To find this lady kicking off at nursery staff a bit much?

[ColonelHaiti]

My child goes to a good nursery. It's a chain. They have had issues, as we all have, with sickness and covid but kept going really well. Today I was waiting to be let in and one of the staff said they didn't have enough staff for the kids outside to come in and it would be 5 minutes. My little one was happy playing outside for 5 mins. Another mother royally kicked off though asking staff to close the blinds as its not fair her child sees other children playing while she's outside (said child didn't seem arsed), why is she paying ? Where are the staff etc?

I get she was pissed off but to kick off on the nursery staff who are there I thought was a bit steep. The nursery has kept open all through the pandemic with very little disruption.

It's 5 minutes.
Could think of more worse things to kick off for.
Embarrassing

I agree OP - staff shortages are everywhere atm and it's 5 minutes... if it was regular or whatever and she was annoyed emailing the manager to query it rather than acting like a pompous fuming arse on the door would have been the way to go.

No one should be shouting at anyone for trying to do their job properly.

It was 5 minutes - it could have been that they found cover last minute because someone had a positive LFT that morning and couldn't come in and the cover they found couldn't get there for bang on time for opening.

I often wonder with people who behave like that, how they would react if someone shouted at them like that while they were doing their job. Would they tolerate that behaviour from a colleague or a client - probably not..

If someone behaved like that towards one of my NHs team, I'd be having a conversation with them and they'd get a letter outlining that it wasn't acceptable behaviour towards anyone.

I understand people are frustrated, but no one goes to do a job to try and do it badly or inconvenience people, sometimes stuff happens that you cannot predict.

Should have been told to shut her mouth and stop complaining or take her child home that day (that would teach her what inconvenience is). Nurseries deal with enough tantrums from the kids without having to deal with entitled parent paddies

Hmmm yelling obviously isnt great but as someone who has to drop kids off and rush home to get the train, which have reduced in frequency because of covid from once every 15 min to once an hour, I'd be really stressed that the delay was going to cause me to be an hour late to work. 5 min playing outside is fine. An hour late for work caused by that 5 minute delay is tricky

Yes but acting like that isn't going to help in fact it probably just delays it further when they deal with her ranting tbh..

Trains haven't been running due to covid these are not normal times.

Those who think it’s unreasonable? What else would you expect? What is the solution? Surely you are aware of the staffing issues everywhere? It may not be possible to get staff in from an agency.

I appreciate you may be late for work. Your boss would have to accept this.
What’s the alternative? The nursery staff take in more dc than a safe ratio… and then there’s an accident.
I care more about my child’s welfare than being late for work. That’s my priority.

She was probably just a nasty piece of work throwing her weight about at nursery staff anyway.

Maybe she was having a bad day. Maybe she’d had terrible news and she was projecting it into anger. Or maybe she’s an entitled prig.

No matter the excuse, though, it’s not right. People have been trying their very hardest over the last couple of years in the weirdest of circumstances. I would be very uncomfortable with that behaviour.

Nursery fees are expensive, I’d be irritated too if there weren’t enough staff to let me collect my child, and I had to wait outside in the cold until they sorted it out. People pay for staffing ratios, I’d expect them to use agency staff if some are off.

Definitely. The lead should have shouted 'Izzy Wizzy Let's Get Busy', waved her wand and magicked up some agency staff tout suite. Or carried out the Rite of AskhEnte to summon some. I mean, it's that easy to arrange agency staff on very short notice, isn't it?

@TyrannosaurusRegina

People like this are bullies, they kick off at people that they know can't answer back ie nursery/school staff, NHS staff, retail staff etc. I'd like to see them speak to someone like that who can freely answer back.

I have been shouted at by parents in the past. The difference is that I'm a self-employed childminder and I can - and do! - give immediate notice.

I will not be treated so disrespectfully and, quite frankly, if they can't raise an issue with me politely, they can go and take their bad manners and temper elsewhere!
If nothing else, Mummy or Daddy roaring like a wounded bull at the person caring for their child is an appalling example to set!

I don't know why anyone would want to be a childcarer with her attitude and the crappy pay. No use shouting at the door person even if you are going to be late for your covid ward shift.

@FateHasRedesignedMost

Maybe she was in a hurry.

Nursery fees are expensive, I’d be irritated too if there weren’t enough staff to let me collect my child, and I had to wait outside in the cold until they sorted it out. People pay for staffing ratios, I’d expect them to use agency staff if some are off.

Our nursery do use agency staff but they don’t live in the building and have to get organised and get to work, unfortunately that can’t happen within minutes of the nursery opening.

Why are people so impatient, sometimes 5 or 6 parents turn up at the one time to collect their child, we can’t get that amount of children ready at the one time and do a handover while looking after the children still in the building.

Some peoples expectations are ridiculous!

It’s not fair or kind but jump into her shoes to see why - maybe she’ll be late for work , miss a train , a video meeting or what ever.

Ultimately she’s paid for child care to start on time.

I think I'd be trying to counteract the negative parent with some positivity. Send an email to say thanks to staff for their hard work. It will be much appreciated.

I pay for my hair appointment on time. Dentist appointment on time.
I expect my gp to be on time, i pay for the nhs through my taxes.
But when one of them is late due to a staffing issue I don’t have a tantrum about it.
I leave the tantrums to my three year old.

It’s also such a worry for this little child who saw her mother going on like that.
How is she ever going to learn she can’t have things immediately if she can’t wait for a short while in view of other children playing with a toy.
It was really very poor of the mother on so many levels. I feel sorry for the nursery staff member but the one who will suffer long term is actually the child.

YABU to use the awful expression "kicking off", and I have never used a nursery, but if I did, I would presumably be doing it because I needed to get to work, in which case I'd be a bit fed up with the whole situation. I would never shout at anyone, though. In fact, I'd probably apologise to them for having arrived on time.

Being angry that staff were late letting the kids in was understandable, but her demand that they close the blinds so her kid didn't see others playing was unreasonable and precious.

These would-be crusader types do my head in. Almost invariably they slow down the service, whatever it is, for everyone behind them while they have their little conniption fit at some worker who is no more responsible for the delay than they are. And they always seem convinced that they're speaking for everyone else in the queue, while in fact everyone is thinking "oh, shut the fuck up will you".

Bus queues for very delayed buses are awful for this. There's always some gobby twat who fancies himself as Wat Tyler.

@Helenluvsrob

It’s not fair or kind but jump into her shoes to see why - maybe she’ll be late for work , miss a train , a video meeting or what ever.

Ultimately she’s paid for child care to start on time.

And the staffing issues are caused by a pandemic?! People are surely late left right and center atm - we've had trains cancelled bins not collected places shut etc

As a PP said she's probably lucky they had enough to open at all. Loads of people here have bad their childcare interrupted

You'd just as well go and howl at the moon - what can people do?

I went to a cafe on Wednesday and so many people were off isolating or with kids off they could only serve hot drinks for eg.

If there are not enough staff members on site then the nursery are not insured to have the children in

Some peoples expectations are ridiculous!

Is it ridiculous to expect a nursery to open on time?

You pay by hour for the sessions, often £60 a day.

5 minutes can easily turn into 10 or 15 while the staff get organised.

Appreciate there are rare times when delays are inevitable but I don’t think the woman was wrong to be upset. She may have been rushing to work, or to drop off another child at school, or had an appointment.

I work in a hospital, if I miss a train I get to work an hour late. So my team suffers, patients suffer, my managers aren’t happy and I miss handover. 5 minutes can have a domino effect on someone’s day.

From experience, the parents that moan about waiting outside for a couple of minutes for their child to be collected are the same ones that turn up dead on the hour to pick their child up, or routinely 'get stuck in traffic' and are late to pick them up. Obviously their time is a lot more important than the mere nursery staff

Also makes me chuckle when some moan about how hard it is waiting outside for 5 mins with their one/two child/ren, but the staff inside are expected to wrangle 30 kids seamlessly!

And nursery staff are so underpaid for the sheer amount of responsibilities and work load that they have. For parents to be shouting at them for any reason is not appropriate. Follow the correct complaints procedures instead of making someone who is responsible for young child feel even less valued and worthy than they do already.

And i am sure none of these parents have never dropped off minutes early or arrived minutes late.

This has happened to me. Also a chain. Also kept going really well through COVID. Im also in a hurry to get to work but im still able to be a reasonable person and wouldnt make ridiculous requests to shut the curtains so my child wouldnt see others playing.