To not enjoy working in nurseries

[Pekoe78]

I’m currently wrestling with a problem in my working life. For financial reasons I’ve had to take on bank work for a couple of local nurseries. I’m qualified in early years so it seemed a sensible way of getting some much needed extra income. Obviously my personal job choices are my own responsibility so I’m not asking for personal job advice, I’m just asking if anyone else has tried working in nurseries and not really enjoyed it? I feel like I should like it as much as I loved working in a preschool but I find myself dreading the days I have to do bank work.

I find with both nurseries the staff don’t seem to particularly enjoy being with children. I see very little children (two) being told off for not painting correctly, for getting a puzzle out that hadn’t been laid out previously, for being too noisy, for not being able to immediately sit down to eat. I’ve even seen a baby being told off for dropping their sippy cup. It all just seems so oppressive and a bit joyless and the expectations of very small children quite unrealistic. The staff can be quite moody and abrupt and obsessive about rules and regulations to unnecessary levels. I know I’m sometimes not the most “on the ball” person, lack confidence and probably deserve to be snapped at now and then (as I have been) but at least I try to enjoy the job and try and make the children’s experience enjoyable. I find the days there very long and I’m on edge, afraid of putting a foot wrong. I never felt that at my old preschool.

I don’t know if it’s just me not gelling with a different approach or whether others have found nurseries quite challenging places to work?

I trained as an NNEB years ago and my placements put me off working un a nursery. Not so much the busy two years olds and older, but the babies. All in a room the majority of the day with a couple of bored 18 years olds,who just chatted between themselves. Pretty soul destroying. I ended up nannying and then becoming a childminder for fourteen years when I had my own DC. Now I'm a cleaner and do a bit of after school nannying and gardening!
Theres a nursery which always advertises on my local fb but the pictures look so bleak,all grey rooms and grey carpet and blinds down on all the windows. Hardly warm and enticing.

I totally agree there needs to be a total mindset switch away from the current ‘these are the default jobs for those who need to find work due to UC or haven’t got any other qualifications’. It needs to be a highly valued career choice to work with the youngest or oldest in society.

i think there need to be new specific courses and qualifications and much much higher basic pay for even entry level to these roles.

I have seen childminders more interested in having a natter and a cup of tea at play groups and not paying attention to any of the children they were meant to be minding. It put me off a childminder plus I didn't want my child dragged on school runs.

Both my dc adored their childminder. I’m sure she must have nattered at playgroup, don’t parents?

They were both with her until they were 11 or so. Dd went from a baby to first term at secondary. She loved her.

My nursery wasn’t great but several of the staff sent their children there.
i sent DD to a nursery as my experience with CM also wasn’t great, at playgroup I saw several of them being horrible to the children and saying horrible things about them.
My friend was one, she had a waiting list, great reviews, she hated the children. It just fit her life at that moment, the moment she could stop she did.
I don’t think any childcare js ideal, you just have to look at each option individually.

I'm a NNEB nursery nurse and was shocked how things have changed in nurseries in recent years.

I was deputy manager at a nursery/after school club. Left in 2003 when we moved to a different part of the UK.

I worked as a childminder until 2015, which I loved but could be lonely.

So I returned to nursery work. It was horrendous. Lots of very young staff with little idea of what they were doing. After 6 months I moved to another nursery. Appeared better. But after a year of working part time I just couldn't stay.

The room leader (now the manager) gave a child with a pasta allergy tinned spaghetti. She thought it was the same as tinned beans!!. Children didn't spend much time outdoors on cooler days as staff didn't like being outside.
Art work was to impress parents.

I could go on

Again young staff with inadequate training

I took a job cleaning in a care home and then set up my own cleaning business

I pity parents who have no choice other than to place children in nurseries.

Tony Blair phased out the NNEB qualification, he has alot to answer for.
Plus job now only pays minimum wage and it's bloody hard work

A quick chat is fine but this was often for over an hour with barely a glance at the kids.

However on the other hand my son goes to a nursery my eldest went to five year ago and I feel it isn't as good as it used to be. I am not sure I would use it if I were to have another child. Sometimes it seems the bare minimum is done. Luckily he is leaving soon.

It probably depends on the nursery. DC1's first nursery in the UK was great. Small, building a little run down but wonderful, caring staff and run by two qualified teachers.

We then moved abroad, and he went to two private nurseries here. Not so great but I had to work and these worked best for my hours.
I'm about to go back to work now and DC2 is at a council-run nursery. They are fab, well-staffed and the adults are lovely with DC. Her room is operating at a 3:1 ratio and they are really flexible. DC didn't have a key worker to begin with because they basically wanted her to choose her own. It's much cheaper than our private ones here and the coordinator at the council is incredibly helpful. They do have training days and when someone's off sick, they will have one of the designated cover staff members, who is working in one of the six council nurseries here in town. Most of the staff members have been there for several years.

@bylemonfishthe after school DD went to (in a nursery) tried to give her tinned spaghetti, she’s coeliac. Luckily she was old enough to realise but they told her off for refusing food!

Exactly.
100%.