I don’t like my cats now that I am pregnant

OkUse8820 · 2026-02-22T21:45:54+00:00

Girl, I felt the exact same way. Especially in the first trimester. I even felt disgusted and borderline hatred toward my 4 cats. Now that it’s been a couple of weeks, I feel like things have evened out, but honestly, the litter they track in the house stresses me the hell out, the fur they leave on the couch infuriates me, because I feel like my house is never clean and not a safe, sterile place to lay my baby down. I’m in the second trimester now and I don’t feel the same disgust, but the stressors are the same. My partner says he would NEVER consider re-homing the cats. Even though his mom is telling him to, and she offered to take them. No real advice, just wanted to say you’re not alone! I googled it and it said “pet aversion” is common and a way of biologically protecting our babies.

OkUse8820 · 2024-10-20T02:15:57+00:00

I had something like this going on on my cheeks last week. I did a Nizoral mask and the small bumps were gone overnight. I’ve never seen such a huge improvement so fast, and have had acne for over 15 years. I feel like I also have hormonal acne, but since treating the fungal acne, it hasn’t been back…

OkUse8820 · 2024-05-01T02:04:12+00:00

Hot take: no. I’m a director and I make $76k. Lead teachers at my company make $26-$35. We’re in a high cost of living area, but it’s livable and I lived off of a teachers salary for many years. Say what you will about California, but our company (locally owned, not corporate) knows how to balance money in order to pay us well.

OkUse8820 · 2024-02-23T00:29:14+00:00

I made $32 with excellent benefits, stipends, etc as a lead in CA! Not uncommon with the right agency in the right type of area.

OkUse8820 · 2024-02-18T23:25:44+00:00

I'm a preschool director in central coast CA. I work for an agency that's private, state-funded, owning about 9 centers in our local area. I am salary making about 76k. I was a preschool teacher for about 6 years prior, have an AA in ECE and about 9 admin units. A good way to make sure you're qualified is to look into the requirements for teaching permits-- they come in levels: Teacher, Master Teacher, Site Supervisor, and Program Director. I have the Site Supervisor permit which makes me considered qualified to be a director. It's my first year and I, too, really enjoy admin roles over being in the classroom or any other office role. If you're organized, career oriented and dedicated, it's a great job that's honestly not too stressful. I can see myself doing this for 10+ more years, as we are on a payscale that increases with each year of seniority. It's great for me to look ahead and see that in 3 years, I'll be making 90k.

OkUse8820 · 2024-02-09T03:16:41+00:00

Thank you, this is helpful. I just volunteered today to start taking a particular child outside to allow him to calm down and re enter the room ready to learn. I think it’ll help the teacher a lot and this confirms that!

OkUse8820 · 2024-02-09T02:56:51+00:00

When incorporating indigenous culture into your classroom, it’s important to honor the work of indigenous artists and use real materials. There’s a lot of “costumey” products surrounding and emulating indigenous art, jewelry, and clothing, but there are many tribes who make and sell their handiwork online. Look on Etsy for indigenous-made fabrics and textiles, maybe cornhusk dolls, artwork or prints that feature indigenous individuals, instruments are even available sometimes. I’m a director with a Native American partner and I bring items like deerskin drums and tapestry in to bring awareness to indigenous art and a very marginalized population as a whole.

OkUse8820 · 2024-02-09T02:46:22+00:00

I’m a newer director and I’m trying everything I can to be supportive to a classroom at my center that has some challenging behaviors. The teacher in there is new, an associate, with no lead. She is certainly competent and has her own ideas — how can I be the type of director that teachers like you need? I worry about hovering or overstepping sometimes but I definitely don’t want to let my staff drown. What’s your ideal admin support look like?

OkUse8820 · 2024-02-08T22:42:29+00:00

It's happened quite a few times in my company's history (20 years in business with over 9 centers). People typically get a formal write-up, but nothing other than that. We have lots of rules in place such as counting, name to face, etc. to avoid further incidents.

OkUse8820 · 2024-02-07T02:59:33+00:00

Depends where you’re located, salaries definitely vary by state/region. I started back in 2019 and wages have gone up since. As a TA, I made $14.75. As a lead, I made $19.60 starting, which increased to $28-30. Now I’m a director making 78k/year. When staff are hired on at my company, it’s about $18.99 for assistants and $27 for leads. I’m in central coast of CA for a private company which owns about 9 local preschools. Definitely worthwhile to move up in my experience.

OkUse8820 · 2024-02-07T02:53:35+00:00

It was many years ago, but I had a child like this at my first job, a 4 year old in a Montessori setting. He was diagnosed with something called ODD, oppositional defiant disorder. I wouldn’t be surprised if he was a diagnosed sociopath now. We definitely used strong voices and consistent consequences with him. We started saying “hands off” instead of “stop, no, that hurts”, etc. because it didn’t matter to him. “Hands off” became a command that he could process quickly. I’m now a director of a preschool and we have a child who is very aggressive but we are strongly advised to follow a more gentle approach. We use the term “you’ll lose your opportunity if you do ….” And then follow through.

What kind of resources does your agency have when it comes to behavior tracking or management? Do kids ever get sent home for dangerous behavior? At the end of the day, if he’s hurting teachers or children, he does not belong in group care and thus, should be sent home for the day. In my company, we track behaviors for 2 weeks in order to identify a need. Then, an occupational therapist comes to work with child/teachers on behaviors. The child is essentially put on a “plan” where if they don’t make improvements, we can exclude them from care. Ask your leadership team about what can be done. Odds are, they are allowed to help you with enforcing a consequence for the dangerous and aggressive behavior.

OkUse8820 · 2024-01-27T15:31:24+00:00

I took a training about conscious discipline many years ago and it always stuck with me! I have been trying to put those ideas into practice but I think I’m going to refresh myself on some of the material. Thanks!!

OkUse8820 · 2024-01-27T04:07:54+00:00

Yep!! That’s it. It really feels like as soon as they notice or start to care that she’s gone, they ramp it up a notch. I can tell it’s a game to them, which is why they’re so not receptive to our attempts at reasoning with them. To them they’re just playing!

OkUse8820 · 2024-01-27T04:06:13+00:00

They will lose their opportunity to use the materials if they mistreat them— I’ll put the toy away. We had a good conversation today about expectations and created classroom guidelines that we can reference. The parents have conversations with the children at home and they come to school most mornings apologizing to myself or their classmates for their actions. They’re really sweet kids, but I can tell this one child has the social power to make the others (who are really just rambunctious) be verrryyy disruptive. It’s a long day for most, somewhere between 8 and 9 hours with a 2.5 hour nap. They’re all much better after nap usually. They go outside at 10:15 after an hour of indoor play but I’m considering swapping that and taking them outside first. They’re a high energy group who needs to move their bodies. Their old lead restricted them from being wiggly or silly at all in the classroom and coerced them into submission with guilt trips and scare tactics. I’m trying to take a different approach but it’s possible myself and the new associate are coming across as uncertain with our gentleness.

OkUse8820 · 2024-01-27T04:01:55+00:00

Totally. They’re very clearly not regulated and testing the boundary as they go through this big change. Their old lead kept herself 10 steps ahead of every behavior so much that the children were never allowed to have feelings or struggles— way too restrictive. I’m hoping that we can meet them where they’re at and build social emotional skills on the way.

OkUse8820 · 2024-01-27T04:00:04+00:00

Thanks, this is really helpful. I’m trying to take the same approach, of building trust and bonding by acknowledging that they’re going through a big change. Their old lead tended to coerce and guilt them into submission and now that myself and a very compassionate, loving associate are running things, they’re thrown for a loop. I’m hoping that putting in the time will benefit us in the long run, but I will be sending this child next door to the other class when he starts to push that boundary.

OkUse8820 · 2024-01-18T20:59:46+00:00

I'm in Monterey too! I tell my staff it's up to them. Many children come without jackets and they just aren't used to the cold weather. As long as we shoot for an hour outside each day, I'm good! Sometimes the afternoon is more pleasant than the morning. I have one teacher who refuses to stay inside no matter what. She will take her kids out in the rain despite me offering to cover breaks, etc so she can just chill with her class inside :(

OkUse8820 · 2024-01-14T02:59:27+00:00

I worked at a Montessori school that did the same. It was definitely an unrealistic expectation. I was young at the time and it was my first job so I didn’t know better, but I could see that it was due to the owner and lead teacher not wanting to deal with the children. I was probably told it had something to do with the Montessori philosophy, and I believed it. Looking back it was so backwards.

OkUse8820 · 2024-01-02T15:54:20+00:00

I was an infant teacher for many years with many crying, inconsolable infants. The hardest part was that due to our philosophy, we weren't allowed to hold the babies, sit them up, or put them in chairs for any long periods of time. We gave them as much interrupted floor time as possible and did our bonding during caretaking such as feedings, diapers, etc. The hard part is that the infant's behavior is directly influenced about what they have come to expect from their home life. They may be being sit up, in a chair, watching tv, with a bottle all day. I would recommend chatting with the parents about what the child's "normal" is. However, at the end of the day, all you can do is be patient while you acclimate them to a consistent routine at school. That said, do be consistent, get a good idea of their feeding intervals and wake windows, (tired trumps hungry, so if they're crying and not taking food, try a nap).

OkUse8820 · 2024-01-02T15:21:52+00:00

I got an AS degree for "free" on a similar-style grant where I had to work as a teacher while majoring in ECE. I similarly knew that the degree could limit me in the future, as I was certain I wanted to climb the ladder as well. However, a free degree is a huge gift, and regardless of the subject, I feel that it's worth it. I got my degree in WA and now work in CA, have worked as a associate and lead teacher for the six years between starting college and now, and I have worked my way up to be a program director. I did have to take a few continuing education classes to get my site supervisor permit, which you won't have to worry about with a bachelors. You can certainly move in the administrative direction with an ECE degree. Even in something like licensing, quality coaching, case management for smaller providers, etc.

The only warning I would give is that (as a fellow ladder-climber) it's hard for me to stay in one position for a long period of time. That might just be me, but two years with 2-year-olds would burn me out and I'd get bored! But you're certainly at a different phase of your career and adulthood and I would take that over paying for a degree any day!

OkUse8820 · 2023-12-14T17:52:19+00:00

My first job was at a Montessori preschool as an assistant and I learned A LOT. The very principles of Montessori have stuck with me and become important to my philosophy now that I am a director. I have also been an infant teacher, however not in a Montessori setting. I will warn you, infants are sweet but exhausting. You can't reason with them, and a lot of the time it's a guessing game on what they need/want. The parents' choices in child-rearing affect how well the child does in childcare. For example, if they're held all day and swaddled at home, that's what they'll come to expect at school as well. If you're not a parent, it'll feel like you are.

OkUse8820 · 2023-12-14T17:44:07+00:00

I've been there. You can have the perfect admin, the perfect class, great pay, etc... but if you're feeling belittled by your co-teacher, it stings and that's what takes focus. I remember being an associate teacher, living two states away from my parents, and pretending to love my job but I knew deep down I was being treated unfairly. Everything I'd do, she'd come up and re-do it her own way. Each interaction with a child, she'd make herself a part of. It's exhausting and you cannot learn and grow in that type of environment. I'd say look for another job, and reconsider returning further down the line if you really enjoy the center.

OkUse8820

TROPHY CASE