To ask about your experience with male nursery staff

when I looked for a nursery for DD I feel ashamed to say I would not have let her go to one where there was a male in the toddler class doing nappy changes.
Very judgemental I know.

Since then I have had to have a long hard look at myself and ensure I don’t pass to DD my judgements as she then went on to have the most amazing male teacher when she was 4 and I would choose him way before any of his female equivalent. He was super and she loved him.

So yes, we have these judgements but sometimes we can be wrong- I was.

If a dad said he couldn't do childcare or cooking because that's traditionally woman's work, or that he wasn't happy with your pilot being a woman, I wonder if people would say that was ok. Would we want our sons OR daughters told what career they can choose? Some societies segregate men and women, and generally women have much harder lives because of that. When I was a kid, we seemed to welcome all people and not prejudge them based on their gender/skin colour etc, yet now it seems things are going backwards.

I was a nurse early in my career (changed to something else) including changing kids nappies, boys and girls. I understand the concerns, obviously, but there has to be trust involved, especially if we're working towards an equal society.
I also, obviously, changed my own kids nappies when they were little.

I've worked with several male nursery staff and they've all been fine - bit lazy compared to female staff but parents always think they are amazing for some reason 😂

They were required to do exactly the same role in terms of nappy changing and sleep routines as anyone else.

Some stories don’t get as much coverage.

https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol-news/bristol-nursery-worker-arrested-after-10003949

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14862687/amp/male-childcare-worker-charged-melbourne.html

https://www.daynurseries.co.uk/news/article.cfm/id/1617167/devon-nursery-closes-following-allegations-of-sexual-assault

My twin girls started nursery at 3 months and had a male keyworker who did all personal care including feeds and nappy changes. He was also DS' keyworker when he was in the baby room.

He was so great that he's now also our go to babysitter.

DD attends a nursery with a male member of staff. He's not her key worker but she adores him. She's 2.5, so reasonably verbal, and hasn't had a bad word to say about him (unlike some of the female staff members... nursery workers, be aware that the children in your care do actually talk to their parents about how you speak to them 🫩). I don't think you can ever be 100% certain of how another person is treating your child when you're not there, but I certainly dont have any particular misgivings about this staff member on account of his sex. If anything, I wish we had more men in early years education. There's a great episode of Dr Becky's 'Good Inside' podcast that touches on how the education system is so skewed towards girls, partly due to it being staffed almost exclusively by women. I would welcome more male nursery and primary school teachers.

I was highlighting the ridiculousness of the OP. Pretty much what they and several other posters are insinuating. But thanks for policing the thread ✊️

Our nursery has 3 male practitioners predominantly being in the preschool room (age 3 upwards) and a male member of staff in the office. From what DD says, it seems the men help the boys with toileting / changes and the women with the girls. I must say though that it is absolutely refreshing to see such dedicated staff working in early years and great role models for the boys at the nursery.

What is wrong with you? I've reported your comment

There are three male workers at my dgc age 3, nursery. In truth they are all a bit ‘misfity’ (DD calls them the ‘undatables’ - and are not unlike some of the chaps I worked alongside when I did care in the community while at Uni as a mature student. They seen kind and harmless enough but it was a shock for me at first as had not until recently come across it before.
One is definitely not what you would call ‘a natural’ and I think would rather be anywhere else than working with kids l, but I imagine that’s true if some of the school leaver girls also.

He was absolutely fantastic, and really got into properly playing with the children at their level, whilst being really firm over boundaries. The children LOVED him and my daughter was distraught when he left. Several years later we still see him at our local leisure centre, and he'll have my DD bellowing his name down the corridor at him in great excitement.

Said abuse being done by women...

“Stop suppressing your instincts” sounds an awful lot like allowing unwarranted biases to me.

All those cases in the news involve women - have never seen any problems with male members of staff.

Who do you propose staff the nurseries? Mythical creatures?

Really good experience.

Those people who have an issue with this -do their fathers or grandfather's never get involved with any aspect of their care?

Did you misread the OP? It’s a pre reception class so presumably that is in a primary school and baring SEN needs the children will be perfectly verbal and capable of toileting independently. And horrible as it is to think about it’s not like female staff haven’t abused young children.

My DD had a male teacher for her school nursery class when her usual teacher went off sick. He was newly qualified and came to cover from the sports department and he was fantastic.

Not in a nursery setting but I’ve worked with male carers and nurses for years.

All working with vulnerable, non-verbal children and I can honestly say I’d recommend all of them. They bring a different dynamic and way of working with children in such a positive way.

As for the male/female thing - I’ve worked with many concerning professionals over the years all have been women. A concerning person is just that it doesn’t align with sex.

Stupid reasoning. So a man can’t control himself if he sees a vagina. What about a female worker cha gong a male child? Is that ok?

Wow!

Just wow!

What an utterly toxic point of view.

When you told the father of your child that he was not allowed to.change nappies how did he react?

Why would the gender of the staff make any difference?

Christ, no wonder there are no men in teaching anymore.

This place is toxic sometimes.

Hmm.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/jun/16/woman-22-convicted-of-abusing-21-babies-at-nursery-where-she-worked