The kids are never the problem
I know really, sounds wrong. The kids are the reason that child care, behaviours and challenges exist, they should be the problem right? Wrong, the kids are never the problem in childcare I know it sounds odd on the face of it but give me a second to explain.
The ‘Kids’ that I talk of are really just little people with out the life experience or the skills to control there emotions or know right from wrong. Parents not teaching child that is one problem, sometimes the educators aren’t either. Combined this with by now well documented flaws in the sector and you end up an education system that isn’t educating anyone. There’s more people that you can point the finger at to. Managers not managing, corporate obsessing over numbers not children, staff members holding grudges or just not being nice to each other. It does get hard to point the finger at the little people though, remember there still learning.
The number of weird looks I’ve gotten from parents and co-workers over the years from blaming everyone but the little people. How dare I not place the blame on the tiny agents of chaos that I care for daily. The thing is that the chaos that they cause is important for them to explore the world, the world that they had no knowledge of a few short years ago. Not only are they ‘downloading’ the tools they need, but building a new computer from scratch as they go.
One thing that never helps children build their brain is when parents don’t parent. Sometimes plugging in the hypertetical USB is to hard for the creator. Wether it’s guilt for putting your baby in care or the fear of being to harsh. When you don’t put boundary’s in place, your child will struggle to learn how to behave appropriately. I’ve made the point before about not just saying no, but explaining why. As a parent it should also be on you to keep your child home when sick, not the centre’s responsibility to deny care or send children home. It’s also your responsibility to keep an eye on their development. They shouldn’t be screaming ‘no’ at you or attacking others over minor issues at three or four years old. If they are then you have a problem.
Educators being toxic is another issue. As childcare is a female donated sector we can be rather nasty to each other. Is this the example that we want to set? No. But their’s always one educator who is great in front of the parents but really mean when the parents leave. Children pick up on that, If a educator can treat there co-workers that way, so can the child right? Dose this sound like educators teaching right from wrong, I don’t think so, sometimes if the parents are actually doing something, the room staff are actually undoing it.
Manager not doing their job, and or the manager being unable to do their job because corporate is breathing down their neck. I don’t care what you think, its happening. Wether it be numbers or staffing issues, even at non-for profit centres everything is about there bottom line. This presents issues when profit is put over child safety, but is hard to avoid when each child is seen as dollar signs.
I believe in finding, then blaming the root cause of an issue. I think the real issue here is the childcare sector needs an attitude adjustment. The sector so many parents rely on needs to focus on what’s actually important, not what benefits the wallets that own the sector. I try to advertise a ‘care less’ attitude, you care about the children’s health and safety because that’s the important thing. You don’t care about the workplace politics, the behavioural issues, corporate aims or the parental misjudgements that you need to follow. So long as the child gets picked up safely at the end of each day, there shouldn’t be an issue. So why ist there a problem? Good question and I don’t have a good answer, however, the point remains the kids are never the problem.
Activity of the week,
Pasta towers, a common team building game I know but it’s great for teaching maths, not that they know that.
You will need
Dry spaghetti or match sticks (just the wooden bit available from most craft stores)
Marshmallows
Cellotape
Give them a roll of Cellotape and a handful each of the other ingredients. Instruct them to build a tower. I often do this with my 4 and 5yos.