DD doesn't like one of the nursery staff. Mention it or not?

[GwendolineMaryLacey]

Obviously I don't mean march up to her and tell her DD doesn't like her! :o

DD is 3.7 and has been going to this nursery one day a week for over 2 years., always got on fine, no problems. The last month or so she has started saying she doesn't like it, doesn't want to go and she cries again when I take her in. She did this when she was younger but has been fine for ages.

The root of this, it seems, is one of the teachers has a "not happy face". There are a couple of them there that are a bit miserable but nothing serious, just not as smiley or friendly as the others. DD is fixated on this particular staff member and worries about it a lot. I don't know if anything particular has happened, DD hasn't mentioned any incident and neither have the nursery. I've asked her to point her out but it looks like she works in one of the other rooms and isn't always with DD's group.

Question is, should I mention it at the nursery? DC2 is due after Christmas and I'll take her out of the nursery when I stop work anyway so she only has till Christmas left. But she is quite upset about it. And what the hell do I say?

TIA :)

The same happened to me. My DD 20 months at the time was having a tantrum everytime I dropped her off (4 days a week), but only with one member of staff. I went to the manager and without mentioning names I told her staff seemed demotivated and miserable and since then my daughter didn't like to go to nursery. Would se please try and lift moral. Something must have changed, a lot more smiling is going on, music and other things too. DD waves goodbye now and everything. There is always a way to approach things and if it makes you uncomfortable then do it

I work in a nursery, and some children take against me and cry when they see me. I'm pretty cheerful, it used to worry me but now I just accept that some children won't like me and they will come to like me by the time they get to my room. They generally do. Put it this way, if you were put in a room with random bunch of people would you like them all?

I've had this happen to me before too, it stemmed from me covering another staff member in a room i didn't normally work in and playing hide and seek/ pretending to be animals such as lions etc.

One litle boy got a little upset and said that I was scary because I was growling he then wouldn't come anywhere near me for about a week and told his mum and dad etc all about it - luckily I looked after his little brother and mum knew me quite well and had seen how I did in fact treat the children brilliantly and wasn't scary in the slightest. I spoke to her about it and she helped encourage the older child to come and speak to me, I made an extra effort to make him laugh and give cuddles etc. Before long he was saying how I was his best friend - even saying to mum he wanted to marry me when he's older lol.

It may just be an understanding, or the woman may actually just have a miserable face - some people do - perhaps mention to your child's key worker in a casual way that your child is finding it a little difficult to bond with whoever and would it be possible for them to encourage interaction between the two of them.