I run a creche. And I’m very concerned about the recent spate of negative publicity.

First you have a new book warning parents against putting their children into creches.

Then you have the Irish Times collecting information about Health & Safety Executive (HSE) reports on creches.

Now you have the Irish Examiner headlines: EVERY PARENT’S NIGHTMARE
REVEALED: THE DISTURBING DETAIL OF NEGLECT AND ABUSE IN OUR NATION’S CRECHES.

Finally you have the RTE Q&A TV programme ignoring creches: no mention of creches on tonight’s programme.

I have deliberately limited the intake into my creche. The legal ratio of adult to infant is 3:1. In my creche, it is 1:1.

Before I’d consider increasing the number of children in my cheche, I’d have to interview the parents to see whether their child-rearing habits were acceptable.

Children in my cheche sleep from 0900 to 0950, from 1200 to 1400, and from 1645-1715. At night they sleep from 1900-0700. Only children who sleep that much are ready for my creche.

Parents whose children don’t sleep that much would not fit in with the ethos of my cheche.

There is one child in my creche who has recently been waking up during the night, looking for a soother. Her parents are on their last warning: either they fix the problem or they will have to find another place for their little treasure.

I’ve advised the child’s mother that her daughter is showing signs of tired mother. I have insisted that she go to bed early for the next few nights, in a separate bed, so that she catch up with her sleep. I have recommended that the child be left in her father’s care, so that he ensures the infant sleeps through without any waking for anything.

When I said goodbye to the father, I could see that he had a serious look on his face, the look of a man determined that his child would not lose her place in my creche.

You have to use a firm hand with parents. They so often flip flop from one strategy to another when it comes to nightworking. One of my children’s parents decided to let the baby cry rather than go to her during the night. Then they changed their minds during the night and went to her with a soother. Next thing I heard on the grapevine that they were intending to go to her the second she woke in order to stop her crying.

That’s just the kind of shilly-shallying that I won’t have in my creche. Those parents know that I am drafting my report to HSE. They know that I may very well cite them.

It’s tough running a creche, but it is fulfilling. The standards we creche volk stand by are the standards the next generation need.

DO YOU KNOW WHAT GOES ON IN YOUR CHILD’S CRECHE?