Heres a big daycare faux pas... DON'T steal other kids clothing!!!

I've had several of my daughters items and one special blanket of my sons go missing from daycare. And everytime they do I think "THIS is a one of a kind item.. how the heck can another parent take it home mistaking it for their own childs belonging?"

I've finally realized that they DON'T realize it doesn't belong to their child.

Two weeks ago my daughters sunhat went missing. Items that my children wear often become special to me. They build memories. It took me months to stop being furious when my sons blanket disappeared (being one of his sleep lovies, that was hand made by my husbands aunt and being NECESSARY to to put my son to sleep.)

Well today I'm walking out with my class of children (I work at the daycare) and I see a girl in my sons class wearing my daughters hat. Her cubby is right next to my sons so it becomes clear to me what happened. It got put in her cubby by mistake and they 'claimed' it as their own hat. I had already talked to the teachers and described the hat. So when the child wore it in to daycare today they thought it must be hers because it came in with her. So it's been at her house for TWO WEEKS. GRRR. I stop and talk to grandmother pointing out that she's wearing my daughters hat that I've been looking for. Grandma disagrees with me and says "No that's her's, she's had it for a few days."
"No," I disagree "That's Cara's, I've spoken to all the teachers about it, it went missing two weeks ago and my sons cubby is right next to your grand daughters. It's one of a kind."
Grand ma replies "No this is her hat I'm sure."
"Uhh, no. I'm afraid it's not, it's my daughters. It's one of a kind. Made on Salt Spring Island, my daughters had that hat since she was 1.5 and it's very likely that theres not another one that looks like it in Canada. It was a gift from her grandparents and she's been wearing it for 3 years now."
Grandma says "Oh well I'll ask her mom." Jumps in the truck and drives away WITH MY DAUGHTERS HAT!!!

It's so infuriating. If my kids pop up with a belonging I don't recognize, I question. I wonder "hmm, where did this come from? I didn't buy it. Their dad didn't buy it, perhaps I should look in to this further." But NO. I've found here that people just claim items as their own. Have they no shame???

I've talked to my sons teacher and she assures me that mom will return the hat, she's not the type to keep it. Never the less was it necessary for grandma to speed away with it on a Friday night. I'll be upset if I don't get it back now. The blanket was the last straw for me. I try now to be very carefull with their belongings. I'm sure that this hat at one time even had a mabels label on it. I better get it back on monday morning. Or I'm pulling out the photo album with images of my 1.5 year old daughter wearing this hat.

I have to admit, I've had parents deliberately keep weirder items. It makes me so mad.

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