Nursery staffs older children playing with my 14 month old

Older children interacting with her is probably a factor in her coming on in leaps and bounds...

Bring in a toy that is a choking hazard. Distract staff from caring for the babies. Not recognise if the baby is choking or aspirating the food he is feeding the baby. Inadequate personal hygiene introducing bugs to the baby include eg E. coli, sharing confidential information about the child…

Definitely. Babies are not toys for older children to play with.

Aw this is so sad. I have two sons aged 9 and they love younger kids especially their toddler cousins. They think they’re so cute and they love the responsibility of helping look after other children. They often come home from their childminder saying “little Annie is cute/funny” It’s entirely innocent. I was abused as a child and I’m hyper vigilant. I do understand that this 7 year old probably seems massive compared to your little one. I remember two sisters started at my childminder when my DG was 14 weeks. I remember looking at them and thinking they were grown up compared to. DD.They were only 8 momths and 20. months older than my daughter.

What do you think might happen? Why would you ruin an excellent experience just because?

There is a nursery next to my DC primary school and once a week a group of kids from year 3 go in and read to the babies and toddlers.

I can’t see the harm. My kids went to a childminder so were mixed with all ages from baby to 11. They loved mixing with them all and learned so much from their older friends.

Some children have so many social opportunities - multiple siblings or close in age cousins or a large circle of family friends to play with. Their environment is so rich. And some children only have a sterile nursery environment and adults at home. I guess it doesn't matter in the long-term so long as they are loved, but although I can see the OP's point, it's sad when additional social opportunities for those children are shut down.

You do realise OP that the attention this seven year old child is giving your daughter is more than likely, the most one to one, interaction she is having all day.

Childcare workers are busy, they have tasks to do. When they play with the children it will be for short periods and in bigger groups.

Unless your daughter is distressed by this little boy, I imagine she is the person benefitting most from the interaction.

In Ireland we have a roots of empathy programme. Parents sign their babies up to go to local schools to interact with children as the benefits of both ages interacting is huge.
You should move your child because you don't trust them.
If you have a second child I think you might look back and wonder why you were bothered?
He is most likely included in ratio, most likely sitting next to mum when the baby biscuits being fed, most likely in for a few minutes to say hello.
I really feel dad that you see anything wrong with this, but like I say you don't trust them so you should pull your child out.

Think this is a bit of a reach tbh. I am 29 but when I was at nursery, one of the staff had an older child who would sometimes come in and I loved seeing her and playing with her. They are both kids. Seems bizarre to demonise a 7 year old for helping to play at looking after a baby.

Even better in Scotland where we do 7 years at primary so the playground buddies for P1 are P7 pupils!

In the OP's case I'm sure the 7 year old is being supervised by their mother and other nursery staff. How lovely to have such a caring wee boy.

Also, I don't think this is relevant in this case but PP have brought it up, so, for the record - I don't really care if men find it hard to break into early childhood care settings as a career. Like, it doesn't bother me at all. It does bother me if the only way they can get in is if we put a bunch of pressure on parents to lower their instinctive guardrails.

Gosh OP - you precious darling having to mix with the offspring of staff - outrageous. Might pick up something nasty,

This..

I do sort of agree with this. It may or may not be good for your child but it's not the service you're paying for. It's a bit like paying for a sole charge nanny and then having a nanny who brings their own child along. There may be many advantages to your child having a playmate if the ages are suitable but if it's not what you want, it's not what you want.

Both my DC has been to a childminder and have played with the babies after school there. DC1 also has been a play leader and reader to reception and KS1 children while in Year 5 & 6. As long as it’s supervised properly it’s good for toddlers to have interactions with older children.

I grew up with lots of cousins and I get it about kids growing up around other kids of different ages, and it seems a lot of people are also okay with it in this scenario, but if OP's not then she should speak up.

In the cousins/neighbours scenario, they're all kids you know and you have met and observed them playing together etc. There's a gut feel check that's not there in this scenario. And it's something expected for the setting.

I don't think it's reasonable to tell someone that if they have a weird feeling about someone having contact with their child that they didn't know about, that they should just shut up!

So many missing the point here. It doesn’t matter how lovely the child is, you don’t pay for staff to be minding their own kids alongside yours.

I think it's fair enough that you would want your child fed by an adult, but other than that, I think this is rather nice. It can be hard when your little one goes to childcare as it's the first time that they have their 'own lives' so to speak, where they build relationships with new people independently of you for the first time. I remember feeling a bit wobbly about it myself at the same stage, especially as so many of the kids at his childminder seemed so big.

At his childminder, my little boy developed a very sweet friendship with my childminder's son, who was about 10 at the time. I have lovely videos of him teaching my son his colours and numbers. I reckon it was a bit of a formative experience for my little boy, who then followed his older friend's example and did the same thing with new babies and toddlers once he was old enough. He still absolutely loves 'looking after' smaller children at 6 (with lots of supervision, of course) and I'm sure his older friend helped him learn how to be gentle, patient and sensible with them.

Unless there's a concerning backstory with this older child, I think it's a really good thing.

I’d be bothered too OP - which must make me a suspicious, psychopathic snowflake according to most others here 😂It’s not the same as kids playing at home when you know them, it’s not the same as different years at school. 14 months is really little, and not all 7 year olds are fabulous angels. This kid might be too rough, you don’t know him, and the thought of everyone gawping and cooing whilst he played with her like a dolly would drive me nuts. I’d have to be honest with her key worker and say it made you feel a bit unsure, and please can they run through how it works with children not enrolled at the nursery mixing with the kids who are. But that must just be crazy ol’ control freak me! 😁 Plus, why the hell has his mum got him at work anyway?!

The nursery registration certificate should be displayed. It will show the number of children allowed on the premises at one time and their ages. Unless there is an associated after school club then the upper age limit will state 5. Ofsted would give more info/ advice.

It really is the older children love the responsibility of “helping” with the younger ones and the little ones look up to the older ones and learn from them. It’s a mix of children in school holidays/inset days and home educated children doing some sessions while their parents work or just to socialise ,they have a large outdoor setting and are mostly outdoors.

It’s probably doing her the world of good for her development. Sounds sweet. I really wouldn’t worry.

That sounds so lovely. Children of all ages learn lots from being around other children from different age groups.