Would you feel uneasy about a 19-year-old nursery room leader?

[Lauren8642]

Am I being paranoid my child is due to start nursery soon and I’ve just found out the room leader is 19 and who only finished their apprenticeship last year. How would you feel about this? I never looked round it again as my eldest went there a few years ago and it was good but that’s just made me feel uneasy for some reason.

Pretty standard age for nursery employees. The person has done their training, knows what to do first aid wise (probably knows the first aid side better than most parents)

I would.

At that young age I was running crèches in holiday resorts (ski and sun).

I was newly trained and energetic. I was enthusiastic and followed all policy to the letter.

Many (many!) decades later I now am a behaviour lead and pastoral care in a School for pupils with the most severe disabilities.

being young is no indication of ability to do a job. The ability lies in decent training, robust policy and most importantly the vocational desire to care for these young people and shape their futures. (It’s not the pay!)

You know why.

”Ageism” is flung about all over this site but if I’m ageist for not wanting a 19 year old as a nursery room leader or not wanting some 90 year old little granny or grandpa being a danger on the roads, well frankly that’s fine by me. Not all discrimination is negative.

I had 2 kids of my own at 19 ,,why wouldn't she be capable .

Why uneasy? 19 is adult. Obviously qualified prrsumably withh all the latest up to date info too
I would say yes you are being paranoid.

Don't worry, honestly! My son's room leader was 19 too and she was brilliant - more energy than some of the older staff and really good with the kids. Age really doesn't tell you much, it's more about how they are with the children day to day. If you liked the nursery before I wouldn't let this put you off, just pop in for a settling session and see how she is with them yourself, you'll know straight away😊

Personally it wouldn’t bother me - my sister was a nursery nurse, she started her training at 16 and was leading a room by 20, and stayed in that position for about 15 years (not all in the same setting but always a room leader). I don’t doubt that she got better as she became more experienced, but that doesn’t mean she wasn’t capable to begin with.

However, I also firmly believe that you have to be confident with whoever you’re leaving your child with, and if you don’t want to leave your child in a particular setting, you don’t have to justify the reason.

As others have said, go to a settling session or ask to look around again, and then make a decision about whether to look elsewhere.

I was a supervisor of a baby room at 21. I had a few years of experience and I did a great job, had fantastic relationships with parents and the babies were happy and loved. Looking back now I think I was very young to be in that position but I was genuinely great at it.
Nursery staff are young, it’s a solid job coming out of college but it pays horrendously despite the huge responsibility and a lot of people don’t tend to stay at it for long unless they move into managerial roles so there’s always newer and younger staff coming in.
Ultimately you have to feel comfortable but judge her on her abilities, not her age would be my advice.

This young woman has far more experience of children and babies than the majority of us had when we had our first baby.

Really? There are very few people with their own children at 19. A few possibly but not ‘many’.

I would be fine with this.

The young women at our nursery have been amazing in comparison to the childminder we had in her 40s who was terrible.

@maddiemookins16mum
very few have a child at 19? you must have a sheltered life, they’re not all off to uni from 6th form 🙄