7 year old being made to do this by after school club..

[Figureitout1]

Picked up my DD7 from after school club (based in a nursery) on Friday and she was very upset. Turns out she and a friend had been in the loo (shared with 2 other classes - 3-5years class and 1-3 years class, about 60kids altogether). The friend had come in with muddy shoes and left muddy footprints. One of the cleaners in the nursery noticed and had a massive go at them and made them clean it up with paper towel!

I am very cross about this
a) because it's a toilet floor used by so many kids so the potential of them picking something up is high
b) my DD hadn't made the mess in the first place
c) they are kids and although they have to learn to clean up after themselves I feel this overstepped the mark.

I plan on speaking to the nursery about this next time they are in (Tuesday) but AIBU?

Hmm I'm in 2 minds. I think your dd is likely spinning the truth a little. If they had both come in from the muddy outside it's unlikely that only the friend had muddy shoes.
But on the other hand if the floor is mopped when there are still children there who could want the loo then you should expect that it may need another spot mop, at least, after they've gone.
If they just went in to use the loo then I think the cleaner wbu tbh. They jumped the gun mopping the floor too early! If they were deliberately kicking mud everywhere, on the other hand, then your dd was bu. Perhaps you could go in and ask which one of these happened?
I wouldn't go in stating everything your child has said is necessarily fact though. Or complaining about your child wiping mud of a recently disinfected floor. There's probably more germs on the toys.

Sounds fine to me. I know she didn’t make the mess, her friend did, but it seems reasonable they were both asked to clean it up. Your DD won’t have caught anything from doing this. Cleaners are not teeming with illness and disease and they clean loos all the time.

Fatoldbag
Wvwyonw who works in a nursery has a dbs
From the manager to the cleaner to the handyman
Op, yabu
I make the children in my nursery clean up if they have made a mess
I don't see why a 7 year old should be exempt

Why was your dd upset? What's so bad about helping a friend clean up after herself? I really don't understand.

The 7 year olds I work with would have gladly offered to help. There are many times where there's been a spillage and they rush off to get paper towels without even having to be asked.

But if the children were allowed outside in the mud and they keep shoes on inside what should they have done - gone to the loo bare foot? Wet themselves?
I don't think it's fair to reprimand kids for mess they couldn't really avoid, if that's what happened.

I don't believe in punishment by association so I'd be mad about this.

It wasn't done as a punishment, it was merely as a consequence of having made the floor muddy. It seems reasonable to me.

It depends what lesson you want your 7 year old to learn. I'd want her to learn that when you make a mess you clean it up, and that when your friend makes a mess, you help them clean it up, and that you respect cleaners because they do a hard and thankless job.

Mumoftu, do we know that the school does not tell them to wipe their feet? Don't you tell them to wipe their feet at home? Wouldn't you expect some kind of consequence if they ignored instructions? A little wiping up seems a very minor one.

Like Fairenuff says, most 7yos I have known would happily come running with paper towels.

Except, I suppose- if they had been told that cleaning was demeaning and was only to be done by certain adults who couldn't tell them things. But then I don't know many 7yos with that attitude.

What lougle said.

My sister used to clean in a primary School and one of the jobs she hated most was cleaning the toilets, because the kids would shit on the floor, in the toilet brush holder, sometimes wipe it on the walls. They also used to piss everywhere. When my sister complained to the Head, she was told that children of that age (KS1) often had little accidents and it would be wrong to expect them to keep a toilet clean and tidy. In the end my sister handed in her notice. Had these children been made to clean up their own mess, then maybe they would have stopped.

If the cleaner had just cleaned the floor it would not have been covered with evil bugs waiting to colonise your child......... If your 7 year old child tracked mud over your just cleaned floor at home what would you do I wonder? Probably exactly as this cleaner did. As would any of us.

Yes I expect my kids to wipe their feet at home. Never been in a school/after school club that has that policy though. They generally have harder wearing/more easily cleanable flooring that can withstand the abuse of hundreds of dirty feet though unlike my carpet!
I've cleaned in my time and sometimes I have mopped up early (in the hope of an early dart!) but if a place is still open you have to accept it may well need doing again.

Children asked to wipe mud off floor. Children wipe mud off floor.

On what planet is this a scenario that involves parents being furious or needing to go into school and demand answers? Honestly I don't think this would even register as an issue for me.

And of course children are expected to wipe muddy feet, is that not obvious? Who teaches their kids that you only have to wipe your feet at home and not bother anywhere else because there will be cleaners.

Mexxi Sun 04-Jun-17 13:02:13
"My sister used to clean in a primary School and one of the jobs she hated most was cleaning the toilets, because the kids would shit on the floor, in the toilet brush holder, sometimes wipe it on the walls."

My dd works in a coffee bar. She is still cleaning shit off the walls. After adult customers.

Don't know what the answer is but maybe a bit of compulsory shit cleaning at primary age wouldn't be such a bad thing.

the cleaner had prob just finished mopping and in comes kid with muddy shoes on-are they supposed to stand their all day mopping up after your kids

Yabvu. Good lesson for DD to learn.

I do sometimes think though it's good for children to just hear you say 'oh dear, that doesn't seem fair' or 'it sounds like they weren't in a great mood' rather than seeing you march up to the school at every perceived injustice though.
Sometimes it's good to model letting the small things go - unless you are aiming to raise kids who overreact at every available opportunity.

cleaning up after oneself is not a punishment, it's an inescapable if not slightly depressing fact of life.

I threw a cafetière of coffee over the work kitchen floor last week. I got a colleague to stand over the mess (to make sure people knew I hadn't just left it), and went to find the cleaner to unlock her cupboard so I could borrow a mop. The cleaner told me that they are regularly called to people's offices with a request that they come and "attend to a coffee spill" on someone's desk - the kind that just needs a big wodge of paper towels and a can-do attitude to sort out.

I'd far rather my kids learn their responsibilities early than turn into the kind of adult who is too grand to look after themselves properly.

This is probably an example of why our schools and police are losing the power they used to have. Entitled. You did it, you sort it out.

The bit that really saddens me are the posters who seem to think there is something outrageous about their child being told what to do by a mere cleaner. Wonder what kind of customers they grow into... Though hopefully they will do their stint of being the poor sod behind the counter.

Kids can't wipe their feet if their is no mat available though. My kids school doesn't have them - you go straight in onto dark carpet in the reception and then onto a hard floor corridor.

*there

This is why many people who work with kids say the hardest part of the job is the parents.
I spent many years working with kids, and everywhere I worked taught kids to clean up after themselves. From 2 year olds "helping" to tidy up, onwards.
Also agree with modelling reacting proportionately i.e. just saying, oh that seems unfair. Not everything needs to be treated as a big deal.