Cartoons at after school club?

[Maxmaxmax]

My little boy just started at nursery school this week. We are not new to the nursery setting and have been at a private one for 2 years, but this is the first week at the nursery of a local school. The school is highly rated from what I can tell. All parents and local teachers speak highly of it, and all has been good so far in the usual nursery day. However when I went to collect him today from after school club I found them all sat on a mat watching disney cartoons. I asked if this was usual, and was told quite defensively that it was only on a friday, and it was just a little song.

Am I being naive or old fashioned to expect more than this at an after school club? If they're interested in music then why not encourage the children to play music, or to have a dance party. Not just sit there idly watching the screen.

It is also a very sunny day, and all other children were out in the school's beautiful gardens.

AIBU, or should we be expecting a bit more?

It's Friday, it's their first week. They're most likely all exhausted. YABU.

It's not during the school day. It's after school club and a Friday night when kids are knackered.

An awful lot of children not in childcare will go home on a Friday night and have a bit of TV time.

ASC at Primary id expect them to be able to relax and unwind... be that television, craft, outside play etc.

If you want actual activities you need to find an activity club not after school care.

At the end of a school day, my kids have had enough of activities and organised fun. They’d be quite happy having a bit of chill time sat on a mat.

It's not like it was a school lesson

The children will be exhausted, settling into a new school year, and will probably welcome the chance to chill

YABU if this was happening in the classroom I'd be angry, but it's after school.

Not a big deal at all

I think there is a huge expectation that young children need to be active and learning every second. Would you organise active, educational activities if you'd picked them up when school ended or would you have let them help you with dinner, watch TV or quietly play with what they wanted? Most children are exhausted by 3pm whether they've been in school or wrap around nursery.

Do the adults in your house watch TV after work or in the evening to relax?

Presumably the staff are being paid to stick the kids in front of the Tv. That's seriously lazy and it's bad for their brains.

An awful lot of children not in childcare will go home on a Friday night and have a bit of TV time.

And an awful lot won't.

I agree with you OP. My child is in year 1 and regularly has screen time as part of his school day (numberblocks etc)...so tis not just limited to after school club. Weve also stopped using things like the IKEA creche as they also seem to be more 'heres a film' these days rather than just letting the kids play.

I appreciate they're knackered, I appreciate it's an easy way to get them to chill, I can see that it's a winning option with multiple people. Still don't know quite when the easy option became the universally accepted one. I don't necessarily think that these clubs need to be pushing structured activities, crafts etc. Noone needs to be constantly learning or doing things which are creating skillsets etc but feels ridiculous to hear all this research about how little free play time children have Vs hours of screen time and then hear they are being stuck in front of a screen at a time where they could be engaging in free play with peers of multiple ages.

There's also increasing research about how overstimulating a lot of TV aimed at kids can be these days. So may not even be the chill flex people think it is. Www.raisewildflowers.com/tv-detox-faq#:~:text=Cocomelon%2C%20along%20with%20many%20other,as%20a%20drug%2C%20a%20stimulant.

It sounds ok to me. It’s end of a busy week, they are likely tired and its ok for the. to have some downtime.
What were they doing on the other days when you picked him up?

If it’s 20 minutes at the end of a Friday session at an after school club I wouldn’t have a problem with it.

If it’s an hour every weekday, that’s unacceptable.

A quiet down and unwind at the end of the first full time week in school is probably a good idea. It takes a while to get stamina back after the summer.

YABU, they are being stimulated all day and need the option to chill out and switch off at the end of a day, and definitely on a Friday.

It's not really the same thing because a) children's brains are still developing and b) cartoons have been shown to be especially detrimental for brain development.

I worked in childcare including after school clubs for years and this was normal.

We had activities, played outside etc, made the kids some tea and then played for an hour before putting the telly on so the kids could unwind and chill out before being picked up.

We'd then tidy away the toys, do the dishes, clean the kitchen, hoover and mop up and complete any paperwork. A lot of child care professionals don't get paid past 6 so they have to do all of this whilst the kids are still there (most of them work very long hours for min wage anyway so it hardly seems fair to expect them to work even more but for free)

YABU for above reasons
If you don't like it, move them to another setting.

This is really a bad example of a broken system :( shouldn't be expecting anyone to work for free, but should be enough in the budget that the kids are the focus whilst they're there and then staff have paid time to do all that stuff once they've gone!! Really sucks it's turned so far that way :( so much pressure on people who just wanted to do something pretty wonderful in choosing a career with young people!!

Honestly think you'd be hard pushed to find one. My kids went to a forest school preschool. Sold itself that they were outside in (almost) all weathers doing nature based activities and creating resilient kids. They still had screen time periodically ! Days when it had been truly dismal weather and both the staff and kids were cold and knackered, really do understand them taking the option of tucking everyone up with cbeebies. However, my point is if a 'we spend all our time in the woods!' setting turn the TV on now and again is there anywhere left that doesn't?!

I imagine being able to watch cartoons and switch off for a bit makes it feel more homey for the kids. They’re probably tired and need a bit of a rest.

If the after school club are lying and it's hours and hours, that's one thing but if it really is just a short time on a Friday afternoon I think it's a massive overreaction to be angry about this. If OP doesn't like it, they can pay a 1:1 after school nanny to look after their child instead who will stick to their rules about screentime.

Yes, you pay a nanny to provide 1:1 care and ask them to stick to your "no screens" rules or you look after your kids yourself and impose those rules yourself.

I do agree with you that staff should be paid to tidy up, do paperwork etc once the children have gone.

It might put the fees up a bit but it gives the children a false sense that their parents are late if the tidying up is going on. My ds gets very anxious about still being there once the tidying starts- but it starts a really long time before the end of the session!

It's after school it's not education. Play, chill and sometimes on a Friday cartoons.

My kids after school club had an Xbox. 😳

@Nafotdbs I agree, it's a real shame. It was the same when I worked in nurseries too. I worked with kids for 10 years but changed careers a couple of years ago as I just got so fed up with the long hours, shit pay, shit holidays, shit benefits, no recognition or thanks and being spoken to like shit by some parents. The kids were the only good thing about the job but I realised I couldn't carry on just for them. And people wonder why they can't get the staff anymore!!

I work in an office now, 9-5, mostly stress free, better money, more holidays etc