A library 15-20 minutes down the highway from us advertised a couple of storytimes this year. One toddler-friendly deal, parents stay, no registration; one for ages 4 and up, ‘parents are welcome to use this time to run errands,’ said the leaflet. Registration req’d, 45min, story, song, small craft.
I registered and brought my 4yo. A brisk lady was busy shooing the kids (3 others?) off into a separate room closed off from the rest of the library. We followed. I was asked to leave, without any lead-up or explanation or ‘Well, we don’t usually allow the parents to stay but you could take a seat there’ or anything, just: no parents.
I was not into leaving my kid with an unknown, unsupervised individual, and she had absolutely no interest in staying. We went home.
The room they’re using is a large rectangular thing with a rug &c at one end and a bunch of random chairs at the other; that parents couldn’t occupy the chairs and make sure their kids were happy and make sure the entertainment &c was something worth driving there for was, I thought, bizarre.
My instinct is to write a polite letter to the library telling them their policy is nutty. But. Is this at all common? Have you ever seen a library that kicks out the parents for a storytime? What would you say?
I don’t know how useful a letter might be as the beat-it-Mummy lady is the children’s librarian (!) and, I would assume, highly unlikely to renounce her storytime duties, and she was clearly not an empathetic caregiver of the sort I’m ever going to want to entertain my kid even if I’m ten feet away. OTOH our closer library, which is affiliated with this one, has a WONDERFUL storytime lady, and I almost want to say “Mrs Library #2 should consider attending storytime with Mrs Library #1 to see how it can work with parents in the room, etc” and generally hint that more training is req’d…
[suggested category –> Computers & Internet > Programming & Design ]
Categorized | Featured Articles
What Would You Make Of This [about A Library Storytime]…?
Posted on October 9, 2011.
…. That is weird.
I mean they are not day-care providers or anything of the type. They are librarians. What happens if one of the kids poos his pants? Or starts crying histerically for mommy?
I’ve never attended any activity where parents were not allowed. This sounds really weird to me. If you’re really interested in having your child attend this activity, then yes follow up. Call them and ask what the deal is.
If you’re not that into it anyway, I wouldn’t bother going through the trouble of contacting them.
But I do ALOT of kid activities with my son, and I’ve never heard of “no parents allowed”.
Maybe you could ask to volunteer at the library and show her a better way to do her job. Having said that, i do not attend story time at the library. I read to my own children and just do not see the need in it. Not that it is a bad idea, i just have never felt the need to go. It is odd that parents arent allowed.
That just screams weird. I wouldn’t let any child stay there if I wasn’t allowed in.
And really- that was the suggested category?
That is very odd… I always remember my mom in the back of the room during storytime…
If I were you, I wouldn’t bother with the letter. Chances are, the parents dropping their kids off unsupervised to a stranger really don’t care that that’s how the situation is, and you’ve got a closer library that you like better.
Our local library has the same policy. I waited outside the door and didn’t take him back.
I would never leave my child alone in the room with a stranger. No way. I would write that letter. It sounds a little fishy to me.
expecting parents not to stay becomes more common for activities in the 5 and up crowd. i have heard justifications ranging from “it’s tough on the kids whose parents aren’t there to see other kids with their parents” to “some kids are distracted and won’t fully participate with the parents there.”
but honestly i think if somebody is looking after my kid, they’d better be okay with my coming into the room at any point, or i’m going to wonder what it is they don’t want me to see. every top-quality caregiver/teacher/coach/etc. i’ve ever seen has welcomed parents because they’ve got nothing to hide and aren’t self-conscious about what they’re doing.
There is a lot of words there but I think you are meaning to say it is pretty dang stupid to have non-parent supervised library time when the nearest bar is more than a 15 minute walk away. Instead of writing a letter of complaint, I (being a man of capitalism) would take the opportunity to open a bar to accommodate the parents that have managed to ditch their kids on the unsuspecting library, and are in need of a drink to calm their nerves before they have to pick them up again.
I live in Toronto and I don’t know of any libraries that ask the parents to leave. Of course our good for nothing mayor wants to close libraries so…
At the very least, if parents staying is some sort of issue at the library, that should be clearly noted so parents are well aware.
thats insane, and suspicious. ive never been asked to leave library storytime. id go next week early, and her if she minds if you stay in the back of the room. when she says no, ask why not? and dont leave until she answers.
Surely you have more than one library in the area, find another that allows parent/child story time. Ours sure did, I miss that so much now that my son is older.
Eff that K, just rent the kid movies instead. So much more entertaining than some old lady reading to them.