Picking up children from nursery at finish time

[Crowtooyo]

I saw a video on tik tok. It's a jokey account from a lady who works in a nursery (or used to... can't quite remember!)
Anyway, she made a video about parents turning up in the car park but then sitting there for 45 mins to collect their child on the dot at 6pm and then expecting a 10 minute handover.
I wondered what people's opinions are on this?

I'll start by saying I work in childcare and am paid X- X and I feel that if a parent wants a full blown handover then they need to have that within the time frame that they pay for.

I am not bothered about parents waiting outside, they probably have work calls, etc... to catch up on. And they are paying for their child to be in the nursery. So that isn't the question.

The question is specifically about whether the parent should collect at closing time and then expect a 10-15 min handover.

Voting:

YABU - a handover should not be paid for
YANBU - parent should collect within time frame and handover included in that.

I can link the tik tok if people want. Not sure whether allowed?

I voted YANBU

I am paying for childcare to be available until 6pm but part of that is the staff being available. I would not consider staff to be available past 6pm for a chat. If I want a lengthy chat I expect to have to arrive earlier

YANBU. Closing time is 6pm, not 6.15pm.

YANBU, once you stop getting paid you stop working and this includes handovers. You pay until 6 then you get until 6, not one minute more.

YANBU

Why would you sit in the car park for 45 minutes? Why not just collect your child and go home?

Who clicked YABU?! And why?! At least explain why nursery staff should work extra unpaid time. Or I'm guessing they're just too busy sat outside a nursery in their oh so important work calls....

@SilverOak

Why would you sit in the car park for 45 minutes? Why not just collect your child and go home?

There's quite a debate on that on the comments too. Someone said it's because they want to get their money's worth of every minute. Someone else pointed out that you have to pay the same whether you collect them at 5pm or 6pm so why not choose to spend the time with their child 🤷‍♀️

Obviously totally different if you have things to do or need 5/10 mind of peace.

I do sometimes sit outside nursery catching up on emails etc but wouldn’t dream of collecting later than 5.50 for a 6pm close and if I’m that close to closing time I don’t expect a detailed handover - they have an app for that.

For some reason, I can't see the outcome on the votes yet!

To clarify, I don't, and have never worked in a nursery but do work I childcare. With me I'm paid until X time and I expect to be out the door by then unless there's an emergency / bad traffic etc... I'm not totally heartless. Things come up and that's OK.

I can just imagine how annoying it must be in a nursery where you're relying on loads of parents. And if a different parent is late every day they must always be leaving late!

And even if a parent is charged a late fee, I doubt the staff member sees that money.

I wonder if it’s a psychological issue, like 6pm is “home time”. At school you wouldn’t be able to pick up your child before the official home time so it wouldn’t surprise me if parents applied the same mental model to nursery. The answer is to move finishing time to 5.45 and have the last 15 minutes as pickup.

SIL got pulled up eventually by nursery as she was frequently 5/10 minutes late. Nursery workers work so hard, it isn’t fair to add on that time at the end of their day.

sally_slime2

That's the tik tok name if anyone wants to see.

I'm glad the majority so far are agreeing with me!

That is nuts to me - the only time I'd ever pick up past 5 (nursery open until 6), is because I have a work meeting that I absolutely cannot move. I'd think most parents think like this, as the nursery is virtually empty by 5:30. Nursery closes at 6, I wouldn't dream of asking staff to hang back to do a handover. They're allowed to go home on time and rest after spending the day with our angels .

@SilverOak

I wonder if it’s a psychological issue, like 6pm is “home time”. At school you wouldn’t be able to pick up your child before the official home time so it wouldn’t surprise me if parents applied the same mental model to nursery. The answer is to move finishing time to 5.45 and have the last 15 minutes as pickup.

Possibly. But we aren't talking about pre schools with specific collection times. These are day cares with opening hours of 8-6 (for example) so really a child should be collected and out the building by 6.

If a supermarket closes at 10pm, I can't expect to go in to the supermarket at 10 on the dot?

25+ years ago my friend had her son in childcare and the creche instigated a £1 a minute late penalty because parents were taking the piss and staff in the creche weren't happy at being delayed.

It had an instant effect on many parents but was tough and expensive if you got caught up in traffic obviously.

You are definitely not being unreasonable. I wouldn't ever expect this. Part of the reason why I chose 4.30pm for my working hours as I wanted to be home by 5.30pm! and I would never expect the staff to give me a full debrief of DD's day at closing time on the dot! ridic.

Yeah, that's really dickish, but then I don't understand why parents want to spend 15 minutes hearing the tedious details of the kid's day. If the kid is still alive and relatively unscathed that's good enough for me.

I understand that nursery workers are only paid until 6pm so if I choose to collect my DD at 5.55 then I’m off the premises before 6pm.

What is a "handover"? Sorry, I've not heard that term before in this context. Sounds ridiculous to expect staff to stay past 6 if the nursery closes at 6 for any reason. When my little ones were in nursery we had to pay by the minute if we were late.

@moynomore

What is a "handover"? Sorry, I've not heard that term before in this context. Sounds ridiculous to expect staff to stay past 6 if the nursery closes at 6 for any reason. When my little ones were in nursery we had to pay by the minute if we were late.

A handover is anincredibly tedious chat where the nursery worker details every detail of the child's day.

Especially irritating if you are in a bit of a rush, you have told the nursery worker you are in a rush and they still insist on telling you exactly what your kid had to eat, what they did, why their boots are muddy and how long their afternoon nap was.

I value my time sat in the car before pick up, I can check work emails browse MN in fact I'm sat now enjoying myself thoroughly. I have plenty of time with my family, less time by myself.

But your actual question, I'd arrive early if I needed a handover.

I would assume though if the collection time is 6pm, it's going to take 5-10 minutes to actually collect the child, so the staff member is not clocking out at 6pm. I collect mine from nursery at 5pm. There's like 6 other parents collecting at exactly the same time. Besides the time it takes us all to jostle around so we can all get in and out of the car park (not enough spaces), even 3 minutes per child for the staff person to go get them, find their stuff, bring them out, have a 1 minute chat (while I try to run away because I don't really want to have a chat), etc. I'm sitting there 5-10 minutes most days, so it's definitely 5:10-5:15 before I am actually able to leave with my child.

That said, I don't know why people need such detailed information. Our nursery tells us almost nothing unless something catastrophic has happened and that's plenty of information for me.

My DC nursery closes at 6. The rule is you have to have buzzed the intercom to collect your child by 6 otherwise you get fined for being late. You absolutely can have a handover provided you buzzed in by 6, as they pay 1 staff member from each room to stay unto 6.30 and clear up etc. Might not be your child's keyworker by that point in the day, but there will be someone available. I don't think many parents leave it that late though tbh.

I absolutely wouldn't expect nursery staff to stay late without pay.

Why on earth would you need a five minute handover as a routine thing? I get that on very, very, very, very rare occasions you might need that long, but not often. Handover for DD is typically 'here's DD, she had a lovely day didn't you DD? Bye now!'

And yes, definitely, if you need longer you can't expect it to run over closing time.

The only exception would be if it's something you genuinely couldn't foresee, like everyone needing a really long handover, so that yours just got pushed over time.

I think that which ever you opt for, make it clear at the time that the child joins. No exceptions and I agree with a financial penalty for lateness. Some people are just rude and are late without any thought for others.