Imagine picking your child up from daycare only to discover a note on baby’s stomach?
Child Care is obviously one of the most important things to any parent. We all want the best for our babies because we love them. Even though they can be particularly precocious sometimes, it can be tough to find good child care as most of it is extremely expensive, and for a single parent, this can become even more of a problem. When a single mother does find a child care service that she can afford and checks most of her boxes on her “must-haves” list, she’ll most likely jump on it, but for a young mother from Florida, it would seem that her choice of child care could have been better.
Daycare writes passive-aggressive note on babies stomach
Leaving your precious little monster under the supervision of others can be very difficult, especially for a new and single mother. And for Heather Chisum, it was made especially difficult when the daycare she’d left her children at decided to leave her an extremely passive-aggressive note.[1]
To make it worse, the note was not written on a scrap of paper like a normal person would, or even sent in an email or text. The child’s caretaker thought it would be an effective way to communicate with the young mother by writing “I’ve run out of diapers” on the poor child’s bare skin. And to top it off, in permanent marker, too. All because she had missed a memo from the school stating that they had run out of diapers for her son and that she would need to replace them as soon as possible.
“I’ve scrubbed it with several baby wipes and it’s not coming off. She went on to say that she had plans to take them to the beach to play in the sand but can not because of the note on the baby’s stomach.
So. I need opinions. Am I right to be furious about this? Or am I overreacting? I really need your opinions guys, because I’m about to barge in this daycare tomorrow morning and have some words”
Heather Chisum
The wrong way to go about it
She added that the teachers would leave a daily report in their lunch box every day when she would collect her two children. These notes would describe their mood and behavior that day, and when if at all, the diaper was changed. They would also indicate whether or not he needs more diapers or wipes.
She went on to say that she is a single mother with a full-time job and two very young children. Heather sees a number of teachers when she does her pick-up and says that any one of them could have just said, “Hey Heather, your son is out of diapers,” and she would have realized that she’d missed a note.
Instead, she would discover that someone had written a note on her child’s stomach with a permanent marker. She says that she can not understand why the message had to be so long and detailed. Nor why they couldn’t just write the note on the diaper or, better yet, “tell me to my face.”
Outrage among mothers about note on baby’s stomach
After an overwhelming show of support and reassurance for the young mother, saying that this kind of behavior is unacceptable, the post went viral and was picked up by the local news, and the school took action.
According to Cindy Carter DeCosta, the school’s executive director, they are extremely sorry for any distress this situation may have caused anyone involved or their family members. They acknowledge that it was a breach of professional ethics on the teacher’s part, who has now been let go and is taking significant steps to ensure something like this never happens again.[2]
Regardless, Heather decided to pull her children out of the school in question. One commenter suggested that she file a report for the shocking note on the baby’s stomach. Others described the lengths they would go to and the size of the scene they would cause.
Heather, like many of the mothers, feels that she would have been happy to reimburse the school if they had taken it upon themselves to buy more diapers instead of resorting to a passive-aggressive note on the baby’s stomach and parent shaming her.
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Sources
- “Daycare Writes a Note on a Baby’s Stomach to Shame His Mom into Packing More Diapers.” Distractify. January 28, 2020.
- “Mom Goes Viral After Daycare Writes On Her Son’s Stomach to Shame Her About Diapers.” Fatherly. Cameron LeBlanc January 28, 2020.