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Juniors

29th Jan 2020

Daycare employee writes mum-shaming note in marker on toddler’s stomach

Melissa Carton

Unacceptable.

A lot of trust is given when a parent decides to leave their child at a daycare centre or creche. It’s not an easy thing to do.

I remember the first day I left my son into creche. I was so worried that he would be stressed, if the other children would place nicely with him, if the staff would be patient with him. Luckily I had nothing to worry about. His creche was a lovely place that he enjoyed going to.

Unfortunately, not all parents are as lucky which is something this mum found out when her child returned home covered in a note written in permanent marker.

Mother-of-two Heather Chisum collected her one-year-old from daycare only to discover when she was changing his nappy that a staff member at the centre had reportedly written a snarky note to her in permanent marker.

The message reading ‘Mum, I’m out of diapers’ was written on the child’s stomach and torso and was very difficult to remove, according to Chisum.

Ms Chisum also could not understand why one of the teachers at the centre wouldn’t simply tell her when she was collecting her child;

“If I failed to see that he needs diapers a simple, “Hey Heather, your son needs diapers maybe you missed the report” would have done the trick. From any of the many teachers there I see daily.”

Other parents who read Chisum’s posts online were shocked and horrified that a child care provider would do something like that to a small child and encouraged to the upset mum to report the incident.

According to NBC 2 news, the daycare in question later fired the staff member.

I just can’t even begin to understand how a professional childcare provider could think that writing on a one-year-old is an acceptable way to communicate with a parent.