Any ex-nursery staff who have changed jobs/careers?

[BurntOutNurseryNurse]

I have worked in nurseries since 2008.
I used to absolutely love it. I still love it, but bloody hell, I am really, really, struggling mentally 😢

The long hours and very little annual leave are just burning me out. 8am-6pm may seem like nothing compared to other jobs, but it's actually wrecking me the older I am getting it would seem.

I am struggling to keep 12 precious, wonderful babies happy, fed, amused, clean and take photos with very detailed observations to go along with them for each individual child. Plus keep the app updated and clean all the toys, clean the play room, do planning, activities, artwork, accident forms, medicine forms, display boards...it goes on and on,and I'm just really, really struggling with it.

There's day where my colleagues and I are up to our necks in unsettled babies who need cuddles and a baby who is sick, a baby who bites and needs to be shadowed etc. And we can't get photos done or planning done. And we are just made to feel like shit from mangement (who are in the office all day and could maybe, I don't know, help us once in a while). Over the years I have had 2 major work-related mental breakdowns, 1 of them was so bad I actually had to leave work. My depression and anxiety has got so much worse over the years too.

Obviously nobody goes into childcare and stays for the money, because let's face it, the pay is shitty, but that's not even why I am fed up. Its because I am so burnt out and am sick of the lack of respect and understanding from the higher ups.

Has anybody been in my position and went on to do another job or maybe even a brand new career? I really want to leave childcare for the sake of my mental health. I just don't know what else to do, I haven't really done anything else and to be honest, I am a bit afraid to take the leap and try something new even though I want to.

Any words of advice or success stories, or even any understanding would be greatly appreciated

I've been doing the job for so long and feel like I should be "better" at coping with all this stuff. Feel so incompetent and weak 😟

Not specifically nursery staff, although there might be some in there, but lots of success stories here:

Thank you so much, I will have a look at that.

Family outreach work

Lots of nursery workers become TAs

Left to be an IDVA for the local authority, few of us on our team are ex early years. Love my job now and would never consider returning.

I am in the same boat as you are .Careers Pro has been helpful for me.
I am retraining for something else though.
Good luck

Never been a nursery worker but always been a nanny. Similarly long hours but a lot less children, none of the admin of observations etc and the pay is so much better.

Yes! I was a nursery nurse for 6 years and found it absolutely exhausting with everything you’ve described.
Then I was fortunate enough to be offered a nannying job overseas, although the hours were still quite long it was so much easier!!! Just one or two children and so much more freedom to go out and follow their own wants and needs. I’ve almost always had you get chicken who have a daytime nap so I’d always have a break. Pay is better and it’s just so much better overall!
I’ve been nannying for 14 years now in three different countries and since having my own child I’ve worked part time and brought him with me.

No I'm still in nursery work at 51 years old. Be watching this thread with interest

I was in nurseries for about 5 years and left for similar reasons. I went into nursery staff recruitment and from there moved into a few unrelated jobs.
Would never go back. I look back now and see all the hours of unpaid overtime/after work meetings when you had to wait 2.5 hours between end of shift and start of meeting, parents evenings (unpaid), paperwork I took home, weekends I came in for open days (unpaid) and I’m annoyed I put up with it!

Yes. I was working in childcare since the early 2000's. I loved my job but got so fed up with the lack of recognition for the study I had done and the terrible pay and lack of progression opportunities. I'm retraining as an SLT. I've still got a year left. I do miss the children and the degree I'm doing is harder than my early years one but I feel it was the right decision.

I agree a family outreach worker. I work in this field and we have a number of ex nursery staff working with the younger children.
Also some early help teams have people who work with EY parents doing training/ready for school sessions etc

I didn't last long in a nursery, so well done for sticking at it.
Since leaving nurseries, I have been a TA, a 1-1 in a school, then with further training I worked as a family support worker in the community, worked for child protection, been a specialist 1-1 and now a mental health lead for a school.
Have also done placements in hospitals with play specialist which was very interesting.
I hope you find something you love and don't be afraid to leave childcare completely. Your skills are interchangeable

I left nursery work in 2004 and joined the civil service. I got on an apprenticeship scheme and now have a professional qualification and a degree. Don't regret leaving for a moment. I miss the kids but the work was so underpaid and under-appreciated.

Nursery Nurse in a Health Visitor team….It’s a band 4 NHS job…so around ?28k when you reach top of your band….Monday to Friday 9 to 5 and all nhs benefits

I loved being a nursery nurse, but felt much the same as you, although this was the days before updating an app too.

I became a TA for a few years, then a cover supervisor. Now I'm the Cover & Pastoral Manager in a secondary school. It's bloody tough but I love my job and love working with the older children.

Awful op, absolutely awful it sounds like slave Labour and absolutely no reflection on you bur when you are run into the ground and have a sick baby, unsettled baby and everything else in one day.. What happens to the other baby's?

It needs undercover panorama really, I've got slight links to some of the practises and it shocks me.

No one should be worked from 8am to 6pm that's dreadful no wonder you are burned out.
Working with such small children is similar to air traffic control people.
You need to regular breaks and I would regularly rotate people so they are not stuck endlessly with one group.

I used to work in a nursery and then a school and it was the adults in the "office" every time that made me give it up. Long hours and hard work I could handle. Shitty management and horrible senior colleagues who did nothing to support, no. Being told to go on my only 30 minute break of the day, 2 hours into my shift due to lack of cover? I used to cry at the end of the day.

If you don't need the money from a full time job then have you considered switching to working in a playgroup? Older children but really lovely in comparison. Shorter days. More focused on learning and developing than trying to take bloody pictures of every single thing a child does. I'd have stayed in a playgroup if I had the financial situation to allow it!

If you want to stick with childcare a community nursery nurse might be fun and a different challenge? They sit within NHS Health Visiting teams as far as I know and I think work normal office hours. There's lots of safeguarding to be aware of and a mixture of homes so you need to be prepared for less than "perfect happy family" scenarios usually presented by people who can afford a nursery. I really wanted to do this and thought it would be really rewarding but ultimately I went a different route.

I retrained completely and work in NHS Talking Therapies now. Wish I had done the Educational Mental Health Practitioner training as I miss working with and supporting children!

Look for school ta work! I would love to have the skills and expertise of nursery staff as part of my early years unit!

I work as a teacher in a special school and quite a few of our TAs previously worked in nurseries, the transferable skills are especially useful in the early years and KS1 classes. It can still be a stressful job but support levels are much higher (in my school each student has 1:1 support, in previous school it was maximum of 3 students per adult depending on the class), you won’t be working such long hours (8:30-3:30 in my school for most TAs) and you’re never too far from a school holiday. My school do have after school clubs and holiday clubs which lots of TAs pick up shifts in for those who don’t want such long holidays and want to top-up their pay.

Our nursery lose staff constantly to local schools. Mainly TA although one just left to go to catering side. A few of the younger ones have gone to be youth workers. Two went to work for NHS24.
if you enjoy being around children a school or local authority nursery might suit.

Round my area, and all my friends, are absolutely clamouring for nannies. A lot of them work adhoc hours, so not full time or long days, and I think going rate is £15-20 per hour.

My friend with a 3 year old pays her nanny who is 18 and just a student £15 p/h and has her 3-4 hours at a time, but can't even get as many hours as she wants due to her being so in demand.

I don't know where you live, but if you brushed up on conscious/connection parenting and branded yourself as such "the connection nanny" or something you'd be inundated. That particular subset of parents prioritise excellent childcare over all else, even if they're not particularly 'wealthy' in the proper sense.

You could probably work a lot less hours and make the same takehome, plus write a lot of costs off.

I left to be a nursery nurse in a reception class. It was a great job, but I got moved elsewhere in school when I returned from maternity leave and hated it, so I left.
I then went to a preschool which was a paycut but nicer again until issues with the deputy and my morals didn't let me stay.. now I'm a ks1 TA, which I'm liking more than I expected to! Would still love to go back to reception really though, and could definitely do with more hours.

Oh my word. Its not you but how the job has changed , been added to, expectations changed , recording committment has at least tripled, staff ratios messed about with. Do not feel guilty. You can only do what you can do and the child always comes first. If you are doing that , why you are in there in the first place I imagine, then everything else is someone else (management?) problem. Remember why you are there before you jump. Take care

Look for a job in a Pre-School. The hours are much shorter and term time only. Unfortunately the wages match. Or look for management roles? I know lots of settings near me, South West, that are looking for staff.