We just found out my 3 year old grandson’s daycare wants him gone due to him not listening and thus taking up too much of the staff’s time dealing with him. They gave a one month notice to remove him. He has been going here for two years and has always been happy. When he turned 3 years old a couple of months ago he was moved over to the bigger kid’s room. He still was happy to attend. There have been several complaints over the last few months, and I’m not sure if the complaints started before or after he moved to the bigger kids room, about his poor listening skills and warnings that he will not be welcome there soon. Recently, and this is what caused the expulsion, a staff member was busy dealing with him and was unable to watch the other kids, and a little girl fell and hurt her head badly enough to go to emergency. Thank goodness the little girl is fine. This was the last straw. The daycare manager thinks it was unfair to expel him but the daycare owner wanted him out. It’s very distressing. His parents work full time. I and my husband watch him and his 5 year old brother when either of them is off sick. Quality daycare spaces rarely come vacant, and have long waiting lists. The parents are relying on us to watch him of course. No other relatives around. He’s a sweet little guy but has delayed speech and is hard to communicate with plus he doesn’t listen well. He is a bit of a handful for a couple of hours but I dread watching him all day, every day. But there is no other choice. I’m 67 and pretty overweight and have bad knees, and husband has back pain and generally doesn’t enjoy dealing with the kids for long stretches. I am feeling quite overwhelmed but will do our best to manage until a good quality daycare space is found. Other people have worse problems, and I have to put it in perspective. Actually the little lad is on a waiting list to receive speech therapy, and there is a speech development preschool close by with an eight month waiting list. So hopefully he will do better there. I will try to give him lots of one on one attention to encourage his speech plus bring him to any local drop-in play groups available. I just feel a little teary over it all. I just tell myself it could be worse.
How should a family manage an estranged relationship?
Good Morning Sunday 28th June 2026


