DC at nursery put in front of a laptop watching Peppa Pig, AIBU?

[Breathedeeper]

Went to collect my DC from nursery the other day and she was sat watching Peppa Pig on a laptop with 2 other toddlers in the baby room while the other babies and children were still asleep. 2 members of staff there, am I out of line for thinking this is not right and one of them should have taken them outside or to another room to play while the rest were asleep? Never seen this before but I walked in to collect DC rather than her being brought out to me as usually happens. I think the nursery owner was off that day so possibly something the staff have done without her knowing? Not sure whether to approach the owner about it or just let it slide…

Of course the parents know we use screens. I am not in the habit of being dishonest to parents. I tell them what their children have been up to, they don't care about a bit of screen time, they have even seen them watching a bit of coco melon or a sensory video when they pick them up. It's such a small part of the day, I do plenty of stimulating activities for the other 9 hours of the day with the children.

@CantSeeTheDifference

I'd love parents to work in a nursery themselves for a couple of days to see how noisy and demanding it is, and how very lucky they are that people do the jobs! I've worked in preschools with shorter hours and two colleagues left to work in day nurseries and simply couldn't hack it. It's exhausting!

As for planning - yes that is very time consuming, the activities don't happen by themselves and they have to be planned and done every.single.day, in a very long day.

@CantSeeTheDifference By the way, you sound great and I have utter respect for you and all nursery workers

OK, have the people who keep saying "just let them read books" ever worked for 10 hours a day in a room of 1-2 year olds?? They are not interested in books for long enough for the staff to do all the necessary things I listed in my other posts.

You read it here first………………………………

PFB Alert

Thank you, I really appreciate that. I really wish people who think we are being "lazy" could spend just one day in the room with us to see that despite what they think, childcare is actually a really demanding and stressful job.

Unfortunately, after almost 20 years in the early years sector, I am leaving it for good. It's a shame because I love the children I care for dearly, but the stresses of the job, and the ridiculous demands put on us, as evidenced nicely in this thread, mean it is simply not worth all this bullshit for minimum wage.

Many good and experienced childcare workers are realising their worth and are sadly leaving in droves.

I worked in nurseries for years. What do you think they did before tablets and phones were invented? As a professional I'm sure you must know the detrimental effects of screens on young brains.

Right, and what massively detrimental effects is an episode or two of Peppa going to have on a young brain? ‘My child could have been a doctor or a lawyer, but instead they’re bossy, argumentative and use not even subtle personal insults whilst everyone around them grits their teeth - they’ll only ever get as far as middle management now!’.

I don't need to "think", I know, I've been a nursery worker for almost 20 years. And to be honest, the main difference, ironically, between then and now is that back then, I did not have to spend half my time stuck on a tablet taking daily pictures and updating apps, constantly updating parents on what's going on. I told them at the end of the day how their child got on and discussed their progress, but now every single thing needs to be logged onto an app x 15+ children. It eats into a lot of time.

Well said. Agree.

I'm not suggesting a daily blow by blow account of every minute thing, but an overview of what they do and how much. If you are trying to keep TV watching to a certain amount of time per day then you need to know how much they have had at nursery. And it should be TV not laptops or smart phones or any other "device". Similarly if the child has had ample sleep during the day they may not need/want to sleep at their usual time at home.

I don't understand all the talk about staff having to organise activities during "nap time". I thought there would be a timetable the same as in school. If the day is structured and the kids know what to expect on Tuesday morning or Thursday afternoon they get into a routine and then when they do go to primary school is isn't such a shock to the system. The routine would also make it easier for the staff to do all the other things that they do. They should be grateful they work in a nursery and not in a school as all the teachers I have known had to do prep and marking at home, outside school hours and in their own time.

And people wonder why there is a staffing crisis in childcare.

You think nursery staff don't do unpaid work outside of their working hours?

Many times I have had to take the planning folder home (and yes, we have to plan activities for every single day so we can observetye children's developmental milestones). Many times I have had to use my own money to buy more resources for the children so they could do fun activities. I can't count the number of times I have had to miss appointments because a parent was running late and I had to stay behind with their child until they finally arrived way after closing time.

I have bent over backwards for the last 20 years, jumping through hoops to keep parents happy, often at a detriment to my own mental and physical wellbeing. For minimum wage and 4 paltry weeks off a year.

What exactly should I be "grateful" for?

@VeryHappyBunny a "blow by blow account" is pretty much what the staff have to do already.
Yes they have a timetable - "nap time" will be a scheduled part of that timetable.
@CantSeeTheDifference it's so sad that so many people have no clue what actually goes in a nursery every day. Well done on your 20 years 💐

Well, as this woman appears to be completely unaware of any tv/laptop time and feels it has been concealed from her, i.e. her child being brought out to her rather her being able to see what happens for herself, it looks as if there is no account of the day, never mind a blow by blow one.

If she already knew this was happening, it is unlikely she would have even mentioned it on here.

@VeryHappyBunny well if the OP doesn't like it she is free to move her child to a different nursery.
It sounds like she was expecting 1 to 1 childcare - that's simply not going to happen in a nursery environment.

I suspect they would prefer the nursery to be staffed to allow time in the day for observation recording etc. It was a little while back (2015-2020) that my two went to nursery but their key worker had less children than that and had planned breaks each day. The woman who looked after both of mine up to 2 had 3 kids. Nursery had a max of 6 under 2s in total and they had 2 staff who worked only with under 2s. One worked 7:30-3:30, one 10-6 and They flowed someone from the older room that had lots of kids 9-3 only into baby room in the morning/late afternoon to keep up the ratios. They also had a couple of staff who only came in 9-3 and covered breaks/obs time for the various rooms.
It seems to have got significantly worse for funding/staffing in a relatively short time as know our old nursery is also struggling.

I think unfortunately in-spite of higher rates for parents the overheads are up significantly and it’s probably no longer affordable to have floating staff to cover breaks and observations. It’s a mess really and not sure even changing ratios would help that much as you’d just have more kids to write about. 15 is a lot though. Is that due to having lots of part time kids?

And am I really paying nursery fees for DC to be watching Peppa Pig when that’s something I can do for free at home

She can play with toys/ read quietly at home as well presumably. Most people are paying for childcare because they need somewhere for their child to go whilst they are at work or doing other things.

I don't understand the panic about a little bit of screen time. What do you think is going to happen?

Who do you think would organise that 'timetable' and when? Who plans the activities that are on it?

Nursery staff are generally paid minimum wage, and no one on minimum wage should ever have to take work home.

Teachers are on a professional salary - not as much as it should be - but a lot more than minimum wage.

I would imagine the manager/owner of said nursery. Surely a planned programme is easier to implement and would make things easier for the staff if they knew what they were doing and when rather than making it up as they go along. I don't think I have suggested anyone needs to take work home (I did say teachers do, not nursery staff).

The "timetable" you keep referring to is the daily routine. So breakfast and free play 7.30-9, messy play 9-9.45, outside play 9.45-11, group time 11- 11.45 etc And yes, generally, that is made up by the manager.

However, it is the responsibility of the staff in the room to plan the daily activities that happen for messy play, group time, artwork, etc, and follow them up with pictures, observations and progress plans for the child's next milestones.

These activities are planned with EYFS in mind, we plan different activities that will allow us to observe the children's specific milestones. So, for example, if I wanted to assess the children's fine motor skills, I would need to write up a plan for, say, playdough for the children to play with at messy play. Then I need to take a photo of each child taking part in the playdough, watch each child, write up in the app what they are doing, explain what they are learning from the activity, upload the observation along with the picture.I then need to go back to the planning sheet, write up a report on how successful the activity was, what I would do differently next time.

If we didn't get time to do things like this, parents would not have the app updated, the obs done, etc, and there would be complaints.

I need to do this for every single child, every day. It takes a very long time. We're talking about children's milestones and development here, I need concentration to write up the observations properly, I need time to plan the activities. They don't just appear out of thin air.

To parents and even non-parents who have never experienced working in childcare, it may look to you like a just a fun little activity that keeps the children entertained for 20 mins and doesn't need much thought put into it. But for Early Years staff, these activities are specifically and strategically planned to allow the child to get the best experience out of them, which will be both fun and rich in learning, and gives us an indication at where the children are with their development.

This is all done by the staff in the rooms; the nursery assistants, and the room leader, not the manager, and certainly not the owner! Nope, the staff who are the lowest paid in the country.

I hope this explains things a bit better, and hopefully, people can see that good nursery staff are not lazy, workshy people who stick children in front of screens all day so they can "have a rest". We work our backsides off

@CantSeeTheDifference yes it's amazing how many people have no clue what actually happens at a nursery (but they're first to complain when there is no photos of their child on the portal or they aren't told how many bites of food their child ate that day).

I disagree, I think she wants more transparency as to how much screen time her toddler has.
It's likely to be a short amount now and again.

Yes, wouldn't it be lovely if all nurseries everywhere were fully staffed so we could share the workload amongst us and get everything done in a timely manner? I would prefer that myself, funnily enough.

But, as it stands, there is a staffing crisis in the early years sector. Good, hardworking staff are being driven away due to the sheer stress of the job, coupled with the absolute atrocious pay that goes with it (I am leaving next week myself). Not to mention the shittt holiday entitlement, the ridiculously long hours, and lack of respect and appreciation. Nursery managers are struggling to recruit new staff members. Just reading this thread should tell you why. Nobody wants to work in horrendous conditions with abysmal pay.

I've said upthread that my sons are now 15 and 25 so my nursery experiences are a while ago.
All the Early Years milestones were coming in for my 15 yo.
I'm fortunate that my sons have no health or learning concerns. I was very happy with their nursery. The boys were always happy, the staff lovely and I felt as informed about their day as I needed to be. I would much rather have just had a chat about what they'd done, particularly enjoyed or what have you, than be presented with a page of "[son] demonstrated manual dexterity when pouring from the play tea set" or "[son] slept for 1 hour and 23 minutes" (I just needed to know he had had a nap).

He also attended the village pre-school one morning a week leading up to going to school. They needed to enrol him etc and create the whole lever arch file for all his early years milestones. This was already being done at his nursery and I had to sign something to say I really didn't need them doing this for him, I much preferred that the staff be available for the children.

I absolutely support young children being supported and their growth and development being monitored so early intervention can happen if needed, but I think the expectation on nursery staff is way too high.

@CharlotteBog it is too much really.
Does a record of everything really need to happen?
Many moons ago I thought about being a child minder. In my youthful naivety I thought a child minder offered an "at home" environment where the child was taken care of but really just tagged on to the adults daily life - the way a child at home with their parent would be.
But even child minders are now essentially mini nurseries and have to go through the same Ofsted scrutiny.
I decided against it.