Nursery workers - WWYD?

[AnnieLobeseder]

Say you were outside nursery and saw a mum and one of the children (3yo) from the nursery. The mum and child were about to cross the busy road outside the nursery, and the mum called the child to her to get ready to cross. The child kept trotting on, ignoring mum's increasingly stern shouts of "X, come here, come here, stop... STOP!" until child ran out into the road. Mum races after child, catches child, gives child a smack on upper arm and gives child a lecture at very high volume on road safety and listening when told to come back and stop.

Would this worry you? Would you report it to anyone?

no... why would it worry you?

kid didn't do as it was told and got a stern telling off, and rightly so when it comes to road safety

Better report me then for smacking my 2 boys when aged 18-22 months for running into the road.

They never did it again.

Was it you doing the smacking and shouting?

No

I wouldn't - I would check everything was ok (but in a friendly way)

No. Been there done that got the tshirt. And scary it was to.

what does this have to do with nursery workers? or are you the nursery worker?

Too smack and shout is sometimes how some people react when they are frightened/shocked as this mum was when her child ran out onto a busy road. It is not an ideal reaction- too hug the child close to her, safely and explain what she had done wrong would have taught the child a lot more than a smack but it's not something that would worry me, no.

It wouldn't, no, and I wouldn't.

Report it?

Who to?

A Mum trying her best to keep her child safe and teach them road safety - what's wrong with that?

I guess it's the smack on the arm that you're judging the whole situation by. I imagine that the Mum was feeling pretty stressed by the situation - this snapshot doesn't mean that she goes home and batters he child every night.

Of course not

weird..... if your child ran into the road would you not discipline them then? Last time I checked smacking not illegal....... and sometimes the child needs to know they have well and truely crossed a line imo.

Thanks for the responses all.

I'm the mum, and am quite happy in myself with how I dealt with the situation, but one of the nursery staff was watching, and I was worried that maybe they have to report things like seeing parent smack children from their nursery.

I'm guessing it was you and the nursery reported you for smacking

I wouldn't be to worried, being that the situation you were in your reaction was understandable, if it were me who watched you (i work in a nursery) i would probably mention it to my manager, but it most likely wouldn't go further than that and assuming it was a one off. It would be logged into an incident book, and if we witnessed anything else that would also be logged.

Its interesting how everyone has said how it is no big deal, but if it were a case of actual abuse and this was just the tip of the ice berg would your reactions be different. After all, we working in a nursery have to be observant and aware that the children in our care may be victims of abuse. It may have been a one off, or it could have been the first hit of many that child would receive that day.

I am not accusing you of anything but we log things for a reason.

If there were no other concerns about your parenting/unexplained injuries etc then I wouldn't make a note or report it - I'd make a judgement call about what needs to be logged.

Obviously if circumstances were different it might be part of a bigger picture.