Daycare Teacher Is Concerned About Helping A Sick Child, But Her Supervisor Thinks Ratios Are More Important
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Imagine working at a daycare. There are rules for daycares where there have to be a certain number of teachers per a certain number of children. Would you be more concerned about keeping to these exact ratios or about helping the children in your care?
In this story, one teacher is more concerned about helping the children, but her supervisor seems to think that ratios are the only thing that matter.
Who’s right and who’s wrong? I think the supervisor is wrong. Keep reading to see if you agree.
WIBTA for reporting my supervisor?
for some context, I work as a daycare teacher part time and where I live, the ratio is 1 educator to 8 preschoolers.
This past Thursday, I had just gotten to work and it was around 3:45 pm. I was on one side of the yard, guarding a bridge that lead to the other side of the yard, where two of our children were testing boundaries.
I was called over by my coworker, and she told me that one of the children told her that she wasn’t feeling well.
She did some counting before helping the child.
I looked at the child, and she was very pale, crying, and overall looked sick to her stomach.
I thought she was going to be sick, so I turned around to count how many children there were to see how many children I needed to take with me.
When my coworker told me we had 11, so I only needed to take 3.
I grabbed the closest two, and took the three of them inside.
Did she count wrong?
As I opened the door, a parent arrived for pickup.
While I was waiting for the child as she used the rest room , my supervisor asked how many kids I had and I told her three.
She then ran back outside and told my coworker to count again.
I didn’t think much of it because ratio was constantly broke at my other job, and it was never a big deal.
I’m not sure the supervisor has her priorities straight.
My supervisor came in the room a minute or so later and told me that we broke ratio and I needed to count next time.
I explained to her how my coworker told me I only needed to take three, and my main concern was the possibly sick child.
She told me that ratio’s were more important than a child getting sick, and then left.
The issue came up again later.
Later that night, I was walking back from the front door after bringing a child to their parents and she was talking to my coworker about it.
She said that she contacted our bosses and explained what happened from her perspective only, and they told her it wasn’t that big of a deal, and it wasn’t a serious occurrence.
I re-explained what happened from my perspective, and that I didn’t want to create a biohazard on the yard, especially when we had an Autistic child in our care that would definitely play in it (they’d done it before).
And I was told I should have let the child get sick on her self and in front of everyone else because, once again, ratio’s are more important than a sick child.
Now, the supervisor is gossiping.
The next day, however, I came in around 1 to cover lunch breaks because we were short staffed.
When the coworker I worked with the day before came back from her break, she told me that the supervisor had gone around gossiping about what happened to everyone else.
Thankfully, everyone was on our side, but it still hurt.
Her coworker brought up another concern.
Later that night, we were closing the centre together again, we were talking about how unfair it was, and my coworker told me that she had brought up concerns about the two children pushing boundaries and she brushed it off and said that she cared more about ratios than out of control children.
Since she’s told me that, I’ve considered emailing our bosses with our sides of the story and reporting her.
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So, would I be the AH for reporting her?
Yes, I think she should report her supervisor. Her supervisor is way too concerned about ratios. Maybe they’re important but not more important than sick children and unruly children. I think the bosses would agree.
Let’s see how Reddit responded.
This person is on OP’s side.
Here’s another vote for reporting the supervisor.
This person thinks OP is overreacting.
If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a lifeguard who saves a child only to be confronted by parents angry about the paperwork.
Here’s the parent perspective.
She should definitely report her supervisor to the bosses. The bosses may brush it off, but it wouldn’t hurt to at least check in with them about which is more important, helping the children or having the ratios right.
Her supervisor needs to get her priorities straight.
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