Aussie Childcare Network Forum

Hello everyone,

My names Jeremy and I'm a 25 year old male working in a long day care centre. I have been doing so for about 6 years and have 2 modules left in my diploma and I'm smashing through it. I have had it for about 3 months and I'm nearly done. I'm just wondering if there are any other males on this website or males who work in your centers. I'm not looking for specific information I'm just curious as to how many males there are in every centre? 1 male per centre? 1 every two centers? And also post your thoughts about males in childcare and any feedback you have heard wether positive or negative.
Ps. Dont worry you won't hurt my feelings if it's negative!
Thanks,
Jeremy

hi jeremy

for me there is a positive thing having a male working in childcare specially in pre school room. and it doesn't matter what is your gender as long you enjoy working with children and you show enthusiasm looking after them why not and you have respect for the children for who they are. i wouldnt mind a male childcare worker will look after my child. the good thing about it as well is that lil boys will look up to them as one of their buddy or mate and will try to copy or imitate them and they will become a role model for them in a better ways if the male childcare worker is a good role model.

the issue that sometimes arise having a male in childcare centre is in baby's room how some parent is not comfortable to trust their baby to a male worker specially in changing nappy.

but in pre school room there is a lot of things positive things that they can do with the children and teach the children where the children can learn from the male worker like wood craft etc... and i think most of the time they are funny and cool to be with children. because male and female have different ways and strategy to meet the needs and interest of children and for sure for the children who is close to their brother or dad they are more comfortable and easy to adjust in new environment if they think oooh wow i have a big bro as well in here... cool

that's my feed back

Hi Jeremy,
Im a girl, Im also studying childcare, and I have a two year old son In kindy. I think there are hardly any males working in childcare because of the old fashioned stigma attached to it. The child care industry is mostly a female industry which sends the message that looking after children is a womens job. These days there are so many children in single parent families, and the children need a male figure to grow and develop to their full potential. I agree with Ja9uar. But I also think that a male is just as capable as looking after a baby as a female as we will both have had the same training, and enjoy working with kids. I think the industry needs some male influence.
Thats my oppinion

The teacher in our preschool room is a male and in a previous job I had a trainee who was a male but he had aspergers and found it very hard continuing in this industry just because it was too hard to tailor make a day that didnt have any spontaneous stuff happen which is what he had a problem with.
I think there should be more males in childcare, we seem to think children can be better taken care of by females .... you would think in this day and age that thought would change.

hi jeremy!
well- in my world you are as rare as the proverbial hen's teetth. I personally applaud you as i believe our education system across the board but esp. early childhood Desperately Needs male educators! how on earth can we believe that children are getting a balanced view of life being only cared for by women? what about the prevalence of single-parent familes led by women-how can we provide healthy male role models when the industry is saturated with women? it's a terrible state of affairs i think- MORE MEN PLEASE!! i can only hope the wheel turns and men are one day encouraged to enter the early childhood industry. well done and kudos to you.

Firstly I would just like to say I'm surprised by all the comments on the forum. I wasn't expecting as many replies as I have received. The reason for the original post was purely based on my own curiousity in the childcare industy. As far as I am concerned you need a man and a woman to make a child, so therefore logically you would need a man and a child to raise a child.
I understand that this is not always the case. I don't have any children of my own and therefore respect people who raise children on their own wether it's a male or a female.
I have never had an experience with a parent where the negative feedback was directly related to me being a male. I'm not sure people nowadays with all the current discrimination laws would complain that there is a male looking after their child, would they?
To all those who support male role models, thank you. I have received positive feedback from a limited number of people over the years saying 'good on you' but that's about the limit to their compliments.
My aim is to finish this diploma then go to university and become a director.
I'm not sure what else to add so again back to you.

Thanks

Hey there Jeremy
I am male and looking to do Batch child studies in the very near future. Why? Because I enjoy the simplicity that children bring to our lives. I have a 4 year old son who goes to childcare 5 days a week and I linger at drop off and pick up time so I can run amok with the kids for a little bit. I imagine getting paid(not enough), to teach the next guardians of the world their places in it, and how they work at life and dispell their self limiting beleifs to acheive all they can, would far outweigh any other perception at all.
Short version: I can do it just as good(but differently) as a woman can. Children need the influence of us all to grow up and be all that they can be.

I think that there is less stereo typing these days, but its up to us males to prove we are worthy of a parents and childs trust which can never be broken.

Dragonstorm(Andrew)

The only thing I could possibly suggest for male child care taker (and I'm not a child care worker) is to be open, genuine, and honest to the parents and kids (which I'm sure you are anyway). Give parents time to get to know you and gain their trust. I understand how difficult it must be for you; it is similar in nursing - male nurses (especially in peads) often get that "look" and doubt thrust upon them. Not fair. To be honest, I would LOVE my DD's childcare centre to have a male worker so that she can have a balance of influences and not just those from the (very lovely) female workers.

Hi Jeremy
A great BIg welcome to you.

Many years ago I worked in a Center. I had the pleasure of working with the best GL on this green planet. HE was amazing.
When i started there he was working in the babies room. You should have seen their faces light up when he walked into the room.
It was a priv to watch him weave his magic.
Many years later when doing my Cert III in CS I found him Teaching Early Childhood at TAFE. He was amazing before but what he bought to the classroom was out of this world.

I truly respect you for what you do. MEN can bring so much to this industry.
As you said children need both genders to round them off.

I wish you every succession your studies and future.

Hey Jeremy,

At the centre where I work, we have three male staff members as we are a double centre, and in the previous centre I worked at we had 2. The kids absolutely love my male colleagues as in the case for half the kids in both the preschool rooms, their parents are divorced. So the boys absolutely love having another male role model that they get to see on a regular basis. Hope this helps.

Cheers,
Angela.

Hi Everyone,
I am a 44yr old male and I have just started doing Cert 3 in Childrens services,its taken me so long to finally do this because when I was younger around 18 - 20 yr mark I approached a local childcare centre about work and the female there told me not to waste my time as men are pedophiles and there would be hope of me ever getting a foot in the door,so my dream went out the window till about a month ago and friend asked had I ever thought of working with childrens as i just love playing "The Big Kid" as there are places out there looking for males. This got me excited and I did some back ground investigating and found out that the career is lacking males so now I have started a TAFE course here in Adelaide and I couldn't be happier with my late in life change of job.

Welcome Dion,

It is wonderful to hear that you are finally able to follow your dreams! I am so sorry that you were not received well the 1st time you tried.

Feel free to seek support here. Help with your studies or add your wisdom to other posts.
yjis site is wonderfully supportive.

Good luck and I hope we hear much more from you.

Lindy

Good for you, everyone deserves to do what they want to.
Good luck with the studies and we are all hear to help you along the way should you need the help.

I approached a local childcare centre about work and the female there told me not to waste my time as men are pedophiles and there would be hope of me ever getting a foot in the door,

WTF?? what a horrible thing to say! You wouldn't want to work in childcare centres that are stupid like that!

As I said that was more than 20yrs ago and I would hope by now that peoples opinions of males working in childcare has changed....well one would hope anyway..lol
Regards
Dion

I certainly hope so.
I think you will find males more accepted now in childcare and plenty of places happy to employ a male

Its been a while and no-one has posted for a while so I thought I'd update you all on my experience so far.
Fefe76 will know that I am now studying a BA in early childhood studies. I am currently in my second Study Period and finding it great. But bloody hard doing 2 units at a time (equivalent to full time study) as well as working (Part-time). I am studying via OUA and Curtin University. The hard part is finding time to share between Wife, Son, Work, House repairs, Gardening, Study, Study, Study & Study.
Not muchtime left over to shower myself. I get the chance to spend Monday mornings at my sons (Nate) prep class for an hour and help run learning games and introducing the children to the letter of the week. I have a great resource in his teacher yet I havent really asked for any help.
In short its fun, hard and fun, fun, fun.....
loving it!
Cheers
Dragonstorm (Andrew R)
ps: by my count thats 3 males.

But you found time to post Andrew lol. That's valuable shower time

Imagine all the 'Free' time you will have once you have completed your study!

I have a few Primary and Secondary Teachers that use my Service and they are a wealth of knowledge. They actually love being able to help whenever I ask a question. They are amazed how we manage all 'Those Little People" and i am amazed how they manage all those Bigger People. So we have mutual admiration going on.

Keep you chin up Andrew we are all here cheering you on!