Nursery workers terrifying children

[Hitatiks]

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11288091/Daycare-worker-scares-toddlers-puts-Halloween-mask-SCREAMS-children-bad.html

Has anyone seen this?!
I had to stop watching the video. Its one of the worst things I have ever seen!

The worker deliberately terrifies the children, who are toddlers, by screaming at them in a Halloween mask, they are visibly terrified, screaming, crying, calling for their mothers. At one point she appears to comfort a child by stroking their head, and then screams in their face again. The worker who filmed this said her colleagues had done this previously and she told the managers but no action was taken so she recorded it when they did it again so she could send it to parents.

So here is my AiBU. Am I BU to think that if we valued early years workers more, and they were properly trained professionals with an understanding of child development (like understanding that such young children can't separate fact from fantasy so think a monster is really screaming in their face, or that young children are not 'bad' they are just young and its your job to cope with their behaviour - that is literally your job) then abuses like this would just not happen (yeah I know its America but there are lots of badly paid and poorly trained early years workers here too. I mean, this is not one bad apple. This was done in open sight of colleagues.

I refer you to my previous post to you, to help you understand why this is irrational thinking.

Really, the area it happened or what qualifications they accept is irrelevant.

No training will fix this. I have seen similar from childcare staff in the UK over my 20 years in the sector. Most are absolutely brilliant but time and time agan you get those who get a kick out of bullying children. Staff taking a disliking to particular children, children being pulled by the arm, children being referred to as “little cunts” in the staffroom and in one occasion in front of the child, bitching about children’s parents (for example “God, have you seen the gormless mum? No wonder the kid is like that.”), children being told when they’ve been naughty “I’ll tell your mummy and she won’t want you anymore and you’ll be left here”, and one of the worst things I saw was when there were 2 children who didn’t get on (one also had complex additional needs) and a staff member ‘joked’ she’d love to see them fight to the death because it’d be hilarious.

It is not an ‘American Problem’

If you think that, you're as sick and dangerous as the women in the video. This wasn't a fun trick or treat dress-up party. These children will be terrified for a long time after this.
I hope she's sacked, thrown in jail and rots there.

children being told when they’ve been naughty “I’ll tell your mummy and she won’t want you anymore and you’ll be left here”

Bloody hell! That's awful!

Image being naive enough to think this is an American problem!
There will be nursery and childcare settings across this country where stuff like this goes on!

@ForFlipsSakes
You can have staff cultures that prohibit that behaviour though. It would never have happened at the early years setting that my children went to. They had a really strong and continually reinforced ethos of respecting children. It informed every aspect of their work. The staff were also better compensated that in many other nurseries and well supported. They had their pick of staff when there were vacancies and would regularly get over 100 applicants for each post. Their staff were highly educated and trained.

So no, not just training, but a whole ethos that comes from being a respected profession with a thoughtful, infused and 'enforced' (for want of a better word) ethos.

I don't think anyone has on this thread said it is an American problem.

The only reference to that was an attacking slur @MayThe4th threw at me as I accused them/ another poster of racism for saying/ defending the statement that all Americans care about is ' guns and greed'.

I am starting to see how slurs and libel works now though!

Your blatant minimisation of something that could quite well scar those toddlers for life makes me sincerely hope that you don’t have children.

This is shocking I can remember being 7 and terrified of a monkey mask on one of the older children (after a day out we all had presents) so imagine horrific effect on babies. 💔💔💔🥲

This happened to me as a 3 year old in nursery. I am mid 40s now but I still remember it, infact it's one of my earliest memories of being terrified as were all my class mates as our young male nursery teacher thought it was funny to put a sheet over himself and pretend to be a ghost. I was absolutely terrified. a memory I have never forgotten. I'm not sure what happened to the nursery teacher as I was only 3 but I don't remember him after that.

So, in order to point out that there is abuse in nurseries in the UK, we should watch a video of abuse which goes on in America? Riiiight.

And again, how many people do you think are enjoying watching this video and enjoying the fear of those little kids.

The more people share it, the more abusers will be enjoying watching it.

Fucking sicko. Anyone who does that and takes pleasure in it is a danger to society.

Oh my goodness the video made me cry, those poor babies. She needs locking up under mental health act, what a complete psycho.

@PurpleWisteria1 where and when did you see all these things happening? I don’t mean name nurseries, but in the U.K.? And was it recently? Did you work in childcare and that was how you saw it? What was the response when reported? I haven’t heard of any such incidences and it scares me that children might be put through this. The early years of development are really important and to think people are abusing children in this way is worrying.
Again, it’s not down to training because if people are hiding it then they know it’s wrong. If they were saying ‘I had to shout at Billybob today because he was naughty’ then that would be a training issue, they wouldn’t know they were doing wrong, but hiding it and pretending they’re sweetness and light means they KNOW it’s wrong. That’s not a training issue, that’s a person in the wrong job issue

I've seen this happen in real life when I worked on a nursery.

There was a child who was scared of masks and they woke him from sleep with the mask on and then started cracking up.

I told them off and left that nursery. It is alot more common than you think.

Yes it's just PC gone mad isn't it. Wearing a scary mask and screaming into the faces of tiny, terrified children is an important aid to their development and should be encouraged.🙄

@Mysterian completely agree.
Afraid some posters on here are very misguided. Of course there are some great nursery workers out there but there are also others who are just doing it for the money, do not care about the kids and would absolutely do something like the video. Very deluded to think it wouldn't happen over here. Sorry to say that but it's true.

I'd heard about this incident and three things first off: I admit I am someone who generally is of the view that kids these days are too mollycoddled, I am also someone who loves all things horror and have done from a fairly young age, and before watching this video I admit, I was ready to criticise and say people were being precious....

How wrong was I?!

This is absolutely HORRIFIC. Even as an adult who loves horror films etc, I DON'T like people dressed up coming at me and to see someone in that mask going at those babies like that - what a sick individual! Those poor kids - you could see and hear the absolute terror they were experiencing - and at that age their perception of something like that... just so utterly terrifying for them. I can only imagine the reaction of the parents learning what their children were being subjected to.

I don't criticise the person who filmed it at all - if anything, I praise her for gathering the evidence so that it could be properly dealt with and stopped.

I'm still really shocked - and it takes a lot to shock me - but that was utterly horrific! What the hell is wrong with people?!

Brings to mind the BBC panorama programme about Edenfield. Why we allow such awful people to care for the most vulnerable in society is beyond me. Lower level qualifications and lower pay doesn't have to equate sadistic tendencies does it?! Could more be done in terms of vetting for these types of jobs?

And I am aware of the fact that this nursery incident happened in the US, but I'm drawing the comparison because I think it's actually quite bizarre that vulnerable people whether they be children or the elderly or the mentally unwell are routinely 'cared for' by people with questionable moral standards who get a kick out of harming others. I know there are many, many places where this type of thing would never happen, but there are too many similar stories for comfort. We should always be shocked no matter where we see it.

A harsh reality but I agree with you.In most work situations there are checks and balances but the fact that it's happened before, one person is videoing and another is encouraging means there's more lunatics than the one in the mask.
There are so many people who shouldn't be looking after children ever and it's a matter of ruling them out. I'm not sure pay rates makes a person entirely change their behaviour either.

This makes me scared to send my daughter to nursery.

So disgusting, how could anyone do that, I just don’t understand the mentality.

That’s really unfair on childminders to imply that. Look at this video and other instances in nurseries, there are a lot of the co_workers that obviously cover for each other and are implicit.

Complicit

That is not the guidance for school nurseries
It is the guidance for registered EY settings ie day nurseries.

Schools are exempt from registration