A dinner lady has pulled out my child's tooth, am I overreacting?

jee

The world's gone mad!
Of course you're over reacting.
I loved the dinner ladies when I was a girl. I was very shy and one of the dinner ladies used to help me make friends. Many do a very good job with not a lot of pay so please give them a break.

GobbledyGook

IrishRose12 wrote: »

School doesn't have to report it if there wasn't any concern, or if there were no marks on the child's face. It's at the school's discretion as to when to inform on falls, however whether the OP knows or not, it has more than likely been written in the accident book in school.

At the last schools I worked in any knocks to the head or face had to be reported to the parents.

Not necessarily a system I agree with (lots of unnecessary paperwork imo), but if that's the system in a school it should always be followed.

Alias_Omega

Old Skool Dinner lady... Probably 60 years old or something.

I remember when the teacher threw things at you if you were not paying attention, and you played out until it got dark...

onlyroz

carlamarie wrote: »

However on saying that I believe I should have gotten at least a phone call giving my permission for her to do it.

Permission? Seriously?

I got a call from the school last week telling me that my daughter had been jumping in puddles and had wet socks. Did I want to go into school to bring her dry ones? Er no. Did they have permission to let her spend the afternoon with no socks? Er yes. Did I mind that she'd be uncomfortable in her shoes without socks? Er no - it's her own silly fault for getting them wet. I put the phone down with a sense of utter bewilderment that they'd deemed it necessary to call me in the first place.

I certainly wouldn't expect a call as a result of a "wobbly tooth emergency" unless the child was bleeding profusely and/or howling in pain.

Prothet_of_Doom

WestonDave wrote: »

Probably breaches all kinds of H&S official protocols but in the bigger scheme of things helping a tooth that is falling out on its way as a motherly sort of thing is kind of what I expect of dinner ladies - most of them are parents doing a couple of hours each day for a bit of extra cash - without them the school wouldn't function and I'd personally not be making a big deal out of it. Maybe a casual passing comment to the class teacher describing what you'd been told and leave them to deal with it internally.

I would do nothing. I'd say to the child "Great, can you thank her from me, cause I hate teeth"

sulkisu

The sad thing is that many dinner ladies in her shoes would not have done it, for this very reason (the risk of being discipline or sacked because of a parents overreaction).

gingin_2

At my daughter's school, any teeth that come out are allowed a special trip to the school office and are put in a tiny envelope with "for the tooth fairy" on it.

Not exactly relevant, I know

Shoshannah

When I was a kid I walked into a door frame with my eyes shut (yeah, yeah, I know - seemed like a funny game at the time) and knocked my front tooth really hard.

The teacher took me to the bathroom and pulled it out and chucked it down the sink.

It was a complete non-event. Mind you, this was the early 1990s.

cats2012

If it helps anyone have more faith in us young-uns - I'm 25 and also think the world has gone mad and this situation is ridiculous. Surprisingly though, less ridiculous than the one a couple of posts above about wet socks!!

Fuzzy_Duck

Hmm, it really does sound like your daughter's tooth must have been very loose at the time the dinner lady pulled it out. Otherwise it would have been painful for her surely?

Whilst I'm pretty sure what she did is against the rules (seeing as schools can't even give out plasters to children these days) it does sound like she was doing it with the best of intentions. I just can't imagine someone doing that to a child unless the tooth was obviously ready to come out.

Personally I wouldn't tell the school. As others have said she will probably lose her job over it.