Childcare is designed to appease parents
Every part of a childcare centre is designed to make it look good to the parents. I mean of cause it is, there paying thousands to send there children to a centre because for most of us, we have no other option. However, designed to look good to parents, and actually serving the children we care for can be two very different things.
For a start, the menu often designed to hide tiny meal budgets and make menu items sound better than they are. Remember that a lot of childcare centres make it a point to charge parents far more than the budgets assigned for the care of each child. Often chefs work within tiny food budgets that can be as little as 33 cents per child per day. As parents, caregivers and even educators, we should have a idea of what most children will and won’t eat. Mac and cheese, yes, meals with complex adult flavours, no so much yet we advertise curries and pastas with long names to sound nice to parents. These ‘fancy’ dishes are not always adapted to meet the tastes of the children and I’ll give you a tip, If your child won’t eat it at home, they won’t eat it at kindy either.
Rooms are designed to look better than they are to. Toys and dress ups aren’t washed until a child has contaminated it in some way or it looks dirty. Then its often a game of speed rather than doing anything properly. Carpet rugs are often full of dirt, dust and sand, to the stage where the pile lies flat and are rarely vacuumed or cleaned. Opening staff are rarely given paid time to open the centre before business hours start, instead you are expected to come in before their shift starts to get something set up, you know, unpaid. If there are given ten minutes or so to set up it yards aren’t being checked for hazards before children are allowed to play in them, because there is no time too. There not always checked before heading out in the afternoon leading to children finding shards of glass in outdoor spaces. If the ground is to hot for children to play on ie, over 50ºc, they hose it down instead of going inside. In spite being wiped down and moped twice daily, bathrooms still accumulate dust and mould because no-one will put in the time to clean them correctly assuming you have time to do so.
Safety issues are often only addressed when they becomes unsightly for the parents or a child might or has gotten hurt. Sometimes in smaller centres the centre director will open the tool kit themselves for quick and easy fixes although most larger companies have a building management team. For more complex tasks, most centres will have to wait for tradies to become available to do that job, often with the issue remaining present for months if not years before it’s repaired or replaced. Other hazards can include the children themselves sometimes troubles at home or in care will cause a child to become hard to manage or even aggressive. I’ve seen children become physically aggressive toward other staff and children in the centre even going so far as to injure staff members. It is shocking hard to expel a child from childcare even when there removal from care is warranted due to multiple safety concerns regarding there continued attendance. Educators aren’t allowed to discipline children effectively, if at all and any and all actions taken to ensure safety may be misconstrued by parents as an attack on a child. I’ve been investigated for breaking up fights, preventing injures from falls and using a soft but firm voice to gently explain why something isn’t a smart idea. Anything is investigated to make parents feel secure and educators unsupported.
Activity of the week:
Ice tasting, a taste safe activity to do with your child to introduce them to cold.
You will need
An ice cube tray
Sliced fruit
Water
Add your sliced fruit to your ice tray, pour your water over the top and freeze overnight. Pop your ice cubes out and put them in a tough tray, encourage your child to chew on the ice.