That nursery wasn't better prepared

[lucelou82]

We've known about the heatwave for a couple of weeks now, yet I was told that they had just done a risk assessment on the building in the heat yesterday?! This seems bizarre, as someone who's organised events we do risk assessments all the time! BEFORE the event! The nursery is part of a big chain of private nurseries and I'm perplexed why they didn't buy a few air conditioning units last week, surely it is their duty to keep the children they care for safe and make it their priority? They were also saying that heat is coming in through windows, again I would have thought they might have got some black out window film or a blind (surely it would have a blind on it anyway)! I know margins in daycare are very small, but I pay nearly £2k a month and for them to not invest in air con units (I'm talking from Argos not a full air conditioning system) seems really negligent! Surely they have a duty of care to prepare for the really hot weather as well as the cold weather! They are asking us to pick out at 1pm if we can, but I can't as I have meetings at work! I would love to be able to take her out and do something fun with her in the air con this afternoon! Just dropped her off and was told she is going to be the only child here this afternoon and just now feel massive mum guilt! Ahh sorry rant over! Xxxx

@Wolfiefan Nursery is telling you it’s not suitable
for your child at this heat.

Then the Nursery should either - announce they are closing to ALL in a correct and timely manner OR sort their shit out, made some adaptions and make it appropriate for the children they are being paid to care for!
This is a "professional" (although they are not being professional and blatantly just trying to get rid of all the kids to skive off in the sun) service being paid for, not a favour to OP.

Honestly your OP bashing on this thread is really getting on my tits. The see-through emotional manipulative attempt of your final oh so dramatic line made me cringe, it's pathetic.

They knew they couldn't just close for the entire day without notice or it would massively inconvenience parents so they asked for a 1pm shut instead. That can't be done so they're staying open. Yes, they should think about air con going forward (although rising energy bills might mean they'd have to pass exorbitant cost of running AC onto parents by raising fees) but I honestly don't think any childcare/educational setting could've been entirely prepared for how hot it is. My DC was meant to stay until 11.30 (secondary) but got sent home at 10.45 when staff realised it was even hotter. Plus, if they'd said last week that it was looking a bit hot so we're going to close, parents probably would've kicked off then.

But it’s true.
I am betting they have to refund parents if they close and can’t afford too.
If OP really felt staff were so unprofessional that they were all trying to skive off I can’t see why they would continue to use this nursery.

So what did they do to prepare for the heatwave? Sounds like sweet FA.

Shouldn't businesses with "meetingz" show a little humanity and be more flexible with their employees??

For goodness sake??

Who would begrudge a mum being called by their nursery to collect their child?

My dd went to school till 1pm and I have to say I regret sending her in at all because it's blistering out there!!

Absolutely blistering.

She's in a cool shower now.

That heat is ferocious.

Maybe the staff have children themselves whose schools have shut and they need to stay home to look after them, rather than call in sick. Not sure why people think the staff are swinging the lead - it's hardly the day to bunk off and sit in the sun.

@Wolfiefan what's true? That I have to decipher my nurseries grand plan rather than expect a professional service? And as I'm sure you're aware, just moving children out of nurseries at a whim isn't really the best thing for a child! If you read my posts you'd see that the problem I have is with the nursery not being set up probably and judging by the majority of the comments I received back, AINBU to expect they could have done more.

But the nursery is open...

I work at a nursery we stayed open yesterday - by afternoon it was so hot but we have 2 sleep rooms with no windows and we managed to make them cool with a little air con unit (I think we paid 65£ for them last week) we had the babies in nappies in there and we very boldly let them watch a little bit of coco melon - we would never do that normally but it solves the problem - the rest of the building was insanely hot

6 kids went home with high temps though

Today we have asked can children be collected at 4pm if possible - but we will stay until 6 as usual if we must and figure it out

at the end of the day though some buildings are harder to keep cool than others and it has to be risk assessed and if it’s unsafe they have to go close

its probably open as if they close they need to refund money.
But it’s true was in response to SleepingAgent.
Sometimes when we have kids we have to keep them out of school or nursery. This would be one of those times for me.
I didn’t say you should take your child out of nursery on a whim. But if you honestly think the staff are all workshy and just trying to get a day off then I can’t see why you would keep your child there.

If they are otherwise a good nursery and you haven't had any other issues, then I'd give them the benefit of the doubt.

Yes they do seem to be trying to wangle the afternoon off but it really is horribly hot and I can understand they probably all want to get home and sit under a fan.

That said once they knew your DD was there for the day then they should have been gracious and reassuring.

@Wolfiefan believe me I know this. As a single mum juggling a full time career to provide the best for my daughter, I understand this! I have had to take MANY days off to care for her when she has been unwell! You'll be pleased to know I have now taken a half day holiday, which I will use to go and pick her up at 2.30pm! Please think before you reply, I'm trying to juggle lots of things and believe me I know having a child means making sacrifices because I do this every day!

@Youaremysunshine14 most private nursery staff are very young (early 20’s) and don’t have kids as the wages aren’t enough to cover childcare.

they are undervalued and underpaid and many would choose not to come in on such a hot day!

I worked in various chain nurseries for 5 years and then recruited for all the chain nurseries for 5 years. Most women with young kids who were offered full time jobs in private nurseries turned the offers down when they realised childcare would cost more than they earned.

I quickly learned to ask careful questions of applicants so they themselves could work out childcare costs and amend their job search accordingly, rather than go through the whole interview process and then not accept a job at the end……..

There are more mature staff in nurseries, but they generally have no kids, older kids or they work part time hours or are ad hoc bank staff.

I know on MN people don’t like the idea of kids stopping people doing any kind of job, but the reality is, it happens!

Was 24 degrees in my house yesterday and 37/38 in the classrooms I was in so that's not necessarily true by a long way