They DO need a second teacher, but probably can’t afford to hire one. Personally, I don’t think there should ever be only one teacher in a room full of toddlers or younger. Oh you could handle two by yourself, but I think even with just three or four you need a second person there. One person can change diapers, snarf out boogers with the syringe, give medicine, rock someone who is fussy or tantrumy and the other teacher can watch over the group. Toddlers really need one on one attention time that you can’t give with more than 2 kids in the room.
You may have to get distracted from the changing table to attend to another kid ar t ANY time—not just the biter. What if one of the students suddenly fell down and hurt themselves or had a seizure? What if a bee came in through the window and all the toddlers started freaking out? What if a kid suddenly puked or had a diaper blow out that was leaking on the floor? Stuff happens when you have little ones, and the smaller they are, the more help they need to deal with it.
She’s tossing kids in the pack and play because she needs a second pair of eyes and hands and doesn’t have it. This worries me for a number of reasons. Unless you have a pack and play for every kid, you can’t make sure nothing happens to the semi-unsupervised kids while you’re changing a diaper or whatever. The biting is just one thing she knows is more likely to happen, but the other stuff can easily happen .. and some of my examples aren’t too far out there.
Another reason your daycare situation disturbs me is because it sounds stressful for the day care worker. And when they get stressed out, they may be good and have a perfect record for 10 – 15 years. But all it takes is ONE really bad day after a long sleepless night and one especially needy, whiny or cranky kid—and the teacher is alone without someone to help her with backup—and she could blow a gasket and hurt someone.
I think a lot of those daycare abuse stories you here aren’t from terrible daycares that had horrible conditions. They mostly come from good people who meant well, but snapped and made a terrible mistake. When you’re working with at least one other adult, they can keep you in check and tell you to go take a 15 minute break and get yourself and your temper in check. People who work with large numbers of small kids REALLY need this.