What is the Staff to Child ratio in a nursery?

SURVEY FOR PARENTS: Would you allow your childs nursery teacher to give your child a kiss?

• Would you allow your childs nursery teacher to give your child a kiss? I work in a girl's only nursery (at a private school) with children aged 6 weeks to 8 years. And I was wondering if you would find it ok for a member of staff to kiss your child if you had one in a nursery (not out of the blue obviously!) but if a child asked for a kiss whats your views on it? and how would you feel if they kissed the child open mouth? is this grounds for a sexual harassment law suit? btw, I'm a 49 year old american woman, if that makes a difference.

• Answer:

  I'll start at the end. Your age and sex should not make a difference. For that matter, neither should the teachers. An "open mouth" kiss with a minor is absolutely inappropriate under all cases, so if that happened, you should report it to the proper authorities. I have seen kids hug and kiss a teacher on the cheeks and he/she did not kiss back. That seems the most appropriate thing for the teacher to do, but I don't think a peck on the cheek, which is acceptable in most cultures in this world (heck most parts of europe they greet each other with a kiss on the cheek) is out of particularly out of order either. Luckily, I've never taught nursery level kids to know what kind of things they deal with. Obviously, the teacher is teaching them appropriate behavior for the school settings they'll be in for the next decade and a half, so explaining to the kid that maybe hugging is okay but kissing is not might be a good lesson to bring up when this happens. After all, moreso than the teacher, when a kid goes around hugging and kissing other kids, they could cause real discomfort to their fellow students.