disagreement with staff members asking for toys back

[lumamelzem]

HI I just need to know if that is OK.
I asked the assistant in the room to borrowed some activities from the pre kinder room to use in the kinder, the qualified in that room approached me saying please i need those toys back in my room they for my kids i said its for the whole centre to use we can share she replied no i bought it with my own money ,what do you think can she do that or should i speak to the coordinator regarding this.
thanks
lumamelzem

[cathiek]

Sometimes we do end up buying things with our own money (I know I do - plenty!!). Perhaps your assistant just took them assuming they belonged to the centre, and the other lady felt miffed that she wasn't asked.
I am always more than happy to share anything of mine but it is always nice to be asked.
If your assistant did ask, and they do belong personally to the other lady, she is within her rights to say no. She would need to ensure that she marks all of her personal purchases with her name or initials though or it would automatically be assumed that they belong the the centre.
Anything that belongs to the centre should be able to be used anywhere in the centre

[fchaudari76]

I am always happy to share things that I have personally paid for in my room, however I do make sure that who ever is in the room is aware what belongs to me personally so there is no conflict about what is the centres and what is mine.

I would also say that she needs to label her personal things so that this mistake is not made again.

[catchmeifucan]

The other person has the right to ask for her toys back if she had bought it with her own money. There are a lot of us who do this and buy teaching materials from their own pocket. It could also be that she might have got annoyed if her things were taken without being asked first. If you didnt know you can just apologise for that and tell her that you had assumed that those were the centre's toys and didnt know she had bought it out of her money. Also, if you feel that your room might need new toys or more materials, you can certainly approach your centre coordinator and request for it. Most of the coordinators may help out if its going to be helpful for the centre. Sometimes your coordinator might even ask you to provide with the list of materials that you might need so she can get some when she does the shopping for the centre next time.