Wrong child given to me

[Astressedmumoftwo]

Earlier today I went to pick up my son from nursery. A member of staff I'd never seen before appeared with a little girl who walked towards me out of the door. I quickly explained that I wasn't her mum and the worker apologised and took her back in. I had a chat with the manager after who explained that this new staff member had been mistakenly told I was this girls mum by another staff member.

He was very apologetic, said the staff member involved was very upset about it and said they'd make sure it couldn't happen again by implementing more safeguarding procedures. They seemed to take it seriously at least

What would you do?

I'd have taken the different child for a change.

To be honest, OP, you are getting ridiculed, but I would be concerned as well.

What would happen if a parent in a unsafe state of mind collected for example, a baby who is non verbal, and took them home. I know it's extreme but before people @ me I have worked in a situation where something similar has happened and it was incredibly distressing for everyone involved.

It's good that they have taken it seriously, and are implementing new safeguarding measures.

Where there’s blame there’s a claim OP 🙄

Harsh. But fair.

I hope this is a joke? Like nurseries don't have it tough as it is.

Nothing.

If it was a total stranger appearing and being given a random child then yes I'd be upset, but they knew you were a parent, it was a simple mistake, and you're not going to take someone ses child.

I would try not to be an ass about it.

School did try to send out the wrong child to MIL once, the lad (was about 5)) was like "that's not MY Nanny" (like in those that's not my... insert random animal books). Shame, he's a nice lad, I'd have done a 24 hour swap

😁 only if they looked better than mine!

I'd inform the daily mail then teach my child how to pull a good compo face or I'd act like a normal person and laugh and not think anymore off it

I can't imagine for a second that my son would be brought out to another parent and that they'd actually decide to take my son home instead of their own child!

Exactly!

If the other child looked cute I'd swap for the night. A change is as good as a rest!

I wouldn't see it as a big deal. As others have said, it's not like they sent a child out to an adult they didn't recognise!

I went to get my boy for the first time in months (husband did the pick up normally) and he had moved rooms recently and the woman who brought him out hesitated and said ‘sorry, you can’t take him, I need a staff member to verify who you are’ !! Even tho my boy was so happy to see me and shouting mummy! It was very funny. Someone from the baby room had to come out and say I was his mum LOL

Not quicklime, what you mean is Agent Orange.

I would be upset a bit (I would want my child’s setting to be perfect 😀) and at the same time curious why it’s happened. Did the staff member misheard the name? Some might sound similar. Or maybe the new staff member hasn’t got chance to learn who is who? The problem is that if they don’t know children they may give out wrong information about child’s day and what happened with him/her. So it’s not just a simple mistake.
I wouldn’t take my child out of this nursery if the rest is perfect by the way. But I would worry a bit more then before for a while.

Imagine being so British, that you'd take the wrong child home just to be polite.

I get all the responses saying you'd make a joke, and I probably would too. And at the same time I get why you're worried. But - at my DD's nursery, when she was in the baby room, there was a very non-amicable split between a mum and dad whose child was there, and the mum got custody plus a restraining order. The dad a few times turned up trying to collect his child, and he'd do things like following other parents in through the door or whatever. Sometimes he was pretty drunk. And, the thing was, the nursery were so totally on top of it. They put a very polite, vague notice up about how they needed everyone to ring the bell and wait, and asked us not to let other people in, but I didn't realise anything was up for ages, because they made everything seem normal.

What I suppose I'm getting at is, I think if your nursery is sufficiently unconcerned about you and about this other child that they took a new starter's word that mum was here, it could well be they are aware you are exactly who you say you are. If there was a genuine concern - eg., a child who is vulnerable being release to the wrong adult - you might well see a very different side to them.

I work in a nursery and have done for 15 years, I have been in the staff member's shoes a few times and have been absolutely mortified and panicked all night about it when I went home. We are only human, we make mistakes sometimes. Thankfully none of the parents felt the need to report me to my manager for a mistake. Don't worry OP the staff member will have got a bollocking for it and I'm sure she feels shit enough about it to not let the mistake happen again.

I expect that someone checked that you were a recognised parent/guardian so the confusion was only about who you were collecting not whether you were a recognised usual parent. There is very little plausible risk here.

I wouldn’t have said anything and hoped this child eats their vegetables and answers back less

Well my kids are ace so everyone would want them 😂

The weirdness grows.

In the moment, faced with well-meaning and pleasant nursery staff, I'd probably laugh it off. You're right though, OP, despite the sarcastic responses. It's not good enough to hand over a child to someone who isn't authorised to collect them. That's just obvious. A very basic failure on the nursery's part and I'm glad you mentioned it.

Nothing. ....it was a mistake ..