*sort of spin off* do you work in child care?

[headoverfeet]

I loved it but I left after 7 years because of the awful pay, I walked into a job I had no experience/skills in and was earning $4 more an hour from the get go. There is a huge demand for child care workers given 180 leave a week due to low wages.

[Mrs Molly Coddle]

From what has been said, it sounds like it would suit me (except for b*tchy women aaahhh help!!!)
Just need to talk DH around I suppose.
Not that I need his permission, but you know, it would be great if he supported me 100%!

[singa06]

Subscribing (just to read comments)

[Mrs Molly Coddle]

180 a week leave? Wow that is terrible
What a shame that childcare workers are not paid what they are worth!

RE casual work in a CC setting. A few years ago, I ran a weekly after school program with primary aged kids in a childcare centre and don't think any of the staff ever even spoke to me! They were very rude. The kids were lovely though and I'd much rather talk to them anyway, but it was definitely awkward and it made me really dread going some days

[jez]

I loved it but I left after 7 years because of the awful pay, I walked into a job I had no experience/skills in and was earning $4 more an hour from the get go. There is a huge demand for child care workers given 180 leave a week due to low wages.

So many families are crying out for Childcare places and wanting the government to make more Childcare places available BUT there is simply no one to staff them. I loved my job as a Childcare director but got so sick of being understaffed, I felt I was constantly recruiting, interviewing and training staff only to have them leave because of the crap pay and emotions of dealing with parents etc. I'm about to start training to teach Childcare courses instead because as much as I love the job it is a very stressful job and when myself and my husband are each running centers ( he is a director too) with a young child of our own it's just not worth the stress.

[Mrs Molly Coddle]

Good luck to you Jez!

[Sariele]

I worked as a group leader in a CCC for 3-5 year olds. I only lasted 5 months, I hated it. The kids were feral, the paperwork and programming completely ridiculous (and none of it was implemented anyway; I used to spend my evenings and weekends doing paperwork related to fictional "observations", learning outcomes, and programming activites, and it was all for nothing), the director was a control freak who never had anything good to say about anything you did, and at least half of the other carers were cliquey, b*tchy and backstabbing. I found that far too much is expected of you and you are constantly sick and stressed, and the protocols and procedures you need to follow just make you want to scream sometimes.

And the pay is crapola, but I actually took a $3 p.h. pay cut to get the job that allowed me to quit childcare, that's how badly I wanted out.


Just my experience, but obviously I just wasn't suited to it. Plus the job was making me start to hate kids, which is really bad for someone who wants their own so badly. So I had to get out of there before I became 100% jaded.

[Mrs Molly Coddle]

Thank you so much sariele for your comments. I'm sorry for your cr@ppy experience, but I really do appreciate a different point of view.

[~Marigold~]

I worked at a childcare centre..I got about $19 an hour as a casual. The work is hard, and all the women do is either talk sh!t about each other behind each others backs or ignored me completely! I found it very frustrating. I could just have been unlucky though and gotten a crap bunch of women to work with

Sounds like you worked at the same daycare centre as me! On my first day of placement (I wasn't employed, just doing placement there to complete my cert 111) not a single person spoke to me. I thought, how can EVERY woman here be so snobby, cold and oblivious? I guess it was because I was "just the student", but it was torture.. I totally did not know what to do with myself (or what I was allowed to do) and just stood there like an idiot for the first hour until a gorgeous little 2 year old cherub girl toddled up and grabbed my hand and lead me away to play. Well, from that moment, my mood lifted and I remembered why I'd chosen child care as my career- it's the kids. No matter how low or bad I felt around the other staff who all seemed to ignore me for the first week or so, I'd go into work, unpaid for 8 a day (as a requirement for my cert) and just immerse myself in the lives of those gorgeous babies and children. That's what does it for me, the interaction and love I had for those kids. Without it, the job's not for you.There are tantrums, endless illness (I was sickly the entire time after having been sneeezed on, coughed at etc.. they all always seem to have a cold/infection or virus of some sort) nappies, cleaning, screaming, crying.. but for me the good times outweighed the bad.

Just find a good centre with decent staff.. you will be working very closely with them and you have to get along or you'll end up miserable and the whole experience will be tainted.

[babybumblebee]

If its possible maybe look at doing Family day care that way you can follow your passion for caring for and educating children, still be home for your own kids and set your own pay, hours and some of your own policies too

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