stopping work because childcare not working

Savvy_Sue

I don't know how things are going now, but it seems that Sarah feels that the ASC is treating her differently because she is S/E rather than employed, and being less 'forgiving' of her children's behaviour than they are of the behaviour of children whose parents are employed, because they assume that she can be more flexible than an employed parent. That is just not on! It flies against all equal ops policies to do so - employment status may not be explicitly mentioned but it's just so basic that how a parent earns their living is irrelevant to what goes on at the club!

Speaking as someone who's been instrumental in setting up two of these ASCs, we didn't treat parents differently according to the reasons they were using the Club. We had parents in employment, parents studying, parents just wanting a break from their little darlings, and to be honest, we didn't ask WHY children were coming to the Club, because it wasn't any of our business. In fact some children were paid for by Social Services to help support families who were struggling to cope. Again, that was none of our business, and we tried to make sure that as few people as possible knew whose place was funded by SS, because it was irrelevant to how the children were treated at the Club.

And the only reason for suspending a child was for VERY SERIOUS misbehaviour, usually something which had hurt or endangered another child or member of staff. In fact, we only ever had ONE child at either of those clubs who EVER had to be suspended or permanently excluded, as far as I can remember. And we cared for some very disruptive children.

I know we're only hearing Sarah's side of the story here, but if the ASC is acting on the assumption that because she's s/e she can be more flexible than other parents and therefore her children can be suspended for minor breaches of their behaviour policy, then they are just plain wrong on several levels!

I'm frankly astonished: if they're so successful that they can afford to risk losing the income from 3 children coming to their club on a regular basis then I wish they'd tell the rest of the ASC world what their secret is. We always AGONISED over both temporary suspensions and permanent exclusions because a) we felt we'd failed not only that child but also their family b) we worried that if we had to suspend or exclude too often we'd lost that child AND any siblings and we just couldn't afford to lose children!

I'm glad to hear Sarah has been offered some contracts which will fit into her life without the ASC, and I hope the ASC gets their act together. IMO, a parent's reasons for sending their child(ren) to an ASC have no more relevance to the ASC than their marital status or domestic arrangements, and should make no difference at all to how the children are expected to behave! You may ask a parent for information about where they work because you may need to contact them in an emergency, and you may ask a parent for details of who else you can contact in an emergency etc - but you don't let what you know affect how you treat the children in your care!

Sorry, I'm going off on a bit of a rant here: it's darn hard work running such a club but I never thought it was any harder to do it well than it would have been to do it badly!

Sarahsaver

did i mention the group leader of the ASC saying maybe i would stop work soon bcos I got engaged recently - that 'changes things' apparently :rolleyes:
I think theres a lot more to this than meets the eye.
My kids are happy coming home, after a bit of initial whingeing. The ASC is closed due to 'unforseen circumstances' this week... The kids and me had a great time eating HM cake and they did some stencilling whilst I mucked out the chickens and got covered in chicken ****:)

Savvy_Sue

Sarahsaver wrote:

did i mention the group leader of the ASC saying maybe i would stop work soon bcos I got engaged recently - that 'changes things' apparently :rolleyes:

You did, and I was appalled! While one might ask a woman who's just said they're pregnant whether they're planning to return to work after the baby's born, I didn't think a woman had ever been expected to give up work on getting engaged!

Sarahsaver wrote:

I think theres a lot more to this than meets the eye.
My kids are happy coming home, after a bit of initial whingeing. The ASC is closed due to 'unforseen circumstances' this week... The kids and me had a great time eating HM cake and they did some stencilling whilst I mucked out the chickens and got covered in chicken ****:)

It does all sound rather strange. I'm glad you and the kids are enjoying yourselves however. And I hope the club is able to get its act together soon!

Dora_the_Explorer_5

Good grief - getting engaged means you'll stop work eventually!!!! Haven't they heard of 7 year engagements, broken engagements, the year 2005! Carry on enjoying your kids and chickens Sarah, the ASC people are living in fairyland.