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Child Care

Child Care

This thread has been started so professionals or others involved in this sector can post their job related descriptions and experiences to help you better determine if this is the career/job you would like to pursue in the future.

Professional: Please tell what the job involves, the pros and cons, usual salary, and kinds of promotions
Future Professional: You may ask questions here, but please be specific

Note: This board should not be used for discussions relevant to other boards.

Care Child

The thing about being in child care is that even when you're off the clock, you aren't really off the clock. I only have my girls 20 hours a week, give or take during the school year, but I am planning and thinking of ideas for them more than that.

My job at the moment is an after school program, and during the Summer we're like a day camp type program. We are an educational suppliment, so our girls don't get off school and just play all afternoon until they get picked up. We have programs that we teach, ranging from academic to life skills to health and sexuality, etc. We get to teach them a lot of the things that they don't learn in school because there isn't the time for the teachers to put into their lessons. We have to plan, just like a teacher does, and make supply lists and be knowledgeable with the subjects we're teaching. A lot of times that means doing a lot of extra research. We aren't always knowledgeable in the program topic we're given.

We change programs every 7-9 weeks, and have first graders through fifth graders, and then two other staff members work purely with the teen ages. So we have to be able to take certain topics and make them suitable for different ages.

Off of programs, a large part of my job is to just be there with the girls and be there for the girls. They put so much trust in their care provider, and it's important that I don't break the trusts they put in me, but also make decisions based on their safety and what is best with them.

The pay is horrible compared to a lot of jobs, but it's the sort of job you don't get into for the money. I only make $6.50 an hour, which is less than I could make at a fast food restaurant. I'm only part-time staff, but the full-time office staff is on a salary based income, and they make more money. We are also a non-profit organization, so a person could probably make more at a different kind of child care place.

What the job lacks in financial considerations it makes up in other riches. Every day I get to go to work excited about the day. I get a hundred hugs and smiles every day for just being there. It's so easy to build so many relationships with these girls, and they are so willing to do it. It gets hard sometimes when you have to listen to a girl talk about how she's being abused, but there's a sense of satisfaction that she trusts me enough to tell me, and an even bigger since of welfare to take care of her. It's the type of job that isn't really like a job, and if it feels like it, then a person is in the wrong place. Everyday isn't peaches and roses, but the wonderful moments outweigh the unpleasant times.

For us at Girl's Incorporated, which is a national program in the United States, there are promotion possibilities, both on the national level and on the local level. I don't know too much about the national level, so I'll write about the local. We have three staff members who are considered full time and are our "office staff." The highest position is the Executive Director, and she keeps in touch with the national office, deals with board of trustees, and is pretty much the "head honcho." We also have our bookeeper, and I don't know her official title. She deals with the money we recieve and pays the bills and signs the checks, but she does much more than that with her involvement in the girls. The person with the largest job description is the Program Director. She hires and fires, she deals with discipline problems, she chooses the programs we'll teach, deals with fundraisers, and so much more. I am a Program Instructor which is the position that actually teaches the girls and watches them the entire time.

Child Care UFO & Writing Art Education Sciences

As a Nanny, there are two types of job. One is nanny/mother's help, where maybe the Mother is at home with baby twins (for example) and finds that she needs an extra 'pair of hands' to help her get out and about, and feed, bathe play with the children etc.In this job scenario, the Mother stays at home and works alongside the Nanny, and they take charge of the children jointly and together.(or are supposed to.)

The second type of Nanny's job is sole care Nanny/Nanny in charge, and this is the one that I am.

For this job, the parent is out at work, and you take over that role for the parent, doing everything for the child that the parent would do if they were at home.

In my job, I toilet, bathe, dress, change nappies for the children, take them out for play and walks, make their breakfast, lunch and dinner,read stories, and make things with the children.

There are different rates of salaries too, depending on the Nannies age,experience of child care etc.
Also, the more experience that you have in certain surroundings can allow you to receive the highest pay available.

for an example of this, a New Nanny aged around 18/19 with no previous job experience (although qualified as a Nanny) would still receive the lowest pay available, as they had no job related experience.

An older Nanny in their late 30's + with over 15 years experience would receive one of the highest pay scales available.

To add to this, if you have worked in a Jewish household, where the kitchen is 'split'--not literally, but where meat items/pots cannot be mixed with things that have contained milk, then because it is classed as extra experience, more money is offered. This is the same for if you are taking a job on with special needs children, the wage is higher, especially if you have had past work experience doing this, the same goes for if you have ever looked after twins or are getting a job looking after twins.

On average, the salaries for full time work start at around $ 9, 500 for an inexperienced Nanny Per year, rising to an average of around $42,000 per year for a full time experienced Nanny, and even more if you are working with any of the above situations/families with any of the above.

I am fortunate enough in the fact that I fit into all the top paying criteria, and have been able to find work that pays a full time wage for just working 2 days a week, but obviously this hasn't always been the case!
The information is based on Uk work.