Ethnography Rough Draft

I walked through the door and all I could hear was the crying of babies "Mommy!" The teachers had soft soothing voices to calm the sad and anxious babies.

I had walked into the subculture of working in a daycare.


The end of nap time and beginning of the afternoon shift, my shift. It had been a rough morning-- the babies and toddlers didn't take long enough naps, ten minutes maybe. I knew it was going to be a rough afternoon. Once all the cranky babies and toddlers were toileted and had clean diapers on, they sat at the small yellow rectangular table and the little white square table with green legs. They sat in chairs just big enough for their small bottoms, and at just the right height to eat and drink without spilling anything all over the place. It's a dark, cloudy, rainy day so instead of taking the children outside to play we put a movie on for would hope to be a peaceful and calm afternoon. We should have known it wasn't going to be like that. It never is when the children don't take naps.

It was 3:30pm when all 17 children combined into the toddler room to watch a movie. Abraham had brought in Alvin and the Chipmunks. A very cute movie, Georgette, Caroline and I thought the kids would love it and watch it. Nope. They were so rambunctious-- it felt as if it was a Friday afternoon. The children were talking to each other about cops and robbers, two little boys were talking about "farting" and the youngest babies were crying for their bottles.

The room is quite big. Half of it is carpeted and the other half is vinyl flooring. The t.v. was plugged into the outlets in the kitchenette. The children sat spread out on the carpet, Georgette and I sat on the floor with the children. Sabrina sat on my lap while Yolanda sat on Georgette's lap. Caroline sat in a chair near the door to the middle room to answer the door when the annoying bell rang.

The day was dragging. None of the kids were leaving, it was getting late. I still had to clean. The children were mis-behaving and back talking. I had put several children to take a break in the other rooms on mats. They still weren't listening. Working in a daycare you need to have a high level of patience. Something I never had until I started working at a daycare. The kids like to pull the cuteness factor on you all the time to get out of everything. It works to a certain point, then you just have to put your foot down. They do not always like it but they need to get used to it.

The teachers I work with are very firm. They mean what they say and the children don't get away with anything. They have been doing this for years, where as I have only been doing it for about 6 months.

Working in a daycare is not only about being with kids, but also following a strict set of rules set by the state. The state standards and guidelines are no joke. It is tough. Bleaching the changing tables after every diaper change, bleaching the tables after they are used for anything. The mats after naptime must be washed with soap and water, then bleached before being put away. If a teacher has more than 5 kids then an aide needs to be in the room.