Why Do Some People Find Daycare a Negative?

[TwinsinCA]

I understand that you have had not so great experiences by working at daycares but not ALL daycares are like that. You dont seem to be open minded enough to see that some of the infant rooms at daycares are very well run and that Yes, infants can get one on one time with a caregiver for at least a little while everyday because not all the infants are there or awake at the same time. Each infant in our room got at least some one on one time everyday.

I have worked at 4 different daycare centers in two states. I have never seen anything like you describe above. Never. It has nothing to do with being "open minded". It has to do with the reality of places I personally have worked. Two centers I worked at were part of two sizable daycare "chains" located in affluent Minneapolis suburbs. This is the way these centers operated. They were not outside the norm in my experience.

To me it is a negative if a baby has only "at least a little while" or "some one on one time" with the caregivers they spend the majority of their waking hours with. Despite the higher workload, the babies at the centers I worked at had their basic needs met. They were fed and changed and kept safe. But we didn't have the luxury of time to play with them and snuggle with them nearly as much as I think babies deserve to be. They got some of that, but not nearly enough. Does it scar them for life? No. But is that a reason to think of daycares in a negative way? Yes. YMMV.

 

[disfan07]

have worked at 4 different daycare centers in two states. I have never seen anything like you describe above. Never. It has nothing to do with being "open minded". It has to do with the reality of places I personally have worked. Two centers I worked at were part of two sizable daycare "chains" located in affluent Minneapolis suburbs. This is the way these centers operated. They were not outside the norm in my experience.

4 daycares...wow. So you are an expert on how ALL daycares in the country run. That's my point. I understand that there are daycares that suck. That there are daycares that really should not have kids. That there are daycares that just do the basics. But do you understand that there are daycares that are not like where you worked? And i think those daycare "chains" are some of the worst ones personally. I work at a Jewish Community Center. While yes, they are part of the Jewish Community Center Association, not all of them have daycares adn each center is privately funded and privately run. It's not really a "chain" even though there are locations throughout the country.

I would love for you to be able to walk into the Daycare center where I worked an spend time in the infant room and still say that infant daycare is so bad everywhere. You would see babies being held, being played with, laughing, smiling,etc. Our babies go outside (they have these 6 seat giant red buggys...so cute), they are involved with the sing alongs that we have. Ours are not just fed, changed and kept safe. They get so much more than that. But it's something you probably will never understand unless you see it. If you walked out of our center with that same attitude than yes it is being close minded.

Maybe it is because we are part of privately funded daycares so maybe we have higher standards than most so that we dont lose our donations. But we pride ourselves on what we do. We are extremely proud in the center that we run. And it shows in the fact that our kids stay with us from infant until they go to kindergarten and than come back to use for after school care in elementary school.

 

[TwinsinCA]

4 daycares...wow. So you are an expert on how ALL daycares in the country run.

I didn't say that.

But I have experience in 4 and so far you are only touting the supposed virtues of ONE. How many other places have you worked that were run the same way? I maintain that my experience is far closer to the norm than yours.

 

[Christine]

You'd be wrong. We had to do all those things at the infant rooms I worked in. We had a phone in the room we had to answer. We had to change the sheets on all the cribs and wash those plus the burp rags, bibs, washcloths, blankets, etc. Laundry was done daily. We had to clean off/sanitize the high chairs between babies and meals, sweep after all meals and snacks and mop at the end of the day. We had to prepare bottles and cereal and cut up food to an age appropriate size. We had to change ALL the babies every 2 hours. We had to keep the room picked up, we had to keep it decorated by the season, we had to keep detailed records of diaper changes, feeding times/amounts and behavior during the day. You have to do your best to keep the hitters/biters/head bangers from doing their thing and hurting themselves or other babies. We had to do a LOT besides sit in a rocking chair with a baby and a bottle.

And that 1:4 ratio was MN and CA. I know other states (many in the south) had ratios of 1 to 6 for infants. NM was one (or at least it was when I lived there). I no longer worked with kids in a daycare setting after we moved there because the ratios were so outrageous.

You clearly have never worked in a daycare.

My son was in an infant room in VA. The ratio was 1:4. They had a max of 8 babies. There was always at LEAST 2 workers in there. They had a separate staff that came in and did "cleaning" and sanitizing (they also did it for the toddler room too) and food preparation. The caregivers did do the feeding, but the food was delivered into the room by the kitchen staff and was prepared.

 

[NHdisneylover]

I didn't say that.

But I have experience in 4 and so far you are only touting the supposed virtues of ONE. How many other places have you worked that were run the same way? I maintain that my experience is far closer to the norm than yours.

I always worked in toddler rooms (and once in older preschool when I was just starting out) but the three centers I worked at that had infant rooms were all similar to what the poster is describing with one adult for very 2-3 babies most of the time and likely half of those napping so it was nearly one to one, the only phone in the room was there to use to call 911 in an emergency (never was used when I was there thank goodness), and the only cleaning the care workers did while the babies were with them was a quick swipe of the high chairs and cleaning up the babies themselves. Sanitizing everything, changing sheets (unless a diaper leaked or whatnot obviously) was done after hours--they rotated who stayed an hour late each day to do this.

I chose to stay home with my little ones because I loved it and had the option to--but I also saw first hand many well run and caring daycare facilities that parents could use if staying home either was not an option or just was not what the parent wanted.

To answer the OPs question, I think many people (like the poster above) either have no experience with daycare or else a negative one and just assume it is all negative because they have not seen what is positive. Rather than seeking the positive they figure it must not be there.
Truly, I loved staying home with mine. I "do" babies and toddlers really well (which is why I worked in it for years--I even went back to it after I graduated and had a job offer to continue at the junior high for more money because I missed toddlers) so it worked wonderfully for me and my children. My sister in law does not "do" little ones so well. She is fantastic with school aged kids but gets bored and frustrated easily doing things on the level of an infant or toddler. Her kids were much better served by being in daycare and spending their days with someone who truly enjoys that age.

I wish more people could see that right for their family is not the same as right for everybody.

 

[GJM]

disfan07 - Your infant room sounded just like my DS was when he went.

We had to bring our own pack-n-play with sheets and every friday that went home with the parent. Also the bottles had to be ready also. Our room was also separate in to different areas, play, nap, feeding. And I forgot about the red buggys! We also had those and they would take them for walks even if it was just around the daycare.

There were plenty of times the caregivers would be sitting in the rockers holding the babies.

They also didn't do laundry, or the cleaning -

My daycare was just as disfan07 did describe, but trust me when looking for a daycare we did see some where I would never send my infant to! When we walked into the one we chose, we knew it was right, cheerful room, very attentive workers, clean, babies just not in their crib doing nothing when awake, the floor had padding, no shoes allowed, soft music playing.