Are childcare centers good?

Hi moms, I want to preface this by saying I’m not a mom, or pregnant. However, I work for a child enrichment program where I have spent time in 30-40 childcare centers including: kindercare, sandbox, Bobbi Noonan’s, and other lesser known locations. This is what I can tell you.

I’ve worked with and seen several kids get yelled at for just being a kid. One example today was a child got yelled at for drinking water after running around and playing for 20 minutes at that point.

Another kid accidentally knocked over a gardening bucket while playing outside. The teacher made the child cry. After the child cried for 5 minutes, the teacher then came over and comforted the child. This reminded me of a toxic relationship.

Child 1 started punching child 2. Child 2 cried, which lead to him getting yelled at for being “emotional and dramatic”. Child 1 got to keep playing as if nothing happened.

All three of these stories happened within 1 hour at one childcare centers.

Now, I have been to other childcare centers where I’m confident all the kids are in a safe and loving environment.

When you get home ask your kids:

-did you get in trouble at all today? Follow that with, do you understand what you did wrong? If they don’t know why they got yelled at, chances are they just were just being a confused kid looking for clear direction.

- often times the kids will get unjustly in trouble while participating in free play. If possible, ask a daycare if you can come in during those hours.

I understand being around several kids for more than 6 hours a day and getting frustrated. Trust me I often have to take a deep breath before I say something and ask myself. Is the child just happy to be with me and being energetic while I want them to listen, or are they having a side conversation because they don’t care. 9 times out of 10 they are just super excited to play.

This is a long post, but I needed to share because teachers can complain about one child for a hour, but when mom comes to pick them up the teacher is all smiles. I know it’s tremendously hard to be a stay at home moms for the 2-3 years before preschool, but I will (hopefully) never have to put my kid in daycare. I’ve seen and heard too much.