Do You Have a Primadonna?

[KiddieCahoots]

Hi Everyone!
Thank you so much for the warm welcome! This is great! I'm so excited to get started, I can't tell ya.....it's such a relief to be able to relate and know your not alone.
You know....sometimes the lack of adult interaction when your with the kids all day, 5 days a week, can start you on the life path to that of a hermit, !
Nevermind when you have parents who you give an inch to, take a mile, and mess with your head and good judgement. Causing you to self doubt the good work, you know in your heart your doing.
That is actually my first question...without offending others, who have posted the same before, that I haven't read yet...
How would you handle parents who are raising their child like she "does no wrong", and created a monster? Will allow her to behave inappropriately, but expect you to not allow the same behavior from other children in the group? And will become confrontational, and condescending when they hear you have given appropriate time-outs to there child?
Thank You!

[NoMoreJuice!]

Parent training

It took me a long time to finally decide that I wouldn't deal with bratty behavior. From parents.

I've had several that have asked me to treat their children with kid gloves because they are precious little darlings. Sorry, I treat them like children. I do treat them with respect, but I demand the same treatment in return. My suggestion is to have a very solid, iron-clad behavioral guidance policy, and hand the parents a copy highlighting that you met the child's behavior with the appropriate response. If they gripe to the point that it pushes your buttons, ask them if they'd like to turn in their two week notice. *Spoiler alert* 99% say no, try to backpedal, and agree that you're doing a fine job disciplining the child when they won't.

For some reason, interacting on this forum has given me a lot of confidence to stop taking crap from parents. Some days they also catch me in a foul mood (hey, I'm human) and I take even less. Good luck!

[KiddieCahoots]

Thank You for the great advice!

I know I have to be strong to deal with these particular parents, but can find that difficult to do.

Also feel some parents sense your easy going personality type and use it against you.

Makes for a difficult working relationship.

[KIDZRMYBIZ]

Welcome! Like NoMoreJuice, this forum has helped me get through every conundrum I've encountered since I found Daycare.com. It is everything I wasn't getting from local support groups, where you gotta watch what you say cuz you never know if one of the other providers is going to badmouth you to potential clients that interview with them as well. Here, you can let it all hang out!

I have a paragraph in my handbook about behavior expectations. When a DCK is having some anti-social behavior, I largely deal with it with consistency and consequences without ever involving the parents. Most of the time, they don't see a particular behavior because the home environment is so different than group care, so they find it hard to believe that Junior is spitting/not sharing/hurting with words/etc. Plus, it feels crummy for both of us for me to give an unhappy report every day. Usually, Junior tells DCM or DCD that they had a time-out or had to play by themselves, and I just confirm and let them now that we are resolving the issue. This works for me, as I avoid enrolling kids from what seem like crappy families, and none of my kids have major issues, just normal, age-appropriate stuff.