Woman Reports Daycare After Learning They ‘Physically Force’ Her 2-Year-Old To Nap
"I am so disturbed and saddened."
BGStock72 / CanvaPro Parents give their children’s teachers and daycare workers an incredible amount of trust — especially given the amount of time that their kids spend outside of the home.
One parent on Reddit was forced to come to terms with a breach of this trust after realizing the relationship between her daycare teacher and her child was far from healthy. Asking the “ECE Professionals” forum on Reddit for advice, she revealed the inappropriate way a teacher “forced” her 2-year-old to take a nap.
The mom was quick to report her 2-year-old child’s daycare after learning the teacher physically forced her toddler to take a nap.
“My kid cries themselves to sleep.”
After trusting in the same daycare facility for over a year, this mother was shocked to learn that her child wasn’t being taken care of in the way she’d assumed. After dropping off their 2-year-old on a typical Friday, a call from a teacher at the daycare center made her stomach churn.
Photo: PeopleImages / CanvaPro
“My kid’s actual teacher takes a break during nap time but came back early on Friday and witnessed this whole thing. She immediately put her notice in and called me.”
When her child’s teacher re-entered the classroom, to the shock of this other worker, she caught them “physically forcing” this child to take a nap. With a swaddle and her legs, she was holding down the toddler, forcing them to sleep while the child cried out.
Another teacher witnessed this daycare worker swaddling the 2-year-old and then using their legs to hold them down.
“I am so disturbed and saddened,” the mom wrote in her post. “This place seemed wonderful, and we’ve been here for over a year. Obviously, not everything is as it seems.”
Getting a call from a teacher, who later gave notice to quit, seemed like the first red flag for this family. “I get the feeling the director is aware of this practice,” she wrote. “That whole situation is weird in itself because my teacher told me, not the director.”
Not only is this teacher’s behavior completely appalling, but it has the potential to have long-lasting harmful effects on this young child. This is especially true considering that experts assert the relationship between teachers and young children is foundational to the way they grow in their most impressionable years.
So, while it seems like this daycare director isn’t necessarily concerned enough to speak with these parents, they are clearly upset enough to escalate it further. With the support of other parents and comments on the post, they made sure to let everyone know they’d be reporting the daycare to “state and regional licensing” boards.
After immediately pulling her child out of the daycare, the mom reported the facility.
“As a teacher, I get it. Nap time is our only reprieve. We are understaffed, tired, and the ratios are too high,” one commenter wrote. “However, restraining a child is not okay … I’d also say the teacher doing it knows they’re wrong if the old teacher didn’t catch it until now.”
Many other commenters shared their own experiences with bad teachers and compromising situations they’d been notified of at their children's daycares. Not only are their experiences disheartening, but they illuminate a sad reality that many teachers are overworked, stressed, and sometimes completely unqualified for handling tumultuous situations.
There are no excuses for this teacher — no child deserves this kind of treatment — but it is important to recognize the stressful nature of the current educational landscape and the support many professionals greatly need and deserve.
Zayda Slabbekoorn is a news and entertainment writer at YourTango focusing on pop culture analysis and human interest stories.