Being a parent is hard work. Nobody is arguing otherwise. However, being a parent also entails an understanding that everyone else who has to deal with your kid has an equally difficult task. This is besides having to deal with the parent too.
So, when it comes to having an issue with someone else’s equally difficult job of caring for your kid, you gotta ask yourself several questions before going on the offensive. Especially if these issues are over LEGOs and stickers that were brought to preschool and never again seen.
Preschool teachers have to deal with more than just kids all day—it’s the parents too that can cause shenanigans
Image credits: Ksenia Chernaya (not the actual photo)
And sometimes, these shenanigans can lead to the preschool teacher leaving notes that the parents might not like
Image credits: Thgusstavo Santana (not the actual photo)
Image credits: Yan Krukau (not the actual photo)
Image credits: preschoolsign
Image credits: Felipe Cespedes (not the actual photo)
After having talked to the teacher, the principal, and her husband with zero results, the woman asked folks online for some perspective
The story goes that this one mother of a 3-year-old girl has been having issues with her daughter’s stuff getting lost in preschool. Previously, it was jackets that some other kid simply went home with that took a week to return. This time, however, it was toys.
The mom ended up having to forbid any toy-taking after two particular things went missing: a LEGO creation set and a sticker. Both times, the mom claims that the teacher was rude after being asked to go look for them.
But the straw that broke the camel’s back was when notices appeared, written by the teacher, essentially asking parents to label their kids’ stuff and asking parents to let kids stay at home if they are showing signs of sickness. Both were written in a bit of a rude and snarky manner.
When the mom went down to talk to the principal about all of this, she was essentially ignored. What’s worse, the woman’s husband thought she was overreacting, which in turn prompted her to post her predicament to Reddit.
Image credits: Max Fischer (not the actual photo)
Despite the preschool teacher’s snarky approach, folks online were on the teacher’s side with this one
Yes, the teacher was rude, at least according to OP with how she responded. But, in all fairness, if the kid mixed in her LEGOs with the preschool’s set, there is no way to find out what pieces belonged to whom at this point. As for the sticker—the kid might be upset about it, but a sticker is not worth someone’s sanity at this point. At least, these were the main arguments.
And folks online, having read the story, sided with the teacher. Not only did the commenters find the teacher’s arguments reasonable, they also thought that the mom should have known better than to expect things to return, let alone in one piece.
They pushed for the idea to learn from this experience: to learn to say no to the daughter about taking anything that she holds dear and of value to school. Some pointed out that the world doesn’t revolve around her daughter, and putting pressure on teachers and expecting them to keep track of 12 kids and their mischief is definitely overreacting.
Image credits: Yan Krukau (not the actual photo)
Teachers being rude, while not a good thing, can be excused when considering their line of work in perspective
In context, preschool teachers are people too—they have the same feelings, emotions, and levels of tolerance just like anyone else. Being exhausted and hence snarky is a natural reaction coming from this.
Penn Foster Career School gave a detailed account of what it means to be a preschool teacher, and, suffice to say, it’s anything but easy. For starters, it’s physically demanding as every day entails 8 hours of very active work, running around, picking kids up, what have you.
And this is on good days. Kids might not always be happy and fun every day because they are living their own lives too, going through the motions same as anyone. And if that happens, watch out for that stray blob of paint coming your way as it can get messy.
Sure, preschool teachers make a huge difference in the world, but it comes with its own emotional baggage of missing the kids you taught when they grow up. Pair that with the average 30K annual salary, with California peaking at 42K, and you can now understand why some teachers are a tad bit bitter over being asked to look for a sticker.
But enough about that. More about you now: what are your thoughts on any of this? Do you side with the teacher, or is it the mom that you’d defend? Share your takes and stories in the comment section below!
The comment section was ruthless, saying that the mom had overreacted and there was no two ways about it
