childcare costs

We all know that childcare can be a major source of stress for parents. Without even taking the lack of available, affordable daycare into the equation, there's also not being able to physically be there all the time to provide for all of your child’s needs. Sure, this separation has to come eventually. But still, it’s understandable that some parents might have a hard time transitioning.

And yet, some requests (or demands, even) that parents make to childcare providers are, to put it politely, nuts.

Recently Grace Saylor, a home daycare provider in Minnesota, decide to quell her boredom by asking fellow childcare providers to share the “unhinged” things parents asked to accommodate.

“I’m not talking about ‘my 2 year old doesn't need to nap anymore.’ I’m talking the borderline crazy expectations they have,” she clarified in the onscreen text.

Let’s just say, there were no shortage of baffling replies—from zero awareness of boundaries to outrageous examples of entitlement. Below are some of our favorites:

"'Don't tell her no because it upsets her’ and I said ‘okay so strictly redirection?’ and this said ‘no we just let her have free range to make her own decision and let her choose what she wants to do.”

"A Mom texted me while I was in the hospital with a pulmonary embolism (she knew bc she was friends with my mom) bc her 5 year old son wasn’t given his lovey at nap time."

"A mom cussed me and my coworker, because her son caught the flu…..he was the first in the room to get sick."

"I had a parent ask me to count how many string beans her child ate at lunch."

"Child had digestion issues, mom asked us to chew his food for him, then feed it to him. No no no way."

“Kiddo had a dr. appt. Mom called and said they were on their way back. I asked how it went. She says, “oh, he has pneumonia. Be there in 5.”

"Had a parent say their kid couldn’t eat our food because it's too processed and packs her kid kraft mac and cheese everyday for lunch."

"A dad stood on top of the cubbies and did a backflip off in response to me saying this is the children’s class. He said he pays enough in tuition and can do whatever he wants! blocked parents entering."

“Normal milk gives him a ‘stomach ache.’ Asked us if we could give him chocolate milk instead.”

"We weren’t allowed to label anything with the toddler’s name because she didn’t want her to get kidnapped."

"I had a parent who wanted us to start toilet training her son at 3 months old. Don’t even get me started."

“Had a parent who wanted us to confirm that her child would get out first if there was a fire alarm or bomb threat. As if we had a priority list of which child gets out of the building first.”

"We had a kid come from Disney legit straight from the plane to the daycare like they had had enough of this child on vacation they were done."

"Had a dad storm into my 2’s classroom and demand that we not allow his son to play with dolls or dress up clothes while at school... because 'that’s for girls not boys.'"

“On picture day, her child needed to change her whole outfit, make sure her bow was a certain way and socks were a certain height, she had her purse, her bracelet and necklace…this was a 1 year old.”

"Mom asking that all children leave the room so their child could nap. classroom and sleeping area is 1 room."

A few actually had nothing to do with a child at all:

“One time a parent asked us to call her half way through the day saying her child was sick so she would leave work.”

“Can you serve divorce papers to my husband. I said no.”

And while, okay, sure, these definitely fit the “unhinged” bill, Saylor still ultimately has a lot of empathy. “As a parent I completely understand wanting your child to have the very best of everything and I know it takes a lot of trust and confidence to allow others to care for your child,” she told Upworthy.

In her own experience as a daycare provider, she (luckily) hasn’t dealt with any “crazy requests.” However, the most frequent issue she does run into is parents who pick up their children late. Which, naturally, comes across as disrespectful. “[They] don’t take into consideration we also have families and other focuses then just being a childcare provider,” she said.

Childcare workers want your and your child to feel taken care of…within reason. Perhaps parents can benefit from asking themselves why they are making certain requests, and seeing what can be done to address the root cause behind whatever concern is prompting it in the first place.

TLDR: treat childcare workers like humans.