Child Care

[Troop1379]

After reading a few post I have a question for all of you who have kids in child care. I am a toddler teacher(20months to 30months) All of my kids in my class drink from a cup with no lid,wash their hands and eat by them self with a spoon. We have a Am snack at 9:30 lunch at 11:30 and then nap at 12pm they sleep till 2pm them pm snack at 2:30. Well I have a new little girl who has been with me about a month and her mom gets so mad cause she told me she is not ready for her little girl to drink from a big cup. So her is my question to all you parents who have kids in day care. Do you follow what they are teaching at school at home as well?some of the parents think it should be what they want and not what is best for the kids. They also think everything the kids do is funny. I dont think hitting and throwing blocks is funny. what ever happen to parents being parents and not friends

[CW&M Mom]

I was a two's teacher for 7 years

Um lots of parents suck at being a parent

We had tons of great ones, some mediocre ones.....a bunch of crappy ones...a few horrific ones...including having to call CPS on them.


I still make my 3 year old use a sippy cup at home for the most part. Unless it's water. She can use a regular cup. She can spill Grape Juice all over the carpet too. I don't want to deal with it. But if she was in preschool or daycare I wouldn't care about their carpet..

[IntoTheMystic]

So her is my question to all you parents who have kids in day care. Do you follow what they are teaching at school at home as well?some of the parents think it should be what they want and not what is best for the kids.

I think it is reasonable to have different expectations for different environments. If it's important to the school to have kids use big kid cups, then fine, the kids can all use them there. That doesn't mean parents can't have the kids use sippy cups at home. (I'm with CWM- my carpets are pretty important.) Most kids are remarkably good at knowing "the rules" for each place. I would say pick your battles. I don't think cups is a worthy battle.

[Troop1379]

It is really not a big thing the cups but to keep calling and telling us to move the child back to the crawler room. It seems like parents dont want to have their child learn or grow up

[amylynne01]

I think parents' expectations of their children has gotten shallow. Some parents think that potty training at 1.5 is crazy, but that is the magic window with little resistance from the kiddo. I am guilty of this too, but I try to let my girls grow up in an age-appropriate way. I want my babies to be babies, but I also want them to be confident and ready to take on the world.

When my girls were in daycare, I didn't complain if she did stuff differently than I did. It was actually good for them to be exposed to new things. But complaining that you use cups? Didn't this parent know that before they enrolled?

[wendylv5]

Day care was so important to us. We followed what the teachers were teaching and asking of us. We had to switch our son over to cups I remember when they told us no more sippy cups. I also rememeber when it came time to Potty train. I appreciate all teachers because it is a hard job to do and without their guidance it would be much harder to do alone. Thank you for all you do!

[Troop1379]

Yes all the parents know what is going on from room to room. they are given a list of things that change from room to room. some just want a nanny service

[Macaela25]

If the policy at your center is for that age to use a regular cup, then that's the policy. There are no sippy cups allowed in our two year old room, but that is because they must be washed and sanitized after each use...something we aren't willing to keep up with past the one year old class, where three cups are sent back forth each day with each child so the parent can wash/sanitize at home.

We had a parent who once their child turned one they still wanted her hand fed baby food for all her meals in a high chair (child was perfectly typical). Our one year olds are served a modified version of the older children's menu, and sit at a low table with their teacher who models and assists as needed. The parent was very insistent that her child be moved back into the infant room where "her needs could be met" until I told her that she would have to go back to paying the infant price (since she was taking a space in that room), which was $20 per week more.

Talk to your owner/director at your school. If it's no big deal, then let Mom send the sippy cup. I bet if you offer the sippy cup and the regular cup, the child will eventually gravitate to the one she sees her peers use.

[Doglover8180]

I used to work in daycare... and how I saw it (and sometimes had to tell parents from time to time who fought me on issues), I run my classroom the way that I feel works best for my class. They can run their home the way they feel works best for their home. I don't tell the parents how to run their household and they shouldn't tell me how to run my classroom. They have 1 four-year-old to worry about, I have 12.

I also think that since what you are having the child do - is more advanced then what the parent wants, the parent should hop on board - it's learning and growing. You aren't holding the child back during the day - you are teaching them to use a cup without spilling. Now of course, it helps if that is being reiterated at home but still.... if they want to sippy cup it at home, that's fine but if that's not what is expected of the child in the classroom, I don't think a teacher should have to alter their rules and expectations because of 1 child's home environment.

When I used to work daycare - I will never forget the mother of a little boy who was angry with me that her son got dirt/paint/markers/glue/etc... on his $40 Tommy Hilfigure shirt. I said send him in no name $4 shirts. She consistently wanted her child to come home as clean as when she dropped him off. She would drop him off at 7AM and pick him up well after 5PM..... if a child goes home as clean as when they arrived, then they likely did nothing but sit in front of the TV all day.

I always used to say when I worked daycare - the kids are a breeze, it's the parents that are the challenge.

[434Teresa]

Tell them that you have to follow state rules and that the things you do in your classroom are things that the state rules allow you to do. I also think that inculdes the child being in a class that is of the childs own age..because the smaller age kids have a low number teacher ratio(right?).

At home I would gave my kids a sippy cup to protect my house more for my kids always seemed to want something to drink..My twins never went to day but my now teens did. I would not have a problem and did not with anything that the day did unless I felt it was unsafe for my child. I always wanted my boys to do more and learn more as I do my twins now. Kids like to learn new things for its makes them feel like big boys/girls which makes them feel good about themself.

I know this may seem kind of selfish but I dont know why a parent would not want a child to learn to do more for themself. The more the child can do alone the less work we as a mom has to do for them. I know I have enough to do already than to hold my kids back from learning to do things on their own.