“Some end up manipulating children as if they were objects.”

Beranger Lepet and Elsa Marnet, two journalists parisian, went to investigate behind the blinds of for-profit private daycares, institutions where profitability often takes precedence over service quality and children’s well-being. In SmallnessBy Robert Laffont, out in bookstores on September 7, they go back to better understand how these structures work and how they look, taking as a starting point the death of their 11-month-old granddaughter Lisa in June 2022. a micro-kindergarten in Lyon. Multiplying the testimonies of parents and kindergartens, they point to the many abuses of this sector, which has been on the rise for about 20 years. Interview with one of the authors.

Madame Figaro .- When did the rise of for-profit private day care centers occur in France?
Bérangere Lepetit. – We place it in 2004 in the form of the four main groups we quote in the book: People and Baby, Babilou, Les Petits Chaperons Rouges and La Maison Bleue. At that time, places in urban kindergartens were very expensive, only 9% were accepted for children under 3 years old. The state wanted to increase the supply at any cost. he relied on the lucrative private daycare sector, which was funded by public funds. This made his job easier, because opening day care centers for municipalities requires time, investment and money. The original idea was a good one, because today 18% of children under 3 find a place in kindergarten or twice. The problem is that the state has gradually disinvested, leaving the early childhood field open to competition without much oversight and monitoring. In doing so, we prioritized quantity over quality of service and the well-being of the child.

Are you talking? “yield pressure” exactly. To what extent does it affect the activity of these structures?
This is observed in the daily life of these nurseries, where everything is decided on the economy. Among the many testimonies we collected, one employee explained to us that in her institution she was ordered to use only three diapers per day for each child, even if one of them was sick. The same applies to food, where the size of certain structures reduces the food, based on the principle of missing 2 or 3 children. As a result, when the staff fills up, some people leave the table still hungry. There are also savings on study materials. We have seen private nurseries operating with only two books or faulty bottle warmers that spray children when they are used and cause burns to their hands.

You open too Your work in 2022 about the death of an 11-month-old girl, Lisa, at the People & Baby micro-kindergarten in Lyon…
This drama really convinced us to write a book about it because it created so many reactions and emotions in the industry. It refers to an employee who was alone with the child that morning and allegedly forced him to take detergent. It was with this tragedy that tongues started wagging, with employees speaking out about what goes on behind the doors of private day care centers. Because this woman should not have been left alone with the child that morning, she should have been accompanied. The shortage of workers in kindergartens, because the work of a child care worker is difficult and poorly valued, largely explains the redundancies of this system.

“Subtle violence” represents a whole bunch of everyday situations and gestures that put the child in an indirect uncomfortable situation.

“Subtle Violence”

What are the consequences for the child?
Overworked workers lead them to dehumanize the children they care for. Obviously, the idea is not to make generalizations, because there are often private institutions that do very well because of the presence of good directors. But despite everything, most of the testimonies we collected told about places where indifference towards children prevails. This is because in reality they have neither the time nor the mental space to take good care of themselves. Babies will be left crying for hours, their diapers will not be changed because they have a bunch of other things to do at the same time.

Can we talk about abuse in these types of cases?
There is abuse in for-profit private day care centers, but it is not widespread. What we see most inspiring, and which we attribute to this pressure from society, is “gentle violence,” a concept defined by educator Christine Shull. Then it’s a whole bunch of everyday situations and gestures that put the child in implicit discomfort.

For example?
This is, for example, walking into a room and pretending the child isn’t there by not saying hello. Or talking down about parents, and not always positively… In fact, it’s the idea that sometimes some employees manipulate children as if they were children, objects. It’s Christine Shull’s famous phrase. “Kids end up being little giggles.” We no longer pay attention to them as people.

Underlying this is the idea that as long as you are a woman, you will still know how to take good care of a child. That you don’t need a specific diploma for this

Women’s section

Isn’t such behavior also due to the fact that from August 31, 2022, kindergartens no longer require special diplomas from early childhood workers?
Some childcare workers are not trained in nurseries today, particularly due to staff shortages. I find it very distasteful and demeaning to these women because the early childhood sector is 98% female that they are not required to have degrees. Once again, there’s this underlying thought that once you have a baby, when you’re a woman, you’ll know how to take good care of a baby anyway. That it is not so difficult. We often hear expressions like: “Everyone knows how to change a diaper.” This leads us to believe that caring for young children does not require special skills, when the opposite is true. A +3 BA is required to be a “Teacher of Young Children”. It is not in vain. Diplomas exist and serve a purpose. It requires knowledge and skills that must be recognized as such.

Facing these abuses, parents who play an important role in your work feel the most helpless…
Parents come to the kindergarten only during transfer, in the morning and in the evening. Fifteen minutes each time. They are not visible what is happening during the day. Today, it is being asked, among other things, to create small gatherings, as is already the case in some community nurseries, so that there are more connections between staff, parents and children to create dialogue and transparency. This won’t solve all problems, but creating a space to talk can only be beneficial in the long run.