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Date: 10/19/2005 3:09:00 PM
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Author:
Terri
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Subject:myths, lies, and fairytales
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Today at my job as a pre-K teacher I helped out the infant teacher for a moment by holding a six week old baby while the teacher went to the bathroom.
What a HUGE responsibility it is to care for an infant! I looked at that baby's face and felt so sad for him. I believe he requires the love and nurturing of a parent or caring family member who will rejoice in every breath he takes. NO daycare environment will ever compare. As soon as the teacher returned she had to put the baby down in order to respond to another infant in the room who was crying. And of course, there were 3 others to care for too! Any parent who thinks that a center with 5 infants per teacher is delivering enough time, body contact, nurturing interaction with their baby is either out of touch with reality or living a lie.
This is not to blame the teacher, who in this case is doing her very best, but this is to blame the concept of institutionalized care for infants in an industry with extremely high turnover, low pay, and absurd infant -teacher ratios that only benefit the pocket$ of the corporate execs.
Five infants, one teacher. Who believes that this is the optimal ratio for the healthy development of an infant??
Do the parents actually believe that once they depart their baby is held constantly? Do they not realize that it is laying there crying while the teacher is diapering/feeding/cleaning up after 4 others?
Do they belive the glossy Center brochures that marketing departments produce? Written by those hwho have never worked a day in a center? Do they accept the ECE"experts" support of daycare for infants because it appears politically correct to agree with the premise of group care and working moms?
Sad Sad Sad
What a lie that our society will be affected by for the next 100 years unless parents and the industry change drastically.
But, the industry is so afraid of criticism, the "experts" so protective of their stale viewpoints, and our society so obsessed with material goods that I dont forsee any significant improvements.
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Date: 10/19/2005 3:45:00 PM
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Author:
bobbiann
(bigddog803@go.com)
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Subject:infant care
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OK, a woman has sextuplets, and an army of colunteers comes to help mom. or five baies. still, a volunteer army. or, mom can just drop them off at day care and a lady will take care of them from 6:30 am till 6 pm at hight, all with NO TV ! doesn't seem to balance out, does it ??
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Date: 4/24/2006 4:02:00 PM
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Author:
Linda
(lam0350@yahoo.com)
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Subject:Infant care
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I was a Nursery Supervisor within a Child Care center, that had a total of 20 children and 4 caregivers plus myself!. We were divided into 3 sections: I had the youngest 4( ages 6 weeks to ? ), then the next age group was in a section with 8 and 2 caregivers, and the next age section was the same ratio, 2 adults with 8 children. I did this for 12 years ,and did have some times when all 4 babies were crying, but you learn to deal with it!
Yes, I can say I had it under control, while you feed one, you have the others around you, and you talk to them, or sing to them, call & repeat their name if they are crying,to reassure them that you are there, and you are attending to another baby.. Let the babies know that you generally care for them, that it is not just a job. It is NOT JUST A JOB! It is a way of life for these babies, and their parents whom need to work! These babies learn to trust you and you give them what they need... the love, the patience, the caring that they need!
Here in Pennsylvania, the ratio is 1 adult for every 4 babies.
I have since left that center, and went to a new center, where again I had 4 infants ages 6 weeks to 12months old, and did handle the caring for all these infants! It does take a special person to do this kind o caring for infants, and if you try it and it doesn't work out for you, speak up, there is always someone willing to work with and have the patience to do this kind of caring!
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Date: 1/3/2007 11:27:00 AM
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Author:
Rudy
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Subject:Ok, Provide a solution for single mother...
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Ok, Provide a solution for single mothers that have to work, or two parent families that have to work. These paretns would love to stay home with their babies and children, but they have bills to pay and food to buy and how do they do that if they stay home with their children???????
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Date: 1/3/2007 3:52:00 PM
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Author:
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Subject:a solution?
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OK, how about a maternity leave package like other European countries. something like $10,000 a yr for 5 yrs for all moms. that way I am not paying taxes so another family making the same as me but gets a day care tax credit. or 'welfare moms' that put their child in Head Start Early Head Start for their baby at nearly $10,000 a yr (paid by us taxpayers)(and they are NOT making more than $8-20,000 a yr) while other moms get garbage for infant care. More mons at home means more infant losts, reducing the need for infant care and pushes out the junk calling themselves teachers.
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Date: 1/5/2007 11:16:00 AM
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Author:
Rudy
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Subject:re:solution
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Where is that funding suppose to come from???? probably tax payers too. IF that issue ever came before congress someone would find a problem with that too. Not all teachers that teach in day care are junk. Do you teach or work with children? The head Start teachers in my school district make more than $20,000 a year. Most of then have Bachelors Degrees and are educated people. You must not have had any experience in working with children and families that are at risk. I have a child in myclass that doesn't have a whole bed . There is a matress on the floor because they can't afford one. Several children sleep there. They also don't have the video games or electronic item that some children have. This family works for what they have. Fortunately there are FREE school programs for them to attend. Have you seen very low, uneducated, families with children? It sure doesn't sound like it. So in the mean time we let all the single parents do what?
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Date: 1/5/2007 4:27:00 PM
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Author:
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Subject:I do work for Head Start. at $18,000 a y...
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I do work for Head Start. at $18,000 a yr , summer's off, 2 yr degree and CDA. And how can someone in a day care center be a professional 'teacher' with very little experience (if any). Day cares in Ohio tend to hire moms or a lady to work with the babies. Babysitting, or raising your own kids count as experience. Some will hire you and just toss you in a class. The 'junk' teachers are well-meaning and believe they are doing a good job, but in truth they actually may be hindering a child's development. I do have kids that have little to nothing and sleep on the floor in a room with a broken window, and then I have other 'poor' kids that have homes filled with XBox, DVD's, grillz, personal TV's in their room, everything but school supplies (they make a mess). Public housing here means alot of 'poor' live better than those that can't get into public housing. It's disgusting. Kids that have Ho-ho's and a can of Pepsi for breakfast bought with food stamps. (they don't like the breakfast we serve). Our agency closed a small on-site center (two classes) in a housing project. why?? we did not provide transportation. really, parents said it was too much to take their child down to the center when they had younger kids in tow. Other centers had buses, why couldn't they get buses. I am talking walking maybe the length of a football field. So much for valuing a free education and two meals free a day. And we had difficulty getting them in for conferences and home visits. Other poor families were gracious, I think it is because they have little, and see Head Start as something that is positive and can help them. And we do try to help families get out of their situation and move on to better choices in life. An area high school has 2/3's of its high school girls with babies. All in day care paid by taxpayers. To pay for maternity benefits, drop alot of this welfare, child care, and housing and use that money to pay all moms. And pay for no more than two kids. Other countries do this, successfully and the cost is about what we already pay in social programs. Welfare is for the destitute. Asian countries pay parents a tax credit for being college educated. It seems here in Ohio we have created a breed of people who say "you owe me". we reward for mistakes (life choices) Many of the teen moms at the school were interviewed, the wanted a baby and mom said that was OK. these are as young as 14! Welfare was once a way to get back on your feet, today, it is a life experience by choice. I do believe some people are in the situation not by choice, and that is what programs are for. but for many here in Ohio (Cleveland NE Ohio, poverty capital of the USA), poor choices are rewarded handsomely. and now Ohio is talking about giving poor Ohioans an Earned Income tax credit like the federal program. So, instead of giving more money to the poor, why not to new moms of any income???
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Date: 1/9/2007 11:03:00 AM
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Author:
Rudy
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Subject:infant child care.
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In Illinois you have to have 18 hrs in child dev to be and assistant, adn a2yr degree to be a teacher. So they can be professional teachers with a 2 yr degree. I work in a state funded pre k classroomwhichis like Head Start but I also have a daycare background. worked for 20 yrs in a day care center. Istayed that long becasue I enjoyed it not for the money, We had a VERY GOOD center for all ages babies included so not all of them have to be bad.
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Date: 10/19/2005 4:14:00 PM
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Author:
Terri
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Subject:the lie
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Yes, that is the lie...that one teacher can provide for 5 infants!
As you said, a woman is on TV for having 5 infants, an army of helpers arrive, the needs of 5 babies are seen as so demanding that many hands are needed , and everyone PRETENDs that in daycare the same type of care is being dispenses with as many helpers!
It is a false sense of peace of mind parents are sold.
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Date: 2/26/2006 6:30:00 AM
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Author:
williamsmummy
(gagadacare@aol.com)
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Subject:infant ratios
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I agree with everything said, even though the ratio is lower in the UK.( one adult = 3 infants) A day nursery is not a normal environment for a baby. If it was it would be the norm for mothers to be like pigs, and drop litters of infants!!
Some parents dont even 'see' the other babies, they dont care about them, they just see the adult in care of their baby. weather this is just a part of blinding themselves from the guilt, or just being unaware of what a child needs, I cant tell.
However, I can say that I loved running the baby department, and have contact with the children and their parents once they left.
The very first baby put in my arms was 8 weeks old, and now he is a strapping 16 yr old.
When i started this work in the late 80's things were magically changed over night, by the introduction of the 1989 childrens act . We had 10 babies and for one and 1/2 hours at each end of the day we only had one member of staff .
I remember many mornings with 10 babies, I changed, gave them their breakfast, and by the time 10.30 came around, most of the babies were having a mid morning nap.
Having had 4 babies of my own since then , I wondered how I did it!!
I prefered to have the devoted clingy parents who question me closely, and demanded certain things for their infants.
I had lots of respect for those parents, and little for the 'dump and run' ones, and i in turn became the demanding nursery nurse, ringing them at work and insisiting on things changing.
For those parents, i wrote the date and time on the infants nappies before they went home.
I made careful note if the child arrived the next morning in the same nappy.
I still feel steam coming out of my ears thinking about it!!
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Date: 4/25/2006 6:17:00 AM
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Author:
Dari Miller
(dariqueen7@hotmail.com)
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Subject:Our ratio here is 4 infants per teacher,...
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Our ratio here is 4 infants per teacher, but we try to bring in someone extra to help if we have 2 or more, just to give more extra care for them. We also don't accept babies under 3 months old.
And I agree with you, I hate the ones who are just dumped off. We are currently taking care of one baby (started at about 14 weeks old) 2 or 3 afternoons a week, when his mom drops him off, she goes home and does nothing. (yes, I know this for a fact, we are a small town). There are some moms who actually call to check on their babies, to find out if they ate, etc. It's annoying if we're busy, but it's better than the ones who don't seem to care.
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Date: 4/24/2006 7:19:00 PM
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Author:
bobbiann
(bigddog803@go.com)
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Subject:caregivers
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it's sad to read the US Dept of Labor reports that state the great need for early childhood teachers, who should expect pay in the $12-$18,000 pay range a year with few if any benefits. We trust people who will affect the forming life of the next generation with so little pay and respect. as I said in other posts, 75% of babies are receiving minimal care to very poor care. this effects future learning, especially in language and behavior.
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Date: 4/25/2006 1:57:00 PM
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Author:
bobbiann
(bigddog803@go.com)
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Subject:baby dumping
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I'm sure some 'baby dumpers' think this early care will benefit their child. oh, how wrong they are. or, they may think, $100 to pay someone to watch my baby, or deal with all that fussiness myself.
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Date: 6/6/2006 11:32:00 AM
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Author:
Linda
(t0good@webtv.net)
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Subject:ratio in family child care
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I'm a New York State registered childcare. According to reulations I can NEVER have more than 2 children under the age of 2 here. They say it's because if I have to evacuate the building, I can only hold two infants at the same time. (With the two little ones I'd also be allowed 4 children 2 years - 4 years.
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