Thoughts and feelings towards male nursery nurses?

[samithy]

Hi
I am currently on my final year of my foundation Degree in Early Years and am looking for some help with my dissertation. I am researching parent and female nursery workers perceptions of male practitioners within a nursery setting. Any comments would be greatly appreciated, Thanks

sam

I think men in childcare setting is a good thing. It's not great fir children (or the general public) to think that looking after/educating children is the job of women.

At my DS's nursery there were a few male staff but they never stayed for long - six months max? The women on the other hand were often there for many years. I have no idea why this would be the case though.

There are two blokes at DS's nursery. One's been there for ages (and doing it for >10y) and he's hilarious. All the kids love him, it's got to the point where DS calls the whole place 'so-and-so's nursery' and they'd be very upset indeed if he left. I think it's brilliant - when DS goes to school in Sept then he'll be back to all ladies. But I bet he still calls me 'so-and-so' by accident!
There's a second chap there now. He was quite shy to begin with then we started noticing a mischievous sense of humour so he's coming out of the shell.

As a woman in a male-dominated field I think a man in such a female-dominated one is brilliant.

There are only female nursery staff at DSs nursery which I think is a shame. I'd like for him to interact with both sexes. I think the problem is twofold, firstly that it is seen as 'women's work' and male nursery workers do suffer from stigma from parents who'd question his motives no matter how unjustified that might be The other issue is that its difficult to attract people to a career that pays so poorly.

There's a male nursery nurse at DD1's nursery; every parent I've heard express an opinion is really keen to have him in their child's room. And the children adore him.

We have recently employed a male nursery nurse at the setting I work in. THe benefits for the children is incredible and the comments from parents has been amazing.

I personally think we need a better balance and we need to dso more to encourage males to join the profession.

There's a male NN at DD's nursery in the pre-school section. DD is in the baby room so he's not looking after her yet, but when we saw him with the kids on our visit and in subsequent encounters at drop-off/pick-up etc. he looks to be doing a fab job. When we were on our visit, he was telling a group of about 10 kids a story and really going to town on the silly voices and fun aspects of it, I suspect more so than the (much younger, lovely, although probably slightly more inhibited) female staff might have done. I know that is probably as much to do with personality and maybe age, as it is to do with gender, but just trying to say he was lovely with the kids, and my instinct was that he was fab at his job.

From what I have seen, and assuming as with all nursery staff, he was qualified and had the relevant checks (I mean as I expect with females too, not because he is male), then I would be delighted to have him looking after DD.

D

During my DCs time at nursery, there were three male nursery nurses (plus various ancilliary staff). One was wonderful and I was really sorry when he left (to do a level 3 NVQ at a distant college - I hope he's still in the sector and some other parents are lucky enough to have him in their nursery). One was average, and one was dreadful (vanished at about the time his probation would have been up, though parents weren't officially told anything).

I think there should be more. But like female staff, the quality can vary.

Samithy you can mail me by clicking the blue TiggyD at the top of this message.

In some ways I'm not best placed to talk about the negative views on men in childcare as if people do have issues with it they are not likely to talk to me about them.
I would like to hear more about people's negative views. "Know your enemy" etc. What are the reasons you've heard why men shouldn't be in childcare? What are the views from staff, management, parents and children?

In the past I've heard that various management have been concerned about parent's possible reactions about me. I'm sure it could be possible for men to lose out on jobs because of what managers are thinking other people are thinking.
Some people are still thinking paedophile when they hear men want to work with children. The recent cases of women committing crimes against children helps a bit with that.
I had a parent at one nursery who didn't want me to be their child's key worker on the grounds that "a man couldn't care for a child as well as a woman could". Is that a popular belief?
Some children have taken a dislike to me. Some just don't like men. I don't know if there's a particular reason behind it, but they can have funny like/dislikes: I worked with a child who pulled hair, but only blonde hair. There was another child who was rather attached to latex gloves. (Wonder how he'll turn out?!). Often the children who disliked me most at first like me the most in the end.

Any other arguments you've heard why men shouldn't work with children from you friends, family, people you've met in garages etc?

There are three male nursery nurses at DD's nursery. She has only just started there- she is 8 months- and one in particular has been fantastic with her during settling in. She has taken a real shine to him. After a sticky start to her first session, when I arrived to pick her up he had her calm and looking around at books and toys. He told me honestly about her afternoon (she'd been very upset at times , but she'd managed to get a little bit of tea down her. The next morning she was all smiles when she saw him. DH & I can see no discernable difference in having a woman or a man looking after her!