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Ive been in business for over two years and I had my first major incident last week. A highly rambunctious daycare child decided to climb a tree during outside play time and fell. It took no more than 3 seconds from the time that I saw him standing near the tree to the time he placed his foot on the tree and lost his footing. He ended up cut his leg on one of the small branches sticking out on the bottom of the tree. He had to get three stitches. I don’t let any of my children climb trees for safety reasons, but every now and then they would try. Usually, when I tell them to get down they do. To mention, I was no more than three steps away from him when this happened because I was trying to stop another child from putting something into his mouth.
Immediately after the incident, I recognized that I would never be able to stop the children from trying to climb the tree so I had it cut down the next day and tree branches sticking out of the other small trees were also trimmed.
I contacted DFPS myself because the child had to go to the doctor. Its required by the state to do so. It was a nightmare dealing with the state inspector. She stayed here for two hours. It was like she was here just digging and digging for something wrong and she wasn’t satisfied until she found the smallest thing. I gave her all the paperwork that she asked for, she continued to make comments about other things not related to the inspection, listened in on me as I fed the children. Things like (Did they wash their hands? You know that you have to serve water. Why is this here? You have a lot of people with background checks, who is this? ect, ect.)
The kids could see that my attention was not totally on them so they acted out horribly. One child purposely locked himself in the bathroom which never happens and another child played on the floor kicking another child in his face causing a bruise. Two hours was waaaayyyyy tooooo looonnnng and the kids really took full advantage of my lack of attention because of her need for it. She stayed so long that the children wouldn’t even sleep during nap time. I felt like she had no respect, nor did she try to go to a room to work quietly away from the children so that they could have their quiet time. She talked out loud, didnt try to wisper or respect their time. I felt totally violated by her because she was so intrusive and it was like she tried really hard to find something wrong with the daycare home. Looking in every corner.. I know that working with children, I lose some of my rights because its their job to protect them.. but when does professional respect go out of the door.
She is thinking about writing me up because she said that I didn’t respond to the incident in time so it seems like I wasn’t supervising the children. One of the children told her that I was sitting down so its more so the childs word against mine.. As an adult, I usually would trust a child instead of an adult because I trust them more to tell the truth.. In this case, I was telling the truth and if she doesn’t believe me then so be it. I know that I am not superwoman and there was no way for me to intervene in 3 seconds.
My question is- Do childcare providers have rights? When you have an inspector that comes in and is downright set on catching you doing something wrong when you do everything in your power to do things by the book? I try my best to keep the children safe, having fun, learning, and eating healthy meals. I’m upset because two houses down from me is an illegal daycare and no one has come to catch her standing outside talking for 10-20 min while she still has children inside of the house. This morning, this same woman had what looked like a two year old out in the front yard while cars zoomed by while she picked growing grass with her hands. Ive made tips in the past but nothing has been done about it. A previous employee of mine opened up an illegal daycare and took two of my daycare children with her.. I don’t see anyone knocking on her door when she’s feeding kids TV dinners on the living room floor with a dog within hands reach. I take full responsibility for the fact that the child got hurt while in my care. I have even taken measures to prevent it from happening again. Yet, am I wrong to feel like something isn’t right?
Immediately after the incident, I recognized that I would never be able to stop the children from trying to climb the tree so I had it cut down the next day and tree branches sticking out of the other small trees were also trimmed.
I contacted DFPS myself because the child had to go to the doctor. Its required by the state to do so. It was a nightmare dealing with the state inspector. She stayed here for two hours. It was like she was here just digging and digging for something wrong and she wasn’t satisfied until she found the smallest thing. I gave her all the paperwork that she asked for, she continued to make comments about other things not related to the inspection, listened in on me as I fed the children. Things like (Did they wash their hands? You know that you have to serve water. Why is this here? You have a lot of people with background checks, who is this? ect, ect.)
The kids could see that my attention was not totally on them so they acted out horribly. One child purposely locked himself in the bathroom which never happens and another child played on the floor kicking another child in his face causing a bruise. Two hours was waaaayyyyy tooooo looonnnng and the kids really took full advantage of my lack of attention because of her need for it. She stayed so long that the children wouldn’t even sleep during nap time. I felt like she had no respect, nor did she try to go to a room to work quietly away from the children so that they could have their quiet time. She talked out loud, didnt try to wisper or respect their time. I felt totally violated by her because she was so intrusive and it was like she tried really hard to find something wrong with the daycare home. Looking in every corner.. I know that working with children, I lose some of my rights because its their job to protect them.. but when does professional respect go out of the door.
She is thinking about writing me up because she said that I didn’t respond to the incident in time so it seems like I wasn’t supervising the children. One of the children told her that I was sitting down so its more so the childs word against mine.. As an adult, I usually would trust a child instead of an adult because I trust them more to tell the truth.. In this case, I was telling the truth and if she doesn’t believe me then so be it. I know that I am not superwoman and there was no way for me to intervene in 3 seconds.
My question is- Do childcare providers have rights? When you have an inspector that comes in and is downright set on catching you doing something wrong when you do everything in your power to do things by the book? I try my best to keep the children safe, having fun, learning, and eating healthy meals. I’m upset because two houses down from me is an illegal daycare and no one has come to catch her standing outside talking for 10-20 min while she still has children inside of the house. This morning, this same woman had what looked like a two year old out in the front yard while cars zoomed by while she picked growing grass with her hands. Ive made tips in the past but nothing has been done about it. A previous employee of mine opened up an illegal daycare and took two of my daycare children with her.. I don’t see anyone knocking on her door when she’s feeding kids TV dinners on the living room floor with a dog within hands reach. I take full responsibility for the fact that the child got hurt while in my care. I have even taken measures to prevent it from happening again. Yet, am I wrong to feel like something isn’t right?
Well said.
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