Late picking up DD from nursery

[hellomynameissuzy]

I was 10 minutes late picking up my DD from nursery today. The educator that did hand over was not happy at all! She didn’t say a word to me, not even hello or goodbye to my 2 year old DD. She didn’t say anything when I apologised for being late so I couldn’t explain my reason for being late.
The nursery closes at 3pm, I arrived at 3.10pm.
I couldn’t ring ahead and let them know as my phone is broken atm.
AIBU to be upset about the educator being like this towards me? She has only been at this nursery since November. It makes me not want to send her back.

People ignore it because they want nurseries to be cheaper. Nurseries already struggle to make a profit. So the obvious response is to pay staff as little as they can get away with. It is why there is real difficulties recruiting staff. I have done this work and would never do it again. The kids are lovely, but everything else is a bit crap.

I work in a nursery and I’ve had a parent show up 45 mins late once. Once the nursery closes we aren’t getting paid anymore and rightly want to go home on time lol. There could’ve been a reason she was upset..she may have had plans, missed a particular train, had an appointment etc. She was also probably annoyed you didn’t call.

Agree she should’ve at least been pleasant and also should’ve said bye.

Once it hits closing time, we’ve always been told to have the child ready and ready at the door, no chatting and to be as quick as possible.

Exact same here 😂 I still do the occasional bit of agency work, but now I work retail. I make more than I did as a nursery worker, never ever ever work even a minute late, go to the toilet as and when I please, take my break when it suits me, and I listen to audiobooks or podcasts while restocking shelves. I leave work feeling relaxed and chilled out instead of frazzled and ticked off.

I will say I did enjoy the actual work with the children day to day though. But it’s the constant pressure and the total mismatch of expectations. You pay less than ASDA pays, but expect staff to be super professional, up to date on all learning styles, constantly coming up with ideas for new and exciting activities in their own time, always cheery and happy, smiley when parents show up after you’re supposed to have left. And you get no benefit or respect really. Just wanting more more more for less less less. I always strongly discourage any young girls/teens (mainly it is girls, not boys) who tell me they’ll get an apprenticeship and work at a nursery. I always suggest going into nannying or getting a degree and thinking about other career options.

It is much better!
I work from home doing a basic office job. Paid more than a nursery nurse, like you never work a minute over my paid time, far less stressful, I play music as I am working, sick pay and more annual leave, and no difficult parents to deal with. I wonder why I stuck with working in a nursery for so long.

Agree with the above comments. Conditions for nursery workers are crap. Terrible pay, extremely long hours, very physical work, bitchiness between staff, only having 1 break despite doing a nearly 10 hr shift, always short staffed. Believe me, we are more than ready to leave at the end of our shifts. Maybe the nursery worker in question could have hid her disapproval better but she was most likely absolutely exhausted, stressed about getting home and probably had a 7.30 or 8AM start the next morning.

Although it's nothing I don't know already it's pretty depressing to hear nursery nurses who actually sound quite passionate about the kids say that the job is so rubbish. There's lots of evidence that above all good early years provision massively improves kid's chances of doing well academically. Society is doing a massive disservice to our kids and itself by not doing more to make good quality nursery care available to parents.

I'm tired of parents waltzing up ten minutes late each week to pick their child up from a club I'm running for free. Sadly this is the reason I stopped doing clubs. They clearly don't value my time so why should I go above and beyond?

I earn more working in a nursery than I did at Asda but it was a struggle to find a nursery that paid more. Where I work now pays better than the average nursery but still can't get the staff..
The OPs nursery is different as it shuts at 3 but most don't finish until 6. So it's not the same as a school. It's unlikely a teacher will be waiting as late as a nursery nurse, although it would still be bloody irratating.
We're under pressure all the time and when you've been working since 7:30 it is incredibly annoying to finish after 6. Even if it is 10 minutes.
I wouldn't ignore a late parent, nor would I be especially happy that they were late. And it would be a very brief handover. Very brief.

Ha! This!

Parents who persistently turn up late to collect their children without good reason might wish I simply blanked them.

Not society. It's the government that don't give a toot.