Childcare worker's behaviour outside work?

marisco_2

My gut instinct to your post is that you should alert the nursery, to how unstable a member of its staff allows herself to become, for absolutely no justifiable reason. What if the next time this woman loses it, a young child feels the full impact of her wrath, because she chooses to have no control over her responses and reactions? I work as a teacher and have 37 children in my class. Yes it is really hard work and draining both physically and emotionally. There is no reason or excuse though to treat or speak to anyone in the manner this woman did, just because a moment of peace and quiet was interrupted. Nobody so emotionally volatile would be allowed anywhere near my classroom or pupils. Nor would I place my own children in the care of someone who thinks nothing of behaving in such a way.

RAS

Suzy

Think it is important that you both write this down exactly - what was said but without emotion. Including what she said on the phone after the event. So that you have a roughyl contemporaneous record.

Does the 3 year old recognise the woman at work as being the person he "met" at softplay?

*SuzySue*

Rosemary7391 wrote: »

Does the OP's child recognise this person? If they do, they might not be very happy about being looked after by someone they were probably scared/upset by. I also wouldn't be confident that I could actually talk sensibly to this person without worrying about a reaction.

No, neither of the children attending the nursery were involved. Sorry, I should have made that clearer. There were 5 children in our group. Only one was directly involved in the incident, the others were playing elsewhere at the time. It's 2 of the other 4 children that attend the nursery, and it's only us parents that seem in any way bothered about her being at the nursery (at the moment).

*SuzySue*

RAS wrote: »

Suzy

Think it is important that you both write this down exactly - what was said but without emotion. Including what she said on the phone after the event. So that you have a roughyl contemporaneous record.

Does the 3 year old recognise the woman at work as being the person he "met" at softplay?

He doesn't go to the nursery, it's my daughter and another child that do.

flowrypot

I would mention your concerns about the incident to your nursery manager, when she is employed at your nursery. She might not be able to do anything , but she will be able to keep a close eye on her ,calling a three year old child a psycho unacceptable .

RAS

Ask the mother who was sworn at to write down what happened if possible.

*SuzySue*

RAS wrote: »

Ask the mother who was sworn at to write down what happened if possible.

She already has (but has no direct links to the nursery the woman is employed at).

RAS

*SuzySue* wrote: »

She already has (but has no direct links to the nursery the woman is employed at).

Good, so if there is any further incident you have a record.

It is quite possible that this woman is fine at work and has only been relocated because of the staff turnover at the nursery your child attends.

It is also possible that she has been moved because of problems (with other staff for example) at the other site.

However, her employer cannot discipline or dismiss her based on one incident outside work without risking legal action.

rach_k

I wouldn't want somebody like that caring for my child. She obviously thinks it's acceptable to talk/scream like that in front of a child so it would make me wonder what else she thinks is acceptable. Even if she doesn't ever do anything 'wrong' at work, her personal opinions will surely affect her work in some way, even if it's just being cooler towards certain kids (those she deems to be psychos!) sometimes - that's not acceptable.

It would be different if it was her behaviour away from kids, on a drunken night out or something, but it was in front of loads of kids... if nothing else, she's a moron doing it in front of parents as she must know some of them might encounter her at work at some point.

I'd go in and speak to her boss, explain exactly what happened without emotion and express your concerns about her attitude towards children and her lack of understanding about completely normal childhood behaviour and the way to respond to incidents. Obviously they can't do anything about it unless she does something at work but you can let them know so they can keep a close eye on her.

LannieDuck

There's no way I'd be happy with her looking after my children. I would tell the nursery that you don't want her to be supervising them. If that's not possible I would seriously look at changing nursery.