Older Children in Infant Room - Is this appropriate?

[Anonymous]

Hi, we are really happy overall with our daycare and the teachers in the infant room, where my 6 month old attends. She's been going since she was 12 weeks old. I've noticed something that really bothers me, though, and I'm wondering if this is appropriate behavior. In the mornings, there are frequently older children who "stop by" to visit the infant room teacher. Sometimes the parents are in the room (I guess as part of dropping them off), but sometimes they're not. I'm finding it really disruptive. I'm trying to drop my baby off and ensure a smooth transition and convey any necessary information to the teacher and these older children are running around, trying to "say hi" to the babies and the teacher, the parents are in the room and chatting, etc. It feels very chaotic.

Also, the teachers in the infant room typically don't wear shoes or are wearing little booties to cover their shoes to keep the area safe. This morning the 3 year old just gets lets in the room and he's running around the babies!

Another time I was the first person to drop my baby off one morning and there was a (different) 2-3 year old hanging out with the teacher, and I had to wait until the right teacher picked up the older child before I could drop off my baby.

I understand that these older kids have grown up at the center and miss their old teachers, but I think the teachers should be responsible only for the room they're assigned (in this case, infant room) and need to tell these parents to stop "dropping by" with their 3 year olds.

I did call and speak with the director and mentioned my concerns, which she said would be addressed. We're obviously new to all of this though, and so I wanted to gauge what other parents think.

[Anonymous]

I am a director of a childcare center. I think both things could be accomplished - but it needs to be addressed.

1. all older children entering the classroom should take their shoes off. This is older siblings, this is visiting kids from other rooms. Period. The reason teachers and parents wear booties or socks/no shoes is to keep dirt and pebbles and everything else off the floor where babies are crawling, picking up anything they see, etc. Since older kids' shoes are also dirty, have mud on them, wet in rain, etc. , they need to have shoes off too. So our rule was "you can come in, but you have to take off your shoes" (because booties don't fit kids and are too unsafe, they'll trip). That often discouraged parents from this, because it was such a pain to take off their kids' shoes, and that was fine.

2. If they want to visit, they need to be respectful and safe around the babies. So they can WALK in, say hi, perhaps sit on the floor for a minute, but there should be NO running, jumping, etc. Seriously. It's for the safety of the babies, and also you can't have kids sliding, running and swinging without shoes on - they'll fall, which won't hurt them but they'll topple over a baby - even if it doesn't hurt the baby, it will startle the baby and they'll start off the day crying. No fun.

3. Finally, if the reason the older kids are in the infant room in the morning is because there aren't enough staff in the toddler/preschool rooms, this needs to be addressed immediately. Occasionally we had to combine all of our children together in the early morning (first 30 minutes of opening) but the older kids were to sit down and read books.... and this wasn't the rule, it was only if too many people were out sick/late. The plan in general should be that the older rooms are open in the morning, even if it's a combination Twos/Preschool group in one room.

So I'd tell the director your concerns (via phone or in person) and ask whether some of these ideas would work.

[Anonymous]

My daycare center is the same as well. I do think they combine both infant and toddler rooms in the money to save $$.