The daycare teachers decided us kids were playing too much, so they tried to implement a new rule where we had to do a supplied worksheet before having snack, going to the bathroom, playing, anything. They were sick of us playing and doing what kids do, and they threatened to make us just sit and do worksheets until we were picked up.

-And being told we were the reasons they wanted to quit their jobs.

 

[Maiana]

I've actually never been to daycare, as when I was younger my extended family babysat me instead.
I am so sorry about your experiences at that place. That is horrifying and I would not want ANY child to be put through that horror.
Is this daycare still open? I would literally boycott-

 

[Chipl95]

The daycare is still open but no longer doing school age care. They are only taking toddlers (18-30 month) and preschoolers (30 months to Kindergarten start)

 

[Dim]

I had to help out at the church’s daycare once but other than that no.

 

[Shayden]

my mom runs a daycare in our house so i basically grew up around constant daycare. i remember making a lot of friends there though. we'd play video games like kirby air ride together and eat random plants outside. it wasn't that bad, except when some kid took a p*ss in the toybox.

 

[Stevey Queen]

At daycare somebody with a gameboy link cable agreed to help me trade my kadabra back and forth so he could evolve because I didnt have two gameboy colors or link cable.

He stole my kadabra, now Alakazam.

I told the daycare guy and he was like give it back but the kid just pretended to trade it back to me and the daycare guy was just like whatever I'm old and dont understand pokemon.

 

[Mr. Cat]

I was always the shy kid that the daycare workers were overly protective of and treated like I could never do any wrong. It was totally unsolicited and my friends often got in trouble for playing with me if they were deemed "bad kids". I didn't have any issues with them.

I don't want to send my son to daycare because I can see him getting treated just like you were. He already gets treated like that by family members and the woman I used to babysit for. I'm pretty sure it's because he has obvious Autism or ADHD traits (he's very outgoing, so only the latter is being considered, but I think it is actually the former). I'm autistic myself (very quiet, unlike my son) and got treated strangely in child care because of it too.

I think all kids should be treated equally regardless and think a lot of childcare workers (definitely not all) are toxic and don't take the time to understand every child.

 

[Shayden]

dang sounds like y'all all went to terrible daycares. childcare should be taken way more seriously imo

 

[moonbyu]

i've never went to daycare, but after seeing this thread, i'm kinda glad i didn't..

also sorry for the bump lol

 

[2kimi2furious]

I went to daycare and had a generally good time there. There was one summer, however, where they hired a bunch of college kids to work. They were mostly fine except for my "teacher" who was vapid and only liked the "cool" kids in the let them older kids bully me a bit and even bullied me herself. But everyone else was super nice and the owner listened to my mom when she told her what happened, so she let go shortly after.

I'm sorry all of that stuff happened to you. Daycare is really a crapshoot sometimes and it really needs to be regulated more to prevent things like this from happening.

 

[ams]

I didn't go as a kid but I was a daycare worker for a while as an adult. Nothing ages you quite like 45 children under the age of 5 in one tiny building. It was fun but I don't think it's a coincidence I haven't worked with kids since.

 

[watercolorwish]

I went to a thing called Headstart and it was basically just a small building full of toddlers and we occasionally hiked up the mountains around town and did outdoor activities. I think I mostly just stayed inside and played with cars tho lol

 

[greyCat44]

I had no idea daycare could be like this ; A ; I was actually just wishing this afternoon that there were more things like that where I live. It's much more common here to get a dedicated nanny for the kids because labor is cheap, I've seen some richer families with 1 nanny per child and a special one just for the dogs

 

[Chipl95]

I had no idea daycare could be like this ; A ; I was actually just wishing this afternoon that there were more things like that where I live. It's much more common here to get a dedicated nanny for the kids because labor is cheap, I've seen some richer families with 1 nanny per child and a special one just for the dogs

I wish I had been able to have a nanny or an au pair. At least then I would have been able to go right home after school and play with my own toys.