A troubled mother took to Reddit recently to ask if she’d behaved poorly when she told her child’s daycare teacher that her child wouldn’t be able to finish cleaning up.
The Case Against Cleaning Up
This mother has a two-year-old daughter, who has been in home daycare for a few months. The daycare teacher is a lovely woman who takes pride in her job and loves looking after children.
The original poster (OP) explains that she’s normally all for her daughter cleaning up her own messes at daycare.
The daycare teacher typically expects her students to finish cleaning up the toys they’ve been playing with before they leave, which usually isn’t a problem.
Sometimes it can cause delays, but if the OP normally has issues, she’ll text ahead to the daycare teacher, asking them to get her daughter ready, which usually works!
Ready and Waiting
Normally, she’d arrive to get her daughter, and her daughter would be waiting in her jacket and reading a book – an easy toy to put away instead of something huge like a LEGO project or something similar.
However, when she arrived today to pick up her child, a problem reared its head.
The OP had had a crazy day – she’d spent an hour trying to get her car running and was running super late for an important appointment. They had a lot to do this afternoon and were running behind because of these car issues.
She Was Running Late!
When she arrived at daycare, her daughter and some friends were in the middle of cleaning up a big mess of toys.
As she was in a rush, she told her daughter they had to go and to grab her coat, but her daycare teacher intervened. She told the OP that her daughter needed to stay and finish cleaning up her part of the mess.
The OP protested, explaining that any other day definitely, just not today! She said, “I’m running late; I’ve got an incredibly important appointment we can’t afford to miss. We have to go.”
The daycare teacher tried to argue with the OP, explaining that kids need to learn responsibility, but the OP flat-out said no, grabbed her daughter, put her coat on, and left.
Almost Missed Her Important Meeting
The OP just made their appointment in time; they would have missed it if they had stayed.
After that hectic afternoon was over, she checked her texts in the evening. She had a text from the daycare teacher saying, “poor planning on your part doesn’t mean you can break the rules.”
The OP pointed out that this is not in their contract, and actually, she can bring her child home whenever she needs or wants to.
She Receives a Verbal Warning!
The daycare teacher replied, accusing her of undermining her authority, and gave her a verbal warning!
The OP found this ridiculous and had to ask Reddit if she’d been so awful in this situation or if she was in the right.
In hindsight, she realizes she should have texted ahead, but she was running so late that it completely slipped her mind!
She’s also annoyed – at the end of the day, it’s her child, and she should be able to pick her child up whenever she needs to.
Her Child, Her Rules
Daycare pick-up should not take 20 minutes – working parents have it hard enough as it is! They need to get home, run errands, make dinner, and do extracurriculars, all while spending quality time with their children.
That 20-minute wait cuts into their already tight schedule, and parents do not want to wait around for their kids to clean up their toys.
From the daycare teacher’s perspective, however, as the OP requires flexible pick-up times, they should follow the rules for flexible pick-up times – which clearly indicate that kids clean up their toys before they go.
No Forewarning
They were annoyed because the OP hadn’t informed them they were coming early and didn’t follow the rules. Ultimately, the OP is a home daycare client and is at her mercy, as it isn’t a private daycare.
So maybe it was right to place her on a verbal warning? The daycare teacher is the one who is going to have to clean up the OP’s daughter’s mess at the end of the day.
It may also be a little shortsighted of the OP: if the home daycare teacher doesn’t like her, she could very quickly drop her daughter from her class.
The Redditor’s Divide
Reddit users were split on this mother’s story. They couldn’t decide if she’d acted inappropriately by removing her child from the daycare without the teacher’s approval.
One Redditor commented: “I’ve worked in highly regarded licensed facilities for a long time. This is standard practice. If you have problems sticking to your own schedule that is not her problem.
It’s also likely she has a waitlist and can absolutely (and should) replace your spot since you seem to have this idea of “it’s her job.” I wouldn’t deal with you, nor would my administration.
You get two warnings for disrespectful behavior or policy violations then you’re out.”
What do you think about this story? Do you think the daycare teacher has a right to be annoyed, or was the mom in the wrong?
His Mom Kidnapped His Kids and Then Tried to Claim She Didn’t Realize It Was Against the Rules!
Heartbroken Mom Decided to Get Her Revenge on Her Ex Who Had an Emotional Affair
The post Shocking Text to a Busy Mom From a VERY Judgy Daycare Assistant first appeared on The Net Worth Of.
Featured Image Credit: Shutterstock / Cookie Studio. The people shown in the images are for illustrative purposes only, not the actual people featured in the story.
Source: Reddit