Wednesday, January 22, 2014

parents

Sometimes parents are hard to deal with. Sometimes they even make a person uncomfortable. At the second center I worked at there was a dad who made the staff uncomfortable. He would rub up against the staff members as he walked by them, touch them inappropriately, walked around with his chest out like he was 'the man,' etc. One day he had come in to pick his child up. His child had a fever and I had called to let the parents know and ask them to come pick her up. Since dad worked closest to the center he came to pick her up. As I was telling him about her morning he kept advancing on me. I would step back and he would move forward. I finally asked him to please stay where he was because he was making me uncomfortable. He "apologized" and tried to blow it off.

Right after this my co-teacher who was outside with her primary children while I was inside doing the activity for the day opened the door and asked if we were ready for them to come in. The children were getting cold. I told her to go ahead and come inside and looked at her like 'please hurry.' Once the dad had left she asked me what happened and I told her. I then called up front and asked the director to come back to the room and told her. She was very exasperated and said, "I'm getting tired of this guy." By now she had had months of us complaining about him. Two or three days later when I walked into work he was in the office with the director. Later she came in and informed all of us that she had just given the family a two week notice to find new child care. The child was actually only there for about another week before she was gone.

FYI to parents- sometimes your behavior makes the staff really uncomfortable. By the way the staff are sometimes married and even if they aren't you are. We've met the wife!!

Friday, January 17, 2014

funny question

Parents can be so funny. I had a parent ask once if the reason their child had a fever could be caused by them not getting enough milk. No seriously, the parent asked this...

The child was not feeling well that morning. He had been cranky, crabby and clingy and he wouldn't play. I felt his forward and sure enough it was hot. I took his temperature and he had a fever of 102. I called the mom and told her and told her someone needed to pick him up within the hour if possible. When the mom came to pick the child up I was settling the other children down for their nap. Usually if you're the primary care giver of the child you're the one who talks to the parents as well at the end of the day etc. However, because I was busy the mom went to my co-teacher who had just finished changing a diaper.

Anyway, the mom went over to my co-teacher and she was telling the mom how the child had been cranky and crabby all morning, how he didn't eat anything etc. The usual things that trigger that something is wrong. The mom then asked my co-teacher if the reason the child has a fever could be because he isn't getting enough milk. I was moving to help another child settle down for nap and looked at my co-teacher like 'did she really just ask that?' My co-teacher explained that the fever had nothing to do with the child's intake of milk and that fevers are caused by viruses. The mom kept going on about the child's intake of milk and how she was concerned about the child's intake of milk and kept asking in different ways if the fever was caused by the intake of milk the child was getting. My co-teacher once again told her it had nothing to do with the intake of milk and that the child probably had a virus of some sort and that she needed to take him to the doctor.

When the mom left with the child my co-teacher and I looked at one another unsure of what to say to one another. I said, "I didn't dare look at you again because I saw you were having a hard time and trying not to say things you shouldn't."
She said, "Girl..."

The mom took the child to the doctor and it turned out the child had the common childhood disease called roseola. It is not connected to the intake of milk a child is getting...