Daycare Drama

Okay, some of you may be a bit confused about the babbling I've been doing about the daycare I used to work at. Techincally I worked at two different daycares, so I'm sure that may be where some of the confusion came in. If you'd like to hear the story, please read on!

I had 5 years of experience as a toddler teacher (and later lead toddler teacher) at a daycare center that I worked at when the kids were younger in MN. I started there when my son had just become a toddler. My mom could no longer watch him because of her breast cancer and she needed time off to recover.

I left that daycare right after my daughter turned two. I was tired of working full time for so little pay and still had my MN teacher's license, so I became a substitute teacher working part time for about the same pay. I was a substitute teacher for about 3 years in MN before we uprooted our family and moved hundreds of miles away.

When we moved to WI, I immediately applied for my WI teaching license. My husband was transferred within his business. We were assured by several realtors that our home was immacutlately beautiful and would sell easily. They told us the most it should take to sell would be about 3 months and we should feel free to buy a house. Even the banks concurred. Feeling sufficiently assured by all parties involved (as well as those who wished they had been involved) we set out to buy a house.

We thought that only moving the kids once would be the best option, so we bought a house that we could move into before we closed on it. It took our wonderful realtor a bit of work, but we eventually found a great two bedroom home that the buyer would let us move into prior to close. It was our fourth choice because we actually wanted more bedrooms, but it was a nice home and it didn't seem to need much work so we jumped in with both feet.

Our closing was half way through September of 2006 so we could push the payments off for a couple of more months. Our first payment on our new house wouldn't be due until November 1. I wanted to further secure our financial stability, so I decided to search for a job.

On September 9 I called a daycare that had run an ad for a full time infant-toddler teacher for the unheard of rate of $10 an hour. I went in the next day and filled out my application and walked out with the job. I started on the next day with orientation. I was SO excited! This was surely the answer to all of our prayers. Now I could put aside every penny I earned to keep us current with our house payments until our house sold.

I started orientation and got introduced to everyone. They all seemed so nice and enjoyed spending time chatting with each other even when they weren't on the clock, they were a tight knit group. Little did I know that would end up being my downfall. We discussed things I had done at my old daycare and they seemed to think that my ideas were great, they gushed on and I felt like they were happy to have me there. We were going to redecorate the room and make lesson plans to do with the older babies. It was going to be SO much fun. We could talk about just about anything and I felt like we were becoming fast friends. I guess appearances can be deceiving was one of the lessons I walked away from this situation with.

Apparently someone who was attending school to be a daycare worker was gunning for my job. She worked in the center for 2 years before I came along and was apparently the one left in charge when our boss wasn't there. She was shifted into the toddler room on an almost daily basis instead of being with the older infants that I was supposed to be in charge of. She became upset by this and started making waves.

I don't know why she didn't feel she could talk to me about any problems she had with changes I was making or why she didn't feel that she could ask our boss if I could take turns going to the toddler room. She went to the boss with lots of little issues that really weren't issues at all, I think she just wanted to have something to get me in trouble with. Most of the time I wasn't even aware of who was making these complaints/accusations.

I didn't usually have to start work after 7:30 in the morning and only worked until 3:00 in the afternoon. This was planned so I wouldn't have to shell out any money for anyone to watch my kids, my boss identified with me since she was a single mother. She was fortunate enough to have her retired mother living nearby to care for her daughter. I guess the childless employees didn't like the flexibility I had with my schedule, so I was often the subject of most complaints about how the room was run. I guess I never realized the extent of these complaints though, especially from one woman in particular. Maybe I was naive and really thought I was their friend, blind and way too nice, but I liked my job and the kids were adorable and sweet. My boss was great, very understanding and easy to talk to.

Shortly before Christmas, our daycare moved across town. That's when the trouble really started. Our boss was in another building and had to take the word of the people I worked with when it came to their "problems" with me. This complaining lady had another new issue with me too. I guess she didn't like the fact that I didn't come to work early and just showed up when I was supposed to get there. Oh, did I mention the clock she looked at was ahead of real time by about 3 minutes? She figured I was late every day even though all other clocks said I was right on time. She teamed up with the other person I worked with and they told her I didn't do my fair share of work either. Even though I changed more than my share of diapers, I always took the older kids outside, cleaned up both the kids and the dishes after lunch, and did all of the paperwork it was never enough. Apparently that wasn't enough for them though since I didn't make the meals.

I just got sick and tired of it and quit, I mean the housing problem was mostly covered by then because Cheesehead's friend got a promotion and job transfer to our old neck of the woods so he would live in the basement of our old house and Mom would continue living upstairs.

I was tired of being pulled into the bosses' office about their constant petty complaints and I get the feeling my boss was too. I cried during that last meeting, it took me a long time to compose myself so I wouldn't leave the building in tears. I didn't really want to quit, but I just couldn't take it any more and our finances looked solid.

After Christmas I put my name on the district sub list and that's where I've been working ever since.

Any questions? Maybe I confused you now more than ever, I do tend to babble at times.

Thank you for stopping by. Please leave me a message and a backlink. I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Cindy