Becoming a parent is like entering a totally new world. You change the way you live in every way imaginable: how you shop for groceries, how you prepare meals, how you travel, how you sleep, even how you shower is affected. It’s a stressful experience, and for parents who must rely on outside childcare during work hours, that stress can be magnified.
Daycares are wonderful places filled with kind, caring, ceaselessly patient people to look after children during the day, and while the expense is significant, a good daycare is worth its weight in gold. But even the best daycares present a learning curve for new parents to traverse. Many daycares now use mobile apps to deliver messages, photos, and updates to parents throughout the day. It’s quite the technological innovation, giving millions of parents peace of mind.
However, those apps may have limited character counts for messages, or the messages themselves may not always be clear. It can be a challenge for new parents to learn what things mean when they receive messages, but luckily for you, I’m here to help.
Below are a collection of some common messages a parent may receive from their daycare provider, as well as the true meaning of the message, translated through my years of experience.1 Hopefully this will help you navigate your new world with confidence.
FRIEND - generally this means “classmate,” but can vary with context
YOUR CHILD HAD FUN WITH A FRIEND - your child enjoyed playing with a classmate
YOUR CHILD WAS BITTEN BY A FRIEND - your child was bitten by their sworn enemy, with whom they are embroiled in a constant feud
YOUR CHILD BIT A FRIEND - today’s battle belongs to your child
YOUR CHILD WAS HAVING TROUBLE SHARING - your child is acting like a jerk
YOUR CHILD IS GREAT AT SHARING - your child is generally good at sharing toys
YOUR CHILD DID GREAT SHARING TODAY - your child is normally a selfish jerk, but they allowed a classmate to play with a toy for roughly three (3) seconds today
PLEASE BRING MORE DIAPERS BY NEXT THURSDAY - your child will need more diapers around the middle of next week
PLEASE BRING MORE DIAPERS BY NEXT THURSDAY!! - the diapers need to be here tomorrow or your kid will be wearing duct-taped construction paper
YOUR CHILD WAS PLAYING WITH A FRIEND AND GOT UPSET - your child is acting like a jerk, but it may have been prompted by someone else
YOUR CHILD IS HAVING A ROUGH DAY - your child is acting like a jerk for no apparent reason
YOUR CHILD IS SO HELPFUL - your kid is generally helpful
YOUR CHILD WAS A BIG HELPER TODAY - while your kid typically slacks off during clean-up time, today they seemed to be more engaged. I suspect they are playing some type of long con.
YOUR CHILD FELL WHILE CLIMBING A SHELF - your child was climbing a shelf and they fell down
YOUR CHILD FELL - your child fell while rappelling down from the rafters in the gym and/or doing parkour on the roof
BE SURE TO TAKE YOUR CHILD’S BLANKET HOME OVER THE WEEKEND - your child’s napping area is beginning to smell
WE WORKED ON OUR ABC’S TODAY - we are working on the alphabet
YOUR CHILD IS WORKING HARD ON THEIR ABC’S - please spend more time teaching your child the alphabet
YOUR CHILD WAS HAVING A HARD TIME SITTING STILL - your child is acting like a jerk
YOUR CHILD DID GREAT DURING DANCE TIME - your child appears to be developing large motor skills and coordination
YOUR CHILD HAD FUN DURING DANCE TIME - your child is an uncoordinated and awkward mess
IS YOUR CHILD TEETHING? - your child is acting like a jerk
YOUR CHILD NAPPED FROM 12:00-2:15 - your child napped for roughly two hours
YOUR CHILD NAPPED FROM 12:03-2:09 - your child napped, but we’re not exactly sure for how long
YOUR CHILD NAPPED FROM 12:10-1:30 - your child refused to put their head down during naptime and incited a riot among the other children
YOUR CHILD ATE ALL OF THEIR LUNCH - your child ate almost all of their lunch
YOUR CHILD ATE SOME OF THEIR LUNCH - your child refused to take a single bite during lunch and incited a riot among the other children
WE HAD PUDDING FOR SNACK - please do not be mad, you are not allowed to sue for damages to your washing machine
YOUR CHILD REALLY ENJOYED THE PUDDING - your child dumped the pudding on themselves and incited a riot among the other children
YOUR CHILD GOT AN OWIE BUT FELT BETTER AFTER SOME TLC - your child cried after getting hurt but they eventually calmed down
YOUR CHILD GOT AN OWIE BUT IS DOING FINE - your child scraped both knees and may have broken a bone after doing a backflip off the slide
YOUR CHILD IS ALMOST READY TO MOVE UP TO THE NEXT CLASS - your child appears to be hitting the necessary milestones in order to join older children in the next class
YOUR CHILD IS DEFINITELY READY TO MOVE UP TO THE NEXT CLASS - your child is acting like a jerk, but they’ll be someone else’s problem soon
(CLEAR PHOTO OF YOUR SMILING CHILD) - your child is having a great day
(CLEAR PHOTO OF YOUR UNSMILING CHILD) - your child is acting like a jerk
(BLURRY PHOTO OF YOUR CHILD? AND OTHER BLOBS) - the children are now in control, please send help
We absolutely love our daycare provider, who has done very well with both of our daughters.