AIBU to want more photos from my child’s nursery

[HelloWorld2577]

To keep it brief. I’ve had multiple children attend this nursery over the past 5 years. My daughter is now there and has been for the past two years.

When my other children attended the nursery they would do daily posts which included a mixture of individual posts with photos of just my child and group posts where you could see what all the class were doing. Either way they were updating the app (tapestry) daily or at the very least 3 out of 5 days a week.

My older child left there last year and since the posts have really deteriorated. I’ve just had a look and since coming back from Christmas (my daughter attends full time) there have only been 2 group posts, one of those posts she wasn’t in it, and one you could see the back of her head.

I know it may sound trivial but I find it very frustrating that they charge £75 a day and I don’t even get to see what my daughters doing at nursery, I also have mum guilt for working full time & some mornings she struggles to go in so would put me at ease to just see what she’s doing. I raised it with management after my older child left and said I wasn’t getting many photos or updates on the app and they simply said they don’t have time to do individual posts now so they are trying to take photos of all children to post on one group post. This itself I find an issue because there are usually between 50 and 80 photos per group post and then I have to go through every photo like a detective searching for the side of my child’s head! It’s frustrating. when I raised it previously they said they were trying to do a couple of group posts a week but as I said above they’ve only done 2 posts over the last 3 weeks.

AIBU? I really want to raise it again but I don’t want to be one of those parents!! I understand they’re busy but if every other nursery do it why can’t they? It just seems lazy?!

How do I bring it up AGAIN?!

I'm with you OP. Seems to be a lot of weird assumptions on here that because they are doing less photos the kids are getting more attention - despite zero evidence.
I think it's more likely the other way round and the lack of updates is a sign they're stretched and the time they're giving to the kids may be less too.
You just want to see that the struggle at drop off isn't reflected in the rest of the day. I'd have a word and say why.

Please, please don’t complain about this. Nurseries already struggle to recruit. Parents need to create a supportive atmosphere by not making unnecessary demands or complaining about things that don’t matter.

Ita a no brainer. 5 min for photo upload per each child, 5 min x 20, 3p children. Do the maths. Seriously if you think this is important, your priorities are messed up. I love the updates, don't get me wrong but I get about once a month.

I would rather my child have a fun and safe day and have staff focused on mine and other children as well as their job, which is probably already stretched and pressured as it is without parents like you complaining about wanting the perfect photo opportunity to help you feel better. I get mum guilt. I’m a working mum but surely you could ask and find a better way for updates? Ask more questions at pick up, organise a meeting with your child’s key worker? Also I’m a mom that doesn’t post her children anywhere so I’ll be one of those mums that will state that I don’t want their photos taken and shared on an app with all parents as I then don’t know what’s happening to their photo once published to everyone. Maybe I’m wrong here but I really don’t empathise and don’t see a problem at all.

Childcare worker 10+ years, your right. We take a morning and afternoon pic everyday individually at the very least. Some kids can't be in group pics so what do they do for those children?

Even with the bigger rooms, you would assign a staff member to do a quick run around with the iPad. You don't need a comment on every picture. We would take the morning pics then upload them when they were all settled at morning snack. Same with afternoon pics, take them and upload when it's quieter if needs be.
Sounds like they CBA.

People from the industry have spoke up including myself and they still can't see it. It blows my mind.

In 1 room the ratio is 1:5 toddlers (Australia ratios), when you have 8 children and 2 staff and one of those staff has to tail the child that is biting etc, leaving the other educator to monitor the others and you're unable to have that 3rd staff member and ISS individual support service is a no go because they don't meet the list.

I've been in the industry for over 18 years, we went from literally no paper work to having to document everything to meet department standards otherwise we get marked down for not having that evidence.

It's sad as you can see from the majority of the posts that most parents want their children to be taken care of first and foremost - as most parents would. It's concerning that some parents are more interested in receiving photos (which could be doctored anyway!). Don't get me wrong I love receiving them, it was only when doing the maths I realised, less is probably best

I used to get tonnes of photos from nursery, it was lovely. Now my son's in reception I don't get many. Obviously I'd love to see photos of him at school but I completely understand why they just don't have time. Must have taken them ages. They'd put up about 5 a day and blur out the faces of all the kids that weren't mine. They were doing it for 30 kids a day! No idea how they had time.

I'm a parent myself, my children have been through child care themselves. Nice assumptions there btw with this comment implying I don't look after the children.

"It's sad as you can see from the majority of the posts that most parents want their children to be taken care of first and foremost"

I would hate this tbh. Childcare and early childcare education is so expensive. It shouldn't have anything to do with phone updates to parents. They either trust you or they don't. And if they don't, their kids shouldn't be within a country mile of you. Imo, education/care is all about the interaction between the carer and the child, the child and the other children. Face to face human interactions. They'll be swamped with screens soon enough.

So what's your point? You'd rather the teachers on their apps taking pictures or to actually be looking after your children?

And tbh, with fees so high, i'd be raging if i thought some of it was going towards a staff member who was scurrying around taking unneccessary photos.

You are deliberately stirring the pot and not worth the engagement.

My daughter attends a nursery that use an app and I get a photo most days if not every day. It takes literal seconds to snap a photo of all the children whilst they are doing something and it’s done for the day.
They are updating the app with meals, nappies etc anyway
Without outing myself I am also involved with an app that is used in nurseries and know it can be done without compromising on the care given to the children and used in line with GDPR etc etc
in all parent surveys I have seen the main areas lacking in nurseries generally are communication, community and activities
I worked in nurseries 20 years ago and you got a piece of paper at the end of the day that said what they had eaten or drank and yes everyone accepted that but I bet all of the parents would have loved an app or a way to see a photo. And for all the people like oh it’s pathetic you don’t need it well we do. My daughter was hysteric at drop off a day last week and I felt shit the whole way to work, as soon as I got out of the car there was a little update that she had eaten her breakfast and she was off playing and a photo of her in the home corner and it shifted the whole day for me because I wasn’t worried or feeling guilty about leaving her

Surely you can see anytime taken taking photos, then uploading them and then commenting on them is time taken away from the children. Very small children where the ratio of adult to child is already pretty tight and there is limited money for staffing. There is a choice to be made and I’m glad my childcare provider picks the children. I have seen before ( no blame it what the culture demanded at the time) staff constantly attached to iPads , which is not what I think we should be modelling to our children.

I love seeing photos, and there is a place but it absolutely needs to be proportionate. I get less with my younger child than I did with my older child but it makes no difference to how I feel
about the nursery.

Let's say there are 20 children in the nursery room. So every day you take 40+ photos. (The first one might be blurry or have another child in, so you have to take a few extra) Then a staff member has to upload the photos while still in ratio, because let's face it there are very few nurseries who have a spare staff member. So that staff member isn't engaging or supervising the children... and this happens twice a day, morning and afternoon.

What an absolute waste of time!

@Ameteurmum do you mean you actually use the app day to day or you are involved in the production of it?

I use an app as a parent but for work I configure and support nurseries with how they should be using an app

This is getting a bit ridiculous now tbh. 'Ineed a photo bc my kid was upset going in etc.' It's not normal and it's not healthy for mum to have this reaction. Kids will be upset. You will be upset seeing them upset. No amount of apps can eliminate upset. Parenting is a world of bloodly upset and you have to get used to it. There is no app to magic away the worry that you have for your kids. You will always worry. Get used to it.and the worry goes well beyond nursery age.

But don't you think this is even ridiculous? (Mine doesn't do this). If you are updating an app constantly? Unless they have a dedicated resource for this. Years ago I worked somewhere where I has to accout for every five minutes, it was the most unproductive and depressing place I ever worked. I totally get what you mean seeing a pic of your DC looking happy, and that's great. But if rather this was exception based (as per your example) than the norm3

That's your reaction though. It's not on the staff, or your baby. It's solely within your control. All you needed was to take a beat. It doesn't require a portfolio ffs.

To all those saying staff can't stay in ratio to upload photos, you do it when their sitting and eating. In my old room it was 8 2-3 yr olds, 2 staff. One sits with the kids at the table interacting at snack and the other uploads. You don't need a comment on every pic and don't spend time blurring every kid. You just avoid angles that include a kid that can't be shared in groups, it's not that hard.

To all those saying staff can't stay in ratio to upload photos, you do it when their sitting and eating.

I don't think anyone has said staff can't do it when they're in ratio. But if they're uploading photos and information on apps then they're not engaging and supervising the children. I'm sure the majority of parents would prefer 2 staff supervising snacks / meal times, rather than one staff member staring at screen while the other is responsible for 8 children.

My child was upset some days back in the early 80s. I just waited outside the foor and she always stopped straight away. No mobile phones or ipads then.

@Ameteurmum so you have a vested interest in it being easy to use, but don’t actually use it as a staff member on a day to day basis. I am often told things are easy to use by being not doing my job, or not doing it recently, they fail to understand everything in my role so often it is not as easy as they think.