Daddy Daycare

Daddy Daycare

by: Tiggy D - 09-02-12 20:08

Channel 4 will be showing a series called Daddy Daycare starting from next week. Some men who are not used to looking after their children have been put in a nursery and filmed. I'm a little worried their premise is "Look at how crap theese men are in a nursery. Ha ha". Obviously, as the series hasn't been aired I can't comment too much, but I hope it doesn't put more men off childcare, or parents off from wanting men looking after their children.

Link   http://www.channel4.com/programmes/daddy-daycare

by: Margos

Or perhaps we will have something to learn from these men.

A series not to be missed, I think.

ProCEEd to Happy Talk Events

www.happytalkevents.co.uk

by: purepurple

TBH I think lots of parents would be out of their depth in a nursery, not just the dads.

I would also be out of my comfort zone in many jobs too.

by: Tiggy D

Absolutley Purple. But they're not showing women being crap in a nursery, just men. And they're not showing men working in the nursery perfectly well as staff, only women.

by: Tiggy D

Just seen the show. The men were interesting. The sexist attitudes shown by some of the staff were terrible. The woman who said if men ran the nursery she would kill herself for instance. The poor men thrown into the deep end for the laughs. Could anybody read a story to 20 toddlers on their first day?

Dreadful.

by: sparkles24

I agree with you, Tiggy.  I think one of the men hit the nail on the head when he said that he felt as if they were being set up to fail so the women could prove a point.  Any man watching the show would've most likely been put off working in childcare!

by: Maestro

I didn't see the show, completely forgot but I hope the woman who said she'd kill herself gets the sack for such a statement. Considering there has been long running attempts to encourage makes to work in childcare it sounds like like one giant step back has just occurred.

by: Tiggy D

Available on 4onDemand in case you missed the chance to be offended first time round! ;o)

by: Maestro

I'll watch tonight! Thanks :)

by: me

An hour long programme on bullying, the practitioners were appalling. or maybe good editing? whatever parents are not trained to work in early years they are parents, experts at parenting their child, we are experts at ey practice. the 2 are very different but the bullying is the same. 

by: Sophie Smith

5 minutes into the program right now and can't believe what I am seeing from the nursery manager and deputies...just absolutely speechless at the blatent ignorance and sexism.

by: Sophie Smith

also....i don't understand why they would put men into a setting where the manager stated all the staff were single mothers and that most of the families were parented by mums soley, not dads. Obviously the children aren't going to respond to strange men telling them what to do very well if they've had little experience of being under the care of men?

by: CJ

it's called TV!

men who knew what they were doing in a nursery of children from dual parent homes wouldn't make good TV

by: Sophie Smith

yes I understand the concept of entertainment but does it not strike you as a little unethical (even for channel 4)... take the child handed to one of those men with a dirty nappy. The child had never met him, cried upon being undressed and turned its head away into the changing mat, quite visibly distressed (I actually found it quite uncomfortable to watch). In the nurseries I worked in volunteers, supply, new staff and unfamiliar staff were not thrown in at the deep end like this to save the child and themselves distress. I am sure the child could have waited a few minutes and been properly introduced to the man, or preferable still, changed by a familiar member of staff and with the man's nappy changing role started later on in the day/week when a relationship of trust between the children had been developed. I am sure all the parents had to agree for their children to take part in the programme, but the practice of the nursery still was very questionable in my oppinion from my understanding of young children's participation and issues of consent, power and control. I did however, think the man handled the situation well, comforted, distrated and maintained eye contact and conversation throughout-credit to him-and not the advice/support of the staff though.

by: Sophie Smith

Also, and again, I know its for entertainment but I found it interesting that the men were not properly introduced to the children. Whenever I have had students/volunteers/work placement staff I ensure that I introduce them (especially at preschool age) with something along the lines of 'this is ***** she is helping us today and she's really excited to meet you all and hopes to have lots of fun together, please do good listening when ***** asks you to do something so that we can all stay safe and happy' if the children don't respond well to them, whether or not I like this particular person I would step in and say something like ' it's story time at the moment isn't it preschool, and I think I just heard ***** ask if we could all sit quietly so you can help her choose a story, but it still seems very noisy!'. The staff in the majority didn't respect or trust the men to do a good job so as such allowed this to rub off on the children, didn't lead by example, encourage or intervene in a positive way. Just pure entertainment...and really bad at that. I think even non childcare sector workers would be bored and insulted by the ignorance of the staff-just very predictable.

by: Jam

The men were dropped in at the deep end, from the attitude of the staff they didn't stand a chance! If you don't normally work with children, let alone babies you would find it hard. I'm sure if i had to do another job i would also find it very hard. To be honest i was not overly impressed with the way the staff ran the nursery anyway. How must the children have felt to be suddenly left with a stranger, the staff didn't even introduce the men to the children properly. I have a nursery class of 16, 2-3yr olds and anyone new to the class is introduced as my friend and never left to change a nappy on the first day. 

by: Sophie Smith

Jam-I totally agree! and I like the idea of introducing a new member of staff as a friend shows the children you like and respect that person and makes the new staff member feel valued and supported before they even begin.

by: sparkie

did any one pick up that the manager had worked her way up from unqualified to manager in 3 years! and they had two minutes to change a nappy.

by: Jam

I must admit that i hadn't picked up the imformation about the manager but that explains her lack of experince. I've just watched the second episode. I was much more impressed with the management and how the staff cared about their job. It showed when they were asking the men to do set tasks, they were so much more positive. I was also impressed as i used to work at Carlton Hill in the early 80's as an agency staff and found it very difficult due to the negative approach by alot of the staff. Good to see such an improvement.

by: green wellies

How patronising and unpleasant was the manager in the last of the serie! How does she keep her staff when she is so rigid?And for an "exclusive" nursery in Chelsea, it looks so messy!!!And why would you take young children to that art gallery when the Natural History Museum or the Science Museum are so much appropriate?I felt sorry for the guys! How can you expect them to do a job we train years for? I thought the show  at the end was really good, well done to them and well done for putting up with such negative staff!

by: sparkles24

Yes, the manager of the nursery in the last episode would be a nightmare to work for.  Once again the men were given unrealistic tasks to do when they'd never worked in childcare before, then when they messed up the manager spoke to them as if they were children being told off!  The way she spoke to them really made me cringe.

by: me

Would you use that Chelsea Nursery!!! Dear god what a crone in charge!!! if i was a parent i would be frantically searching for an alternative. and as for the crying worker! Woman up love! hideous programme hideous nurseries though i bet she made a mint. 

by: sephelia

Can't say that I agreed with many her rules in particular the drinking out of bottles. Couldn't help thinking that she held the kids in overly high expectations and really didn't like that kids were being theirselves.

by: Jam

Have to say that i didn't watch the final episode, although i recorded it and from what everyine is saying I'm glad i haven't. Why put people in a posistion where they are going to fail. This is not doing anything to show what the advantages are of having male childcare workers. I have the pleasure of working alongside a guy who's brilliant, infact alot better than some of the female staff and all the children adore him.