That’s amazing to hear. I’m usually on the other side, trying to hold on on kids who want to jump back in the arm of their parents (because I work in daycare, not a kidnapper). It’s one of the worst part of the job. The child feels bad, the parent feel worse, and you feel like a monster (a caring monster, but still).
The worst is that usually, the kid is fine few moments after the parent leave! And then they cry even more when the parents come to pick them up. So for the parent, it’s like their kid cried all day at the daycare. When actually, he was really fine and happy the whole time !
Aside from the very good advice from @Fodder256’s partner, the one thing I always tell parents is to not hesitate and call the daycare around right after nap time (so for me, it’s around 1/2 PM.) Or even before if they want and/or are very worried. This way, you can reassure them and tell them everyting is fine. The problem is parent leave the daycare with this horrifying image of their children crying in the arm of a stranger, and that’s not a good picture to carry for a day.
As a childcare worker, the thing I will always try to do and enforce from my coworker, is to take the time to wlecome the parent when he comes back, and to give a few snippets of what the day was like for the child. It is too easy to rely on the basic care information : “he slept for 35 minutes, ate the vegetable but no dessert, and we did playdoh this morning”. This is important information, but does not convey anything meaningful, and as a parent, you feel left out of your child life, which is rough, especially so young! So, as professionnal, we need to be on point and give personnal, individualized information on what the day was like for the child.
I do realize this last advice is not very useful for parent, but please ask those question (what did he play ? What made him laugh?) if you can and feel you want to. You should not feel like you’re giving up you child for 5/6 hours and have no look into what’s happening. You’ll have plenty of time when he’s in middle school for that!
Lastly, and to rebound on the “he cries when I pick him up” cases. This is very frequent, I actually wrote a paper on it when I was in school. The thing is, when in the daycare, and with people he knows, but not so well; or even when he’s at his grandparents, or friend’s house, or anything; a child will be more closed up. He will hold more of his frustrations, fears, sadness… (with the added effect of often never having the nerve wrecking tantrum he has when he’s with you when he’s with someone else!). But, as soon as a parent comes back, he feels safe, as safe as he can be; because his dad or his mom is here. And everything is let go; because for him, you are the one who can handle it (even if we don’t really feel this way).
This last thing is, I think, very important to grasp. He does not cry because he hates you, or resent you for leaving him (we hear that way too often! It’s very guilt inducing, and not necessarily true !) You are just the only people that he feels comfortable to fully express himself to.
Anyway, those are the kind of thing I really try to tell parent when we start to take care of their child, and I hope it helps a bit ! I’m really happy everything is going great for them, and it means they are very brave and resourceful!
