So I've worked in day care about 2 1/2 years now and I e never had any type of issue come up until now- honestly I'm not so sure it's even an issue but I worry about everything so I wanted some input.i have a little girl in my class who on occasion I have to put in time out, usually having to take her by the hand and walk her to time out. Her mom, who has been on array of drugs and so on, came up to me today as I was coming in to work and our conversation went as followed To start with I was coming in and bailynns mom was outside like walking towards the playground like the four year old one and she stops turns around all werid like and walks up to me and the convo goes like This....
BM: hey what room are you in
Me: the twos still
bM: how is ***doing- she hasn't been that great at home- she has been acting up and has started to learn that autumn is the bad child, which isn't true but **** is learning to blame stuff on other people..
Me: yeah she's gotten in trouble some but not a lot usually she gets threaten with time out then gets upset and then we let her get up
BM: yeah she will come to me crying saying autumn did something but yet it was actually her who did it... the other day she was like "ms *** hurt my arm she put me in time out" and I said bailyn that doesn't sound like a *** you probabaly did something and she just put you in time out"
Me: laughing awkwardly
BM: walks away like weirdly
(She often appears to be strung out on all sorts of stuff)

Basically it just worrys me because I would NEVER hurt a child and I don't want that to even be a thought, it also makes me feel awful that the child thinks this even if it simply she got mad I put her in time out.

I just wanted everyone's thoughts and if they would be worried or not. I did ask *** directly about it by saying did you go to time out the other day? The child replied yes, I followed the question with did your arm get hurt? And she replied yes ms*** hurt my arm and put. E in time out. And so I said I did put you in time out but I didn't hurt your arm

Hoping I need to just stop worrying

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Names were not supposed to be mentioned. It was copied from a messge

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Document everything with this mother.

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Document everything with the mom and any (ANY) time this child gets in trouble. I know exactly how you feel. I once (many many years ago) had a child tell his mom I hit him and that I scared him. I was absolutely devastated by this accusation - I would never hurt a child in any way and don't even believe in spanking my own children. The mother took her accusation to our director and we tried to figure out what he was thinking about. After talking with the mom, we found out that he didn't like his back to be patted at nap (this was something I did for all kids, he was kind of new and also most likely autistic but with no diagnosis yet). He didn't like to be touched and he described what I was doing to him at nap to be "hitting" him. Luckily I had a very good director who knew I would never hurt a child and the mother was very understanding and knew her child would probably need some intervention for his behaviors and underlying autism. What I remember from that time was a feeling of utter panic - knowing that if my director didn't believe in me or the parent pushed the issue, my career in teaching would be over before it began. It was terrifying.
My advice, make sure you ALWAYS have a witness when you are disciplining this child. You never know what the child may interpret from your actions. You also never know, you might have accidentally hurt the child's arm without knowing you did. Also, let your director know about what the mother said, so that you can get in front of the situation. Make sure she knows you are always safe. That way if anything is brought to her, she will know she can trust you to always be gentle and safe. And she can defend you.
Good luck. Document, document, document. Witnesses.

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