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Navigating Workplace Stress in Early Childhood Education
Share what makes your job stressful and discuss creative ways to handle stress at work with fellow educators. How do you create a positive environment for yourself and the children you work with?
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37 Replies
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One of my biggest stress is adapting to unexpected changes in the daily routine. I’ve
found creating a flexible schedule with built-in transition times helps
ease the unpredictability. -
What makes my job stressful is parents who are in denial. When I come to them with an issue and they deny the issue. To make it less stressful for me, I remember that I can only control myself and control the environment I choose to be in. I do my best at work and take deep breaths when needed.
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Too much on my plate.
To reduce stress on cutting paper, and decorating the classroom. I have parents volunteer to do the cutting paper and decorating the classroom. To help lower my stress more, I keep a planner/ calender handy to remind myself what order should get done first.
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What makes my job frustrating and stressful is when I feel like I’m doing all the work in the classroom when the other teacher doesn’t do anything but engage with the kids. Like there’s nothing else to do in the classroom but play with kids. But I look over it take a deep breath and keep working.
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Having new students that have not been to school or without their parents. There typically is some high emotions and crying. I do my best to stay calm, nurture the child, while still working. The crying all day can get to all staff, so I always let the team know if you need a few moments, take 5 and come back.
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one of the things that have caused me stress in my work environment is not having support from our management team. one way that i have tried to deal with this kind of stress so that it doesn’t impact me or the kids is to lean on my fellow coworkers as much as possible.
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The issue that I find to be the most personal to me is that teachers deserve higher salaries. Early Childhood educators are the most critical in providing our children with what they need to be successful in their educational careers as well as focusing on their developmental abilities. We also provide them and their families with a support system that can utilize to better themselves, or their children. Most children would go undiagnosed, or behind their developmental indicators if they were not noticed by and early childhood educational facility. With, you would think that Early Childhood educators receive a fair wage, however, most barely make over minimum wage. I have been at my current agency for over four years now and I currently make $11 an hour. I do not feel as though with all we do, that this is a fair wage. Also, I buy a lot of things for my children, and my classroom out of my own pocket and do not get reimbursed. I think the pay for Early Childhood Educators is not fair and needs to change. This is one of the main stressors for providers in this field.
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I have found that one of the things that can make my job the most stressful is a lack of support. That can look like a bunch of different things: not enough support from parents in terms of addressing specific behaviors, not enough support from administration if we’re understaffed, or even not enough support from a co-teacher in classroom management. I am notorious for not communicating how I feel and struggling in silence so that is never a good mix. Through my years in this field, I have had to step out of my comfort zone and try to work on communication. I feel like a lot of this stress can be prevented if I just ask for help or find a better way to communicate with the people I need support from.
Something I have also found myself struggling with is leaving outside stressors at the door. It can be extremely challenging to not let personal things affect me or stay on top of my mind while in the classroom. This is something I am still working on managing. Sometimes it’s not even personal issues, but I could be having an interaction with a child, but my mind is racing thinking about all of the things that I need to do or need to get done in a certain timeframe. I believe I can keep working on this by prioritizing differently and seeking help when needed.
These are both things that I’m consistently working on, but I feel better knowing that some of my coworkers feel the same way. It can be hard not to feel like I’m the only one struggling with things like these.
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I am the director of a childcare and preschool program and the fall is a very stressful time for us onboarding new students and families. I try to stay positive and often get treats for the teachers to help
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One of the biggest stresses in my classroom is dealing with parents when their child has been hit/bit/etc. I try to be as transparent as I can without revealing personal information, and always come at it from a place of understanding. I frequently remind the parents that these are normal developmental behaviors, and if they would like to discuss anything further I am always available as a resource.
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I felt stressed when I questioned the way another teacher was dealing with the problem with the child because I believe that way is not good for the child’s healthy development and I want that teacher to choose a different way. I know this is a difficult, but take the time to sit down with my colleague and discuss what we can do to help children make good choices for themselves through love and positive encouragement (rather than telling my colleague negatively what we shouldn’t do).
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Somedays the noise level can overwhelm me if I did not get enough sleep or feeling ill. Working with children, you can get sick and get burned out. Making sure to give breaks when needing to reset and refocus helps to get through the day.
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One of my biggest stressors at work is multiple callouts that happen in the middle of the night, only to be discovered when I first wake up and look at my phone. Unfortunately, that means calling or texting folks early in the morning to get shifts covered. There is really no creative way to handle this, as these events are unexpected. However, it always seems to work out. Handling stress at work with humor is always appreciated. Using humor helps with making things positive. When it’s positive for the staff, it’s positive for the children.
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a couple ways i deal with stress in the classroom is by taking deep breaths and explaining to the students when im excited, frustrated or feeling sad. I want to normalizing talking about feelings and working through them so they have a good example of how to regulate emotions
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I really enjoy listening to what my students have to say and I have incorporated that into my curriculum to set out a section of time each day to just let them take turns talking about whatever they want to talk about. Sometimes I initiate a question to get responses. But for the most part I just listen. They love this activity and want to be heard. If a student does not want to talk I don’t force the issue just move on to the next. When they are ready they will participate. I think this helps create a support system and reduces stress for each student and definitely creates a bond between the students as well as myself. This activity also promotes taking turns talking and not interrupting since everyone has a chance to take their turn at participating.
