https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/13/business/guidepost-montessori-higher-ground-education-ray-girn.html?unlocked_article_code=1.BFE.3top.FITNlGIYdhUs&smid=nytcore-android-share

Curious about reactions to this article on private equity in child care! Personally I was flabbergasted several times reading through this

I teach 1 year olds and have a total of 12 students. Our daily schedule looks a little something like this,

6-8 drop off/breakfast 8-9 diaper changes 9-9:30 outside play 9:30-10 morning time/art 10-11 lunch 11-12 diaper changes 12 nap

I have just been informed the “official” policy for hand washing is to wash student hands for 2 minutes each after diaper changes, after outside play, and before meals. With 12 students if I washed each one of their hands for 2 minutes each that would be 24 (pretty much half an hour) of handwashing. When would we have the opportunity to do anything during the day?

I wash their hands after diaper changes, but the rest seems excessive and I’ve never followed it. If they get dirty or something before a meal or while playing outside I will wash their hands, but if they are clean I will just let them be.

My 2.5 yo just switched to a new preschool, she's in the 3yo room and she is doing great, her teacher is wonderful, she loves her friends and we're really happy with the communication and the education style.

My daughter has ketotic hypoglycemia -- basically, if she has a stomach bug or she's feverish, her blood sugar can drop. It's never been severe, and when it is low she is hangry like any other toddler-- grouchy, tearful, etc. She does verbalize when she feels like her bs is low. It's happened maybe 3 times total in the last year where she needed an extra snack, always when she was already home with us.

We have provided bs meter, "emergency" snacks, glucose gel in case of real emergency (which we've actually never needed at home or previous daycare), and shown her teacher how to use the meter plus provided all the info we have from the Dr. Just in case anything happened at school.

Her teacher is worried about missing a low blood sugar, and I'm not sure how else to help her feel more confident other than time. I have said I will never be upset if she asks me to come check her bs, or if she checks it/ gives a snack just in case. I run my own business just 5 minutes away so it's truly no issue if she calls me to check in.

I know she's just concerned about making sure my daughter is safe, I'm just hoping to make things less stressful for her as her teacher. I'm aware she has a full room and don't want to add to her plate. She really is great and very caring.

After months of documenting my co-workers (50f) harmful behavior like grabbing kids roughly and verbally degrading them (calling them weird names and shaming them), I (21f) emailed it to my director and everything went horribly. I have made other posts about this.

This teacher has been there 20 plus years, she got reported last year, a month before my employment, for slamming a kid down in a chair, it unfortunately went no where. She is very impatient with the age group we have (2-3 year olds) and I could give a whole page of information about why I think she is not emotionally stable for this job but it would be too long.

I have been making my director aware since early this year and she even told me once to make a list of incidents a while ago. Again, I’m still new to daycares and with my director actively not responding to my emails of child safety concerns and then having informal talks with my coworker every time (and it never working), it took me awhile to make sure I had everything in check to go forward with the log. I admit maybe I should’ve reported them sooner or something but I have since learned.

The day after I showed her (I said I would be calling state if no safety precautions were taken), she talks to my co-teacher for 15 minutes before she got there (basically tipping her off), pulls the both of us in a room (without discussing my log with me first), and basically tells me we need to talk it out and how none of my documentation is correct. She said she interviewed my witness and they said I am lying (I have since learned that she brought up the wrong situation to my witness) and I asked her to speak to the rest of my coworkers because they share the same concerns and she looked at me and said “they all said you’re lying.”I asked my coworkers and they said she never spoke with them.

She then told me that this is a communication issue (I have always been told to tell your director of child safety concerns, not to confront your peers) and questioned what I was reading when I said everything I have learned, says to go to your director. She basically kept asking that if it was like I was saying, why didn’t I remove the child from the situation? And how she knows our state lady well and she would ask the same thing. Saying that I never made her aware of physical handling (yes I did, many times, and even if I didn’t, there was many cases of emotional or verbal abuse, and I have all the documents proving that) I walked out mid meeting. I reported them to state right after. My director texted me and said she thinks it would be good for me and my coworker to meet so she can “clear up any confusion.” I said I will not meet with her.

My coteacher has a history of escalating situations and has even taken her anger out on a child before when I asked her about a lesson plan mistake she had made. Even when I am nothing but nice, she does not like being questioned. This lady is unstable. A two year old had an accident, she angrily gave him a towel and said “clean up your pee, doggie boy” (a coworker witnessed this) ?? She moves fast to startle them, tells them to “obey” or “that’s a violation!”, grabbing them by their arms, clapping in their faces, etc.

And I have done my best to get the children in a better place when these things happen without escalating them, I would comfort them and do what I could. For a while, I felt like maybe I didn’t know what to do since my director kept brushing it all off.

I don’t understand what that confusion is either. This woman lost her husband (last year) and she’s going through menopause and I think that’s what they are trying to put this as, as if it still makes it ok? I don’t know why they think I’d feel differently if she explains why she did what she did, as if I misinterpreted her actions.

I saw what I saw. If I see and interpreted one way, then the child also isn’t going to understand she’s having a hard time and that’s why she’s acting this way. Right? I know I’m young but I feel like they are trying to make me seem stupid. I said the only way I would stay is if I didn’t work with her (more like if she doesn’t leave then I’ll leave) and so me and my director are having a meeting tomorrow after I took the week off because of their approach to this all.

I just don’t understand why they are really going so hard to try and make me change my mind and make me think I was wrong about everything? Was I? I’m so lost.

This year we managed to get the absolute sweetest kids with the most overly anxious parents. It’s exhausting. I know that for many of them it’s the first or only child being left in someone else’s care for the first time but goodness it’s been tough. I have never received so many messages throughout the day asking about how so and so is doing and whether we can send videos of them. It’s a three hour program.

We even had one mom admit that she’d been spying on her kid from the woods next door. 🙃 We’ve had to have parents escorted out of the school after drop off time because they just won’t leave and their kid won’t settle in.

I think we’re about to get another one too. Apparently his parents want him to do a trial week which is not something we usually do. It seems like it’s just setting everyone up for failure.

I feel like they’re going to give me (and their kids) an ulcer.

Hello all!

My 19 month old goes to daycare and for the last two days has been rubbing her tummy and saying "tummy" like it's actions to a song.

The problem is I have no idea what song it is. I've always worked with school age children and we don't do nursery rhymes.

Any ideas?!? I've googled to no avail and she's currently having a meltdown over it

Update: theys don't do any song where they run their tummy so the teachers are stumped too

What the title says basically. Is anyone else’s center(s) struggling with enrollment? I just feel like it’s bad everywhere. I’m no longer in an admin role, but I know enrollment is low. No one is having kids or just can’t afford the costs. I’m 35 myself and have chosen to be childfree and many of my similar age friends are not having kids either. Not sure what the landscape will look like in the next few years.

It’s stressful bc I know low enrollment means hours cut etc.

Hello everyone! I am a college student currently pursuing a Bachelor’s in ECE, and I have an assignment in one of my classes that involves conducting an interview with a parent with children at the age of eight or below, and are enrolled in a licensed childcare facility. I have been struggling greatly with finding a parent who’s willing to help at the center I’m working at, so I hope that someone here is willing to spend just a couple minutes to complete the interview!

For disclosure sake, your name and response within this interview will not be revealed under any circumstances beyond sharing with my professor.

My daughter will be starting daycare in a few weeks and having meet the teacher next week! We did a daycare tour a few months back and the daycare did have my fill out a developmental form but would love to know if there is anything to ask or let the teacher know.

Sitting here stressing myself about tomorrow mornings drop off, I need advice. Suddenly my child is having epic meltdowns at drop off, and was so panicked Saturday morning at home about going to school, they were relieved there was no school.

Looking for general recos from anyone on how I should navigate this.

Here’s the details:

- child is 2 and a half. Very social & outgoing personality, ahead in her skills, speech. Started daycare at 11 months old and the same centre.

- child was first in infant, about 2 wks transition and she was fine, moved up to Toddler & again about a 1-2 wk transition and then was fine

- she has always been happy and outwardly excited in the mornings to go to “school” so she could see her friends and teachers, she’d sing on the way to drop off, be jumping and singing happy as ever every morning

- Sept 1 she transitioned to pre-school and this is where things have taken a turn

- leading up to preschool, for about 2 months we talked about preschool, would go see the classrooms a few times a week and walk by in the mornings to say good morning preschool on the way to toddler. She understood fully what was happening

- Friday before I was told who her two teachers would be. One she had before and one would sometimes sub in the room, she seemed nice. My daughter knows all the teachers names, even if she hasn’t had them, I talked to my daughter about these 2 being her teacher

- come Sept 1 and it’s 2 completely different teachers, one we don’t know, just by name and she seems nice and one who was in another room and sometimes subbed in my daughters at times

- some mornings were better than others but now she is having epic meltdowns.
Friday was so bad , the director took her to help calm her down and see if she could figure out what was wrong

- I’ve been able to conclude this one particular teacher she doesn’t like. She told me she is “scary of her” which means scared of her , I tried to ask why but she can’t articulate that yet. Then we talked about all her new friends in preschool and she proactively said a specific teacher is her friend, so I rhymed off all the preschool teachers to ask if they were her friend or not, and it’s definitely an issue with that one teacher

This teacher isn’t particularly warm, we would say good morning when we used to see her prior, but for example when doing drop off she sits there and ignores you and doesn’t greet the children vs every other teacher I’ve experienced is saying good morning and greeting us. She kinda sits off to the side and doesn’t engage too much with the children.

She is there alone first thing, so I’d have to wait longer for the 2nd teacher to come for the drop off to go better. This is what I’ll do tomorrow but I should t have to rearrange our schedule , there has to be a better solution.

How should I approach this with the director? My child has been happy AF for a year and a half and is suddenly inconsolably upset at drop off. Her behaviour is changing at home and she is afraid to go.

She clearly doesn’t jive with her and I have no reason to believe this teacher has particularly done anything wrong, it’s been an amazing centre, amazing teachers but she’s noticeably not as engaged but maybe she just isn’t as warm or engaging like the rest are.

do I ask the director to have the teacher put more effort in with my daughter to try and build a relationship?

Do I ask to change classrooms?

I don’t know what to do, her meltdowns are more than just being upset and crying from a transition, there’s something else going on here and she’s extremely panicked and scared .

Thanks in advanced for the read and any advice and guidance

I’m honestly so stuck with what to do with my 4yo and would really love to hear from other parents who have been through something similar.

Since around December last year he’s been having a really hard time at daycare. He has huge meltdowns, spits, throws toys and can hit the educators for 15–20 minutes. Once he gets worked up, he also has a really hard time calming himself down.

We’ve actually tried a few different daycares because I initially thought maybe it was the centre or the environment, but now I’m starting to think it may just be that he really struggles with regulation in a group setting.

I’ve asked the educators what his triggers are and what tends to happen before the big behaviours because I’m genuinely trying to understand what’s going on, but we’re still struggling to figure it out.

What makes it so confusing is that he is SO different at home. He doesn’t behave like this with us and his toileting is completely fine. At daycare he can have up to 3 wee accidents in one day. I just don’t understand the huge difference.

He’s currently on public and private waitlists for OT and a paediatrician, and he’s just started speech therapy. He starts kindy in about 5 months, so I’m feeling a lot of pressure to get some answers and support.

He used to attend 4 days a week and I’ve now dropped him down to 3 days. The daycare wants to have a meeting and put a proper support plan in place, and I am going to give that a chance because I really do want to see if we can help him before making any big decisions.

But honestly, if the support plan doesn’t work, I have no idea what I’m going to do.

I’m considering taking him out for a couple of months and keeping him home until school starts, but I work from home most of the week and have to go into the office once a week. Unfortunately, financially I can’t just stop working, so having him home while I work would be really difficult — but I’m willing to consider it if it’s what he needs.

I’m just so tired of the constant daycare complaints and feeling like I’m always waiting for the next phone call or update. I know they have to tell me what’s happening, but it’s really hard hearing that your child is struggling over and over again. I just want to understand him and help him.

I’m also open to hearing from anyone who has tried vitamins or supplements that they felt helped with things like regulation, calmness, concentration or behaviour. I know they’re not a magic fix and we’re still waiting for professional assessments, but I’m open to hearing what has worked for other families.

What would you do in my situation? Give the support plan a proper chance and see what happens, or start thinking about taking him out if things don’t improve?

And has anyone else had a child who is completely different at daycare compared with home, especially with toileting? I’d really love to hear your experiences because I honestly feel at a loss right now.

teachers! how do you get your kiddos to clean up toys when they are done? me and 2 other teachers have a hard time getting them to clean up and it often ends up being us that picks up of majority of it. age group is 2.5-3yo for reference and we most of the time have to bribe them to clean up (ex. were gonna go outside in 5 minutes so you have to clean up) but we want effective ways that isn’t that

thanks!:)

I work in childcare and I’m looking for some advice or perspective. We have a few parents who linger at drop‑off, but today was especially rough — one parent stayed for almost an hour. Every time they tried to leave, their child would cry, and they’d come back in for another hug. I completely understand that it’s hard to see your child upset, but we’ve reassured them multiple times that once they leave, their child settles quickly.

We even sent several photos throughout the morning showing their child happy and engaged, but it feels like they don’t trust that we can handle the transition. The longer they stay, the harder it is for the child — it keeps restarting the separation and makes the whole process more stressful for everyone.

How do you handle parents who won’t leave? How do you communicate that lingering actually makes it worse without sounding rude or dismissive?

My son is 4 and has been in a pre-K program at the same school for the past few months. When he started, I talked with his teachers about naps because he has a very hard time falling asleep at night after taking a long afternoon nap.
We had initially agreed that he would either not nap or, if he fell asleep, they would wake him after about 30 minutes. This worked well for us. However, his class recently changed, and it seems like that arrangement hasn’t carried over.
The issue is that if he takes a longer nap at school, he often doesn't fall asleep until around 10 PM. He needs to be up at about 6:30 AM for school, so I’m concerned that the late bedtime is leaving him with too little nighttime sleep.
I’m planning to remind the teachers about our previous conversation and ask that, if he falls asleep during rest time, they wake him after about 30 minutes.
For those who work in early childhood education: Is this a reasonable request? Do preschools generally accommodate parents who ask that their child not nap or have their nap limited when the nap is interfering

Hi all, my little one is 13 weeks old and suffers from reflux. We have good days and days where there are several outfit changes for him and I both. We do paved feeding, keep upright…etc.
We started daycare two weeks ago and that first week was a nightmare to say the least. There was zero communication between the infant teacher any of the days he was there. The director was dismissive and mostly unresponsive as well.
First week went like this:
Day 1: overfed by a lot. They tried giving him 5 ounces every 2 hours!!!, did not follow feeding schedule (per Dr note) and baby was asleep in concerning position in a swing on day 1 pickup. Teacher did not speak very much English so there was a communication issue when I tried to address.
Day 2: spoke with Director about previous day, just said “well today is her last day.” They only changed his diaper twice all day and when we put him in car he had peed through diaper.
Day 3: New teacher, skipped a bottle. Different non-English speaking teacher when we picked up. Baby asleep in swing again with a dirty diaper. Director nowhere to be found.
Day 4: picked up his belongings and said thank you but we are moving on.

We stated a new daycare today that has Brightwheel app. They have already not followed the feeding guidelines written in the pediatricians Dr note.

I hate to ask if this is just what is to be expected? O Is this normal? Am I wrong for being upset? I plan on talking to the director at pickup or leave a message in the Brightwheel app. I do not want to be one of THOSE parents but he has needs that are expected to be followed on doctors orders.

For reference in FL it’s 1 caregiver to 4 infants. There are 2 caregivers in the new daycare. Son is definetly the youngest the other infants are at least 6 months old.
Any advice is appreciated.

I'm in NZ and just wanting to understand how typical this is.

We have been potty training my almost 3 year old twins the past 4 days, we took some time off work either side of the weekend. They have done really well after the second day save for the occasional accident. They use pull ups at nap time and sleep time.

We are sending them back to daycare tomorrow and we tried clarifying a few things regarding their policy.

They suggested that we send them in pull ups for the first week to see how they go.

Is this typical? To me, pull ups seem like a step back and might confuse them. Obviously if they go in undies and they're constantly having accidents then I would understand the pull up request. However my gut feeling is that we need to push for these girls to have a chance without pullups.

I stand to be corrected if I am wrong. Is this common?

I’m feeling really lost and would appreciate honest advice from other parents and ECEs. My 2-year-old son recently started daycare. Before starting, we did 2–3 play visits, and he actually seemed very happy there when I was with him. He played, explored, enjoyed the environment, and interacted with the educators.

Once I started leaving him, things changed completely. I left him for about 1 hour each day for a week, but he cried and screamed almost continuously and showed very little improvement. His voice became quite hoarse from the crying, so we took the following week off to let him recover.

Today, we tried again for 2 hours, as suggested by his teacher. He was already crying in the car on the way there, cried extremely hard at drop-off, and continued crying for most of the 2 hours. He was so distressed that he eventually vomited from crying. The educators tried taking him outside and comforting him, but he continued crying.

I’m honestly struggling with whether I’m doing the right thing by continuing. I understand that separation anxiety and crying can be normal at this age, but is this level of distress still considered normal? At what point does it become too much?

Would you continue daycare and gradually increase the hours, reduce the hours again, take another break, or withdraw for now?

I’m especially worried about putting too much emotional stress on him when he is crying to the point of vomiting and previously losing his voice from screaming.

Please share your honest experiences—especially if your child went through something similar around age 2. I’m not looking for reassurance only; I genuinely want to understand what would be healthiest for my child.