The Crazy Rants of Samantha Burns

Child care systems such as daycares, after school centres, and school systems can be quite the same at times. Anywhere you have children, you seem to have adults griping about them. A Kindergarten child that I care for had a tough start at the beginning of the school year: he was hitting, running with scissors, pinching, and just about any other scary thing you can think of in a classroom situation. He was not diagnosed with any disorder; his issue was having a lack of social contact, and not to mention all of the major changes in his life right at the start of the school year. His mom moved into a new house, his dad moved into a new house, his nanny at the same time quit, and I entered their lives.

Talk about stress!

Anyhow, the point I'm trying to get to is that his teacher had no problem complaining about him to me right in front of the child. I often had to ask him to go play so that he wouldn't have to continue listening to what he did wrong that day from a teacher whom he looked up to.

It's important for a child to know that what s/he did was wrong, like punching if that's the problem de jour, but dwelling on it can have a negative effect on a child.

All I needed to know was that something happened and not hear about the problem repeatedly. After a while, I was so sick of hearing the griping about what he did wrong, that I stopped getting him at the top of the hill where the kids were let out from school, and I waited for him to come down the hill to me. The teacher didn't complain so much once I started doing that and only called me up to talk with her if there was a serious problem that day.

Yes, child care and teaching are challenging occupations - I should know - but adults need to know that children have ears, emotions, and brains. As www.dirtyolive.net writes to parents, "the child can hear and internalize everything you say - from a younger age than you might think." They know what their mentors are saying about them. Sometimes, it felt like we were talking about him behind his back in front of him. That's bizarre and a little repulsive... would you get away with that in front of a boss, co-worker, partner, friend, or family member? Children are people, too, and they need the same respect.