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.

Depends if they were charging for that time and how accommodating the nursery is to parents (do they charge/fine if the parent is 5 minutes late collecting?).

@Sarahlou252

Something must have happened that morning that was unavoidable. Nursery will not be insured to take in children if they are under ratio due to a staff member being delayed by 5 minutes.

Yes, she is paying. Yes she might have been in a hurry.
What would she be saying if the children had gone inside under ratio and there'd been an accident?

Some people just seem to have zero tolerance for anything.

This 100%

Also, there are massive shortages of staff and almost no up PLT staff where I am based. I work across four primaries all with nurseries-the fact they are open at all is a miracle.

I think that’s an entitled attitude. Would she rather the nursery close entirely? There would be no care at all then!

Staff are doing their best, we’re all in a hurry and sometimes these things have to happen to ensure we can carry on as normal as possible.

PLT staff = supply staff - not sure how that autocorrect happened

Temper tantrums infront of children is wrong. ImHo

I dont think shouting is ever acceptable actually

The staff at nurseries are underpaid. They have a really tough job. Its management fault not theirs

Having said that, ive lost my shit and been inappropriately angry in my life before. Im sure ive been angry at the wrong people unfairly

We all lose our shit sometimes

Don't judge

I don’t get how people just think it’s ok to be rude to shop, customer service, nursery staff etc. of course they deserve to be spoken to in a courteous manner and it is perfectly possible to let staff know that you as a customer are not happy with an aspect of service that is provided without being rude or aggressive and to give them the opportunity to resolve it - of course that might take a little time and there are a lot of whinging crybabies who are not patient enough to wait and like to have a toddler tantrum 🤣 so yanbu

@neverknowinglyunreasonable

She was completely within her rights to be angry and let them know. I find that over-worked, underpaid nursery staff who have worked through a pandemic and risked getting covid respond really well to being shouted at for being short-staffed.

Well done to her. I didn't vote for brexit only to be told I can't yell at the people I trust to take care of my kids.

TeeHee ^

Jesus. Third world problems. You are bloody lucky to have a nursery and then to have one that’s actually open, ours has been effected terribly. If you have a three minute window to get your train then any manner of stuff could happen not just that you have to wait for five mins outside the nursery. We are all so fucking entitled these days. I suggest having a contingency plan, maybe try some deep breathing exercises and take some time contemplating the fact that the world doesn’t revolve around your needs. No one deserves to be shouted at for something that’s clearly not their fault.

I was kept waiting once because one mum was arguing with staff because she thought it was within her rights to leave her child an extra half an hour after closing time, as she was dropping her off half an hour late. She couldn't understand why it was an issue. I was waiting to drop my son off and wanted to go and do something useful at the time.

@neverknowinglyunreasonable

She was completely within her rights to be angry and let them know. I find that over-worked, underpaid nursery staff who have worked through a pandemic and risked getting covid respond really well to being shouted at for being short-staffed.

Well done to her. I didn't vote for brexit only to be told I can't yell at the people I trust to take care of my kids.

Sarcasm I hope

My daughter works in a nice nursery...never been spoken too like this ever.

She sounds like a horrible person. I was taken aback recently to hear the way another parent was speaking to a wrap supervisor at my daughter’s primary school. How dare they. Nursery staff do such as important job and are poorly paid for it. They were so brave to carry on during the pandemic, and they deserve our respect.

Omg. People, they are working their socks off and life happens and someone was late for whatever reason. Could’ve been a shit reason could’ve been something serious. Whatever it was there’s no need to kick off.

I'm really amazed by the amount of people on here with young children who are never late for work. Their child never plays up in the morning, never get their train delayed or stuck in traffic.
I don't believe that. Anyone who leaves the house for work is late sometimes and not just because the nursery couldn't take their child bang on 8.
Maybe nurseries should just say line your child up by the door and go to work if it's that important and we'll get to your child when it's safe.
Or you could be more considerate to staff doing 9 hour shifts on a minimum wage for your benefit and then going home and doing paperwork.
The parent in the opening post was just being stupid, especially as her child didn't care.

As an ex manager - and I’m an ex manager for reasons like this - kicking off at early years staff when they are simply trying to adhere to the many rules and regulations set by the government, Ofsted and the Local Authority is bang out of order.

Most EY staff are grossly underpaid given their qualifications, dedication and the amount of hoops they have to jump through daily. You are better paid stacking shelves in Tescos than you are in the vast majority of EYs jobs, yet you have to have qualifications, have a wide knowledge of early years development, nutrition, safeguarding, health and safety and many other areas. Oh, and follow rules that mean that arsey parents then feel it’s ok to shout at them. EY providers are increasingly finding it extremely hard to recruit qualified staff so please be kind - otherwise you might find that lack of staff = lack of nurseries

Nobody should kick off at early years staff. It's one of the lowest paid sectors of industry, yet massively relied on. If anyone thinks they could do better, they should work a week in a nursery. Everybody is edgy at the moment, so people take it out on others.

@littleorchard45 Exactly. Also an ex- manager, for a number of reasons. Lack of government support, low pay, extra work over and above paid hours, relentless training and CPD, lack of respect for the industry, demanding parents.......I no longer have a semi-permanent pain in my chest.

BoredZelda

I appreciate you may be late for work. Your boss would have to accept this.

Oh they would, would they? That’s ok then. I mean, nobody ever had an unreasonable boss who would have a real go at them for being g late, did they? 🙄

Yes they certainly would.
If you prioritise your children’s welfare you’d rather be late for work than leave them in a nursery with unsafe staffing ratios.
If my boss kicked off I’d tell them I’m not personally responsible for the current lack of staff across almost every sector.
Everyone is doing their best.
But children’s safety has to come first and If there aren’t enough staff there aren’t enough staff. I’d make the time up if possible/required and make the relevant apologies to anyone affected by my lateness.
But with the current state of affairs I would not be taking any shit off anyone over my childcare arrangements going wrong on an occasion.
Neither would I be giving out shit to childcare staff doing their best.
And any boss who does behave that way to otherwise good employees doesn’t deserve a good team behind them.
So if that’s how your boss behaves I’d suggest looking for another job.

U don't know if this could make her late for something which is why she may have kicked off about it. Especially if things like this have been happening a lot lately. Although personally I'd say nothing and suck it up. At the end of the day it can't be helped.

If I'm going to the office and I miss the train then I wld have to wait another 30mins on the next train. It would make me late for work by about 30mins. This is the first train I can make as can't drop kids until nursery opens so usually just make it in for 9am.

I can understand both sides, but getting frustrated and arguing , will not solve the situation.

I’d be pissed off if they made me wait 5 minutes when I needed to get to work. 5 minutes can be the difference between someone getting there on time or not, especially if they need to catch public transport.

[quote CallmeBadJanet]@littleorchard45 Exactly. Also an ex- manager, for a number of reasons. Lack of government support, low pay, extra work over and above paid hours, relentless training and CPD, lack of respect for the industry, demanding parents.......I no longer have a semi-permanent pain in my chest.[/quote]
I feel exactly the same - I had a total breakdown in the end and am so thankful I’m out of it. I miss working with the kids, but am grateful that I’m out of it for me and my family.

I am a nursery school teacher myself so I don't think her behaviour is acceptable. We take a lot of abuse from some parents for things out of our control. If they didn't have enough staff they legally couldn't allow any more children into the setting until more staff arrived. We have to stick to the ratios by law. Agency staff may have been arranged but if they had only been called that morning it would take time for them to get there. There is generally a shortage of agency workers at the moment so nurseries can't always get the cover they want.
Parents are allowed to be annoyed but no need to respond in this way. My DD's nursery closed for a week as so many staff had covid they couldn't remain open. It did make things tricky and meant my DH and I had to make arrangements to get time off work but I did not get angry with the nursery staff. Not their fault.

I’ve been late to work before because my DS’s nursery didn’t have the staff to send someone to the door to bring him and other children in right away but you know what? Everything’s all over the place right now and everyone is doing their best. I just texted my manager and explained, then caught a slightly later bus. And started dropping DS off ten minutes earlier to avoid it happening again (as the nursery is quieter earlier on).

There’s never an excuse to yell at people like that, and especially not nursery staff. I would not be able to keep working if my son’s nursery had closed and the staff there do so much for not nearly enough money.

She was being unreasonable , if a member of staff rang in because of illness etc the nursery would have to find a replacement possibly from an agency and that takes time , if the women was late for work and they complained about her lateness they are being unreasonable ! If her child had been injured whilst they were short staffed she would complain about that too!