My little boy's nursery losing clothing-opinions welcome!

CG77

Hi all,

I'd appreciate your opinions on this please-I've never posted a thread on this board before so please be gentle with me !

My little boy has recently started at a day nursery. The other day we took him in a tshirt, with a sweatshirt over and a coat. When DH went to collect him, they could find neither the sweatshirt nor the coat (despite looking several times) and DH had to bring him home in just his tshirt!

When I called the next day, I was told the sweatshirt was there and had been there all along, despite staff not having been able to locate it at the time, but that the coat had still not turned up. I was told 'the best we can hope for' is if someone who has taken it home by accident returns it. I let them know I wasn't happy and said we really need to find it. The nursery have confirmed the coat was on his peg earlier that day but that he hadn't worn it at all to play out or anything and also that my little man was the only boy in his group to be in that day, making it seem unlikely to me that another parent had picked it up.

Today nursery has said the coat has still not turned up, despite them having asked all the parents since. They said they will ask again but that if it hasn't turned up by the time we take him again, it's unlikely to reappear.

Is this acceptable? The coat wasn't a very expensive one (£20 or so) but we certainly couldn't afford to keep replacing it if this were to happen each time he went! I'm really not the kind of person to make a fuss but it just doesn't seem right that they just say 'Sorry we've done all we can'. It was labelled with his name as they asked and can't just simply disappear. He is in a small group in an area separate from the other chidren, so a maximum of 8 other children had access to where it was kept.

So what would you do? Should we push this or just let it go ?

Thanks in advance!

CG. x

Rikki

I would give it a bit longer and keep asking every day.
There may be children who don't attend every day and if they have the coat by mistake may not be able to return it yet.
Not that a quick phone call to the nursery wouldn't go a miss if they do have it.

aliwali

Hi
This is so annoying isn't it. My son's nursery appear to have lost his wellies, they are no where to be found and they are not something that parents even take home!

My best advice to you for the future (I learnt the same way you have), is to buy really cheap stuff for nursery. My son has a coat handed down from a friend. Because unfortunately not everyone is as honest as us and things do go missing never to be seen again. It's not right and it isn't fair but I guess there is only so much the nursery can do to try and find it.

That said I hope it turns up for you.

Alison

CG77

Thanks to you both.

Yes it is annoying. They say that by the time we go again they will have asked everyone they can. And that seems to be it! I know what you mean about buying cheap things and I certainly will from now on, but even if it cost £5 it would get expensive if they lost it every time he went.

Thanks again and I hope the wellies turn up too Ali!

CG. x

tandraig

sadly - some parents seem unable to identify thier offsprings clothing! I had the same probs twenty odd years ago and go through this when picking GDs up from school. my advice to the parents - arrive early enough to pick up kids outerwear if you allowed into cloakroom area - if not watch the other kids coming out carefully. I have actually stopped a parent (a dad) and said 'excuse me, but are you sure thats K_______s coat as its the same is my C

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' he didnt mind and checked the name tag and sure enough it was C

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. you need to ask the nursery the procedure for going home - do the staff dress the kids in outerwear or do the parents or do they leave it to the kids? work out your strategy from there! oh - and dont dress them in anything expensive!

hardpressed

Do the same children go everyday? If so could you ask the parent yourself if they could check if their child has the right coat? Where I work, 20 or so girls but all doing different shift, one girl lost her black coat, she sent an email round but still it didn't turn up. A couple of weeks later one girl came in wearing a black coat and someone jokingly said to her ' that's not X's coat you're wearing', as she was saying no, she looked down and noticed the buttons were different to her coat, it was the missing coat. What she'd done was gone into the cloakroom grabbed what she thought was her black coat, slung it in the back of the car and hadn't needed it for a couple of weeks. He own coat was at home in the wardrobe. So it's possible that a parent might not have realised that a child hasn't got their own coat.

Blackpool_Saver

hardpressed wrote: »

Do the same children go everyday? If so could you ask the parent yourself if they could check if their child has the right coat? Where I work, 20 or so girls but all doing different shift, one girl lost her black coat, she sent an email round but still it didn't turn up. A couple of weeks later one girl came in wearing a black coat and someone jokingly said to her ' that's not X's coat you're wearing', as she was saying no, she looked down and noticed the buttons were different to her coat, it was the missing coat. What she'd done was gone into the cloakroom grabbed what she thought was her black coat, slung it in the back of the car and hadn't needed it for a couple of weeks. He own coat was at home in the wardrobe. So it's possible that a parent might not have realised that a child hasn't got their own coat.

Uuugh imagine wearing another persons coat and not realising, I am sure I would.

Susan_Frost

Give it a bit longer, and then say you would like to make a claim against their insurance policy.

Very annoying. Why should you have to put kids in clothes you dont really want to just 'cos they might go "missing".

Thing is, if it was a cold day, would they just send he out without a coat if it was not around.

Sorry it's happened to you. It is not as if you can/should expect a very young child to look after it's own stuff, so it should be the responsibility of the nursery.

LJM

the only thing you can do is hope that it does turn up eventually,it is a shame that peeps have to take others clothes sometimes without even checking that is why our nursery makes a fuss about everything being named and letters do go out that they should wear old clothes in.yet you do get the few that will only wear designer labels then complain if they have got paint on them,there own fault in my opinion.all i can say is keep asking and do your nursery put out a newsletter could it not be popped in there?

CG77

Thanks again for the replies.

Unfortunately we collect our little man later than most of the others so can't 'vet' the others for the correct coats, and have no access to the cloakroom area. The staff just go and get his things (or not!) when we collect him.

Grrr all very annoying...

Thank you again!

CG. x

Spendless

If there is only 8 other kids I'd aske each one of their parents (whoever drops them off/picks them up) if they've seen it. I once took home another child's coat by mistake. It was very very similar to my daughter's (that I left behind) and the other mum came round to my house to tell me. I hadn't noticed as we often had several coats on the go (large family who often bought clothes from charity shops, car boots etc).