To call the nursery

[mylittlesandwich]

DS is 9 months and has been going to nursery 2 days a week for about a month now. They have a parent cam which you can use to have a wee look and see how they're doing. I try not to spend too much time on it because they seemed nice and I trusted them. DH dropped him off this morning because I started work early so I signed in to have a wee look. He's been sat on his own for half an hour.
There's somewhere between 10 and 15 children with 4 adults. The adults are all surrounded by small groups of children doing various activities. DS is on his own, sat on the floor with no toys. He's playing with the zip on his hoodie. The only interaction he's had in the 30 mins I've watched is when someone took a plastic apron away from him that he'd got a hold of. He's not mobile yet so he can't go and get anything for himself. I'm really upset watching it. Is this normal for nursery or should I give them a call, I don't want to be difficult but I also want DS to enjoy his time at nursery.

[quote FelicityPike]@Hardbackwriter because it shows that they’re willing to breach CI instructions/ guidelines.
If they break one, what else are they doing that they’re not supposed to?[/quote]
Does the CI really give instructions about that kind of thing? Is it actually a guideline?
Ofsted don’t take a position on teaching styles or approaches and certainly don’t have rules about how activities are run.

Saying you are welcome to call whenever you want is so patronising. Like the are doing you a favour by answering the phone to the person using their service.

This sort of thing is what put me off group care.

12 babies/toddlers and 4 adults is the same ratio as 3 babies/toddlers and 1 adults, but its much easier in a group like that for a quite contented baby to be ignored - the 7 or 8 noisiest, most demanding, most mobile ones get more than their share of attention. In a childminder setting with fewer people in total this doesnt happen so much.

@FelicityPike most parents love hand and footprints. It’s certainly not done against their will.

My personal view is that a one to one nanny isn’t ideal anyway, especially when there aren’t any siblings and even more so again in times of Covid when kids aren’t able to mix with other children much outside the home.

OP I’m sorry you experienced this, I would have been really upset too. I tend to think of DS’ childcare days as days for structured play and activities which takes the pressure off me for our days, so we can go with the flow more. So id be really upset to see he wasn’t being engaged or ignored.

Soon he’ll be more mobile and involve himself more in the play and activities.

@LyingDogsLie1 you couldn’t be more wrong lol 😂 I’m a one to one nanny and the kids I look after see friends every day. We go to the park, we do all sorts of different Social activities.

I can’t believe all the fuss about a footprint it’s hardly the issue at hand. FWIW I have a child in nursery and I’ve worked in nurseries myself. Foot and hand print artwork has always been done with babies who can’t hold a paintbrush, or would just try to eat it. It’s good sensory play, and all parents (myself included) love getting some artwork with their child’s hand/footprint to keep.

Your baby shouldn’t have been left alone with no toys for that long, OP. But it’s positive they took what you said on board and had already engaged with him when you called. If they are otherwise a good nursery, I would give it a bit more time before making any decisions about withdrawing him.

It was half an hour and probably his baby brain was quite mesmerised by figuring out the zip. I think this is OTT.

I don’t work for the Care Inspectorate, I don’t make the rules!

@HOkieCOkie

I’m sure you do. Covid is no doubt making that difficult - outside of childcare settings social distancing will apply.

Also as I said, in my opinion.

I’m in now way against Nanny’s but in my view nursery settings have a lot to offer atm that we can’t do ourselves at home.

"Most parents love hand and footprints. It’s certainly not done against their will."

What does the baby get out of it? How does it help their development? That is, after all, what nurseries tell us is the advantage of sending a child to them.

@Tanith

"Most parents love hand and footprints. It’s certainly not done against their will."

What does the baby get out of it? How does it help their development? That is, after all, what nurseries tell us is the advantage of sending a child to them.

I think for most parents - like the OP - the advantage of sending a 9 month old to nursery is childcare... The baby gets out of it: sensory stimulation, adult interaction which is likely to include discussion of how it feels, maybe colours, etc., an early introduction to mark marking. What would you do be doing with a 9 month old all day that was so much more educational?

He was happy and not crying

They prob left him to own devices as was content

Yes he should have had some toys near him as can’t crawl

I would be more worried if he was crying and upset and ignored

They listened to you and said call anytime

Before you rang they did art with him A lovely memory to keep

@FelicityPike

I don’t work for the Care Inspectorate, I don’t make the rules!

Do you have a link to this rule?

I know from DD's former babysitter who is now working at a nursery that this sort of passive 'art' that footprints are is discouraged in the qualifications/training she is doing. Kids should be doing creative things where the child is making the marks themselves, however limiting this might be to creating a cute picture for the wall.

It really didn't bother me though that DD's previous nursery did a lot of these footprint pictures. At least they're being engaged with to do them!

The footprint has blown out of proportion here. I imagine it's done for parents rather than the children. If he was older and could do it himself I might see the point but he would eat the paint brush and shake the paper around, shaking is a current favourite.
I really don't mind what he does at nursery so long as it's not dangerous and he's engaged doing it. He loves singing, they sing songs sometimes.
Goldfish it wasn't that he was playing with his zip it was more that everyone else in the room seemed to have something to do or play with and he was just sat on his own.

Surely the footprint is just sensory play rather than art. A bit like playing in the sand or water.

I think people just need to relax and stop making other mums feel guilty about their childcare choices. If the nursery has a camera it is easy to monitor to see if they are doing a good job.

Oh I'm sorry that's sad. They did react well to your phone call and it sounds like someone did go to him before you called.
What was it like when you looked before? Is he usually on his own with no toys or a one off? How does he react going in to nursery?
If he's normally happy and engaged I'd think it was a one off, if it happened again I'd have to consider the other nursery or a child minder.
I hope there were onl 12 babies there too. Legal minimum is 1:3. If there were 15 I'd move him on that basis alone.

Rose there were quite probably 12, it's not the clearest footage and some of them are fast!

I think you do have to weigh up how you feel about a nursery/preschool overall. DD3 went to one preschool, and when I said 'She's really struggling and asking not to come...' the worker said 'Oh, one of mine used to vomit before preschool, but you just have to do it, don't you?' I said 'No, DD3 doesn't have to go to any preschool and I'm not going to force her somewhere she's unhappy!' I moved her to another preschool and she loved it from the first moment.

I felt like crying when I read your post, op. I'd be tuning in on the webcam on a regular basis to keep an eye on things.

@FelicityPike
I think “very concerned” is an OTT reaction to making footprints. I’ve been trained as a teacher that it’s better for children to create their own artwork. In principle I fully agree. However this doesn’t extend to the odd Mother’s Day card or Advent calendar. Some things are just nice to do!
As for what the baby gets out of it, my two loved it as babies actually. We had a good giggle together as it tickled their toes.

Don't know if it's a coincidence or not but they've taken a picture of him today and uploaded it to ParentZone which they've never done before. It's really nice to see what he's been up to.

I'm going to go against the grain and say that I don't think it's that big a deal.
It would be different if he was being ignored all day or was distressed and they were ignoring him.
If the nursery is generally good and this is a one off then it could have simply been an oversight, it happens. You called, they fixed the problem, all is good.
I also don't think it's necessary for kids to be "stimulated" with toys and activities every minute of the day. Some down time to just be, and to play with everyday objects is good for them. At 9 months old a zip would be fascinating to him.

I think it’s ok. They’ve taken on board your concerns and acted on them. A footprint sounds lovely.

Not relevant to the thread but the only thing I was puzzled about was the parent cam. I’ve never heard of a nursery that before. So you can log into it at any time and watch in real time? Can you see other children on it? Or can you only see your own child? If you can see other children I would have thought that’s very problematic from a GDPR perspective. Our nursery are incredibly strict about parents only having images of their own child for this reason. I may have completely misunderstood what this cam is but personally I wouldn’t be ok with that.