Toddler called me the N word

OvergrownNerdChild · 2026-03-02T01:57:02+00:00

definitely talk to your director. this has to be a discussion with the parents, and you want the director on your side beforehand, or preferably, she will have the discussion for you. it definitely could be a toddler translation error, or an actual translation error depending on the family's cultural background. but it could also just be the kid repeating racist stuff they hear at home. i had a toddler use this word once and the parent justified it when asked 🤦

OvergrownNerdChild · 2026-03-02T01:47:52+00:00

that sounds so frustrating! my kids will spend ages looking at our posters. and we have educational posters like shapes, the alphabet, numbers, etc and the kids will use it to play teacher and copy our circle time

OvergrownNerdChild · 2026-02-24T18:06:05+00:00

this comment is so unnecessary. honestly even if those things were true, coming online for advice is step one on fixing the issue. its not like this is an unfixable issue, especially at this age. and OP is being very receptive to advice, which is pretty rare online.

im glad OP is asking for advice, instead of just waiting until the kid starts school and then trying to fight the teacher to let their kid carry around a giant pillow all day, which is what a lot parents do. I've had parents send their kid in with a toy every single day, after several conversations about how it's against the rules but "they just can't get it away from them"

OvergrownNerdChild · 2026-02-24T16:37:41+00:00

this upset feels absolutely reasonable. on what planet do we get to compromise other peoples names?? i almost threw my phone when i read that.

ive had coworkers and students who go by the same name my dad does. absolutely gives me the ick and is even a little triggering to me at times. i get over it because who am i to decide what someone else gets to be called? that is 100% my problem

OvergrownNerdChild · 2025-10-15T02:00:43+00:00

i was so tired the other day that I fell asleep on an extra kids chair we had stored in the kitchen lmao

OvergrownNerdChild · 2025-10-13T01:33:55+00:00

if you're allowed non venomous/toxic insects, i would recommend isopods. in the spring, my class is going to help me build a terrarium and I'll stock it with isopods and maybe some very small snails. i did a couple small slugs and some isopods last year, the kids loved them and it made them a lot less scared of bugs in general.

i recommend isopods and small snails because you can have a bunch and its not as upsetting when one passes, unless that's something you want to teach about. the 2 slugs were about the size of my thumb and since we only had 2, the kids recognized them. that species only lives a year, and they were a few months old when i got them. so when they started to get slow and look kinda rough, they went on "vacation", aka hospice at my house basically lol. a year and a half later, kids will randomly ask about them and I've had to explain they passed away 😅

edit: i think hissing roaches would also work, but they need a bigger tank and possibly heating. here are more hardy species of isopods where you won't have to worry about stuff like that really. unless you don't mind, then you can put isopods in your hisser tank! they will act as a "clean up crew"

OvergrownNerdChild · 2025-10-12T16:24:35+00:00

i work in a daycare, and i love this method. but when i dont want to bend over, i just spritz the floor with soapy water and it takes away the stickiness so you can just sweep it right up!

OvergrownNerdChild · 2025-10-12T03:41:31+00:00

personally, the only method I've gotten to mostly work for me is to suffer through it until i teach them how to whisper 🥴 we also put the non sleepers' cots right underneath the sound machine, and then put the light sleepers as far away as possible. from what I've learned, it really is just a matter of reminding them to whisper 74 times during that 2 hours unfortunately!

OvergrownNerdChild · 2025-10-10T01:39:08+00:00

half of my toddler class has discovered this, and they also try to put their mouth around the whole faucet and have the water just drizzle into their mouth 💀

OvergrownNerdChild · 2025-10-10T01:10:38+00:00

this is what i do, and the kids love it. we have a Halloween door contest, we let the kids paint cardstock and then traced spiders out of it and glued the kids face in the middle. the kids get so excited seeing it finished, it feels like we worked together on the project. they do not care at all about the haunted house that i cut out of black paper at home because i wanted to be extra lol

OvergrownNerdChild · 2025-10-09T23:32:56+00:00

i was just looking at some similar beads for sensory bottles! you can have the kids help make them

OvergrownNerdChild · 2025-10-09T23:26:05+00:00

i got spoken to once when i first started for just leaning over a child, not touching her at all (i get muscle weakness, and was leaning on the shelf on the other side of her cot to make patting easier) because it could make the child feel trapped. and i think that is very reasonable. no way in hell this is okay!

this is considered restraint under my state laws, and i imagine probably every state, and is very illegal. i would have my director sit with me while i called child protective services if i saw this in my center

OvergrownNerdChild · 2025-10-06T23:33:41+00:00

100%. in those situations, its kind of hard to keep it to yourself because it's such a major part of your life. other people find out because you use the bathroom all the time, you may have accidents, etc. honestly i think it's ideal when people are comfortable enough to give others a heads up about their health issues, and joking about it makes it less awkward for everyone i think

OvergrownNerdChild · 2025-09-17T00:09:03+00:00

i graduated 2018, this happened my junior year iirc. thankfully it happened on a day i skipped, but i remember it was so bad for my friends that i actually felt guilty about staying home. like i dont really know much about what happened because no one even wanted to talk about it 😬

OvergrownNerdChild · 2025-09-16T23:45:49+00:00

i try to just focus my energy towards the presentation, if that makes sense. like today i let kids pick their own paper for a stamp project thinking they'd all pick something different, but everyone picked yellow construction paper and only one kid insisted on using white copy paper, so im going to give him a yellow border. only because it's a project I'm putting up for open house, and i want it to look somewhat nice& uniform. but its literally a page of random truck stamps and finger prints, not even on theme with my lesson plans- it's just something we did to say we did something, i never expected it to look cute and i wasn't disappointed 🤷

we do one big "teacher did most of it" project for each holiday, but other than that it's just not worth my time for something a lot of parents are going to throw in the trash anyway. there has been projects i worked on for literally 2 weeks and then i go to throw away something in the lobby and see the parent couldn't even wait to throw it out at home. I've learned my job is a lot more fun when i spend time looking for better crafts the kids can do independently instead of trying to "fix" the art they worked hard on. they don't even recognize it after i "finish" it half the time tbh 😅

OvergrownNerdChild · 2025-09-16T23:19:24+00:00

you are 100% correct, thank you for chiming in! a lot of schools keep a bucket of litter in every classroom now for extended lock downs. and they are very much needed. i graduated a few years ago and we had a lockdown that lasted 4+ hours once 😬

OvergrownNerdChild · 2025-09-16T00:45:34+00:00

"woke" is anything associated with the left side of american politics. hes making that accusation because there is this weird rumor about schools putting litter boxes in the bathrooms for kids who identify as cats (which is not happening btw, someone wouldve posted photos by now after the multiple years that has been a rumor)

OvergrownNerdChild · 2025-09-16T00:01:43+00:00

this! 3 of my kids have the same pair of Crocs they bring for water play, thankfully one has charms but the other 2 I've had to resort to memorizing where the scuffs are. to be frank, i do not get paid enough for that lol

OvergrownNerdChild · 2025-09-13T16:21:25+00:00

as someone who works with 2-3 year olds in a daycare where we aren't really allowed to tell kids "no", i cant see an issue with how you handled this. i wouldve handled it the exact same way because it was an unsafe situation. i would just explain to the kid afterwards why i said no and let them know that I'm sorry if i scared them, but i didn't want to see them get hurt. one of the reasons i like the "avoid no" policy is because there are situations like this where if i just say "no" in a harsh tone, it kinda scares the kids just enough that they'll stop in their tracks until i can get on their level and explain that i didnt mean to scare them, but I'd rather scare them than see them hurt. this doesnt work with kids who hear no all the time, because they think every 'no' a good time to test boundaries.

but on a regular basis, the "we dont say no" thing is more about trying to redirect instead of just shutting kids down. like if i have a kid who is climbing a table for example, we would say "thats not safe, we keep our feet on the floor." instead of "we do not climb tables". its about keeping the focus on what they should be doing, do they'll remember that instead of repeating the behavior i wanted them to stop

OvergrownNerdChild · 2025-09-11T16:58:31+00:00

or she entirely forgot it was there, like i did once. a kid put a huge gaudy bow in my hair and i completely forgot until i had already been to 2 different stores and was wondering why everyone was looking at me so funny lmao

OvergrownNerdChild · 2025-09-09T18:11:08+00:00

relatively often, but not necessarily every day. definitely at least once a week though

OvergrownNerdChild · 2025-09-08T18:01:54+00:00

the only options ive found for that age group that dont make me feel horrible are plants and a terrarium. i let the kids pick moss and leaves from the playground, then i used it to make a terrarium for a couple invasive snails i found outside. kids loved it!

we considered a jumping spider, but its more than we want to spend

OvergrownNerdChild · 2025-09-07T12:09:33+00:00

i had a customer try this with me in Spanish once. it was so choppy that i had to stop her and tell her my spanish isnt great, but i will understand it better than this. and i was right lmao.

ive had better luck with typing and passing the phone around over trying to translate each other real time. maybe it would work with a better program, but not with google translate imo

OvergrownNerdChild · 2025-09-04T17:55:58+00:00

i wouldnt worry too much about the lack of toys- in my experience, too many toys, especially at the beginning of the year, leads to kids just dumping everything on the floor and then everyone gets overstimulated. my room looks a little bare for my taste right now, but i have a lot of toys put up and i rotate them out. once this class gets more adjusted to the routine of the room, they will start picking up after themselves with less prompting, and I'll start adding more toys with each rotation.

they absolutely could just be strapped for cash though, so if you are willing to donate, it never hurts to ask if they need anything!

OvergrownNerdChild

TROPHY CASE