History Main / DaycareNightmare

* ''VideoGame/{{Kindergarten}}'': The eponymous kindergarten is a BlackComedy version of this, complete with a bloodthirsty janitor, apathetic teacher, TriggerHappy principal, and [[spoiler:[[OurDemonsAreDifferent some kind of demonic being living beneath the sandpit]]]].

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Rugrats}}'' had a couple of episodes centered around this.

** Subverted in another episode, "Dayscare", where Chuckie and Kimi are sent to another daycare center. This one is shown to be a very cool and fun place. But Chuckie, being the shy, paranoid, easily frightened little boy he is, still spends the whole episode expecting something bad to happen until his sister finally convinces him to chill out... literally, they're having ice cream!

Welcome to Happy Happy Daycare Center, where your child will have all the fun he/she could ask for while Mom and Dad are at work. Yes, indeed, we are going to have a happy happy day here. At least until the parents are out of sight.

Needless to say this can be TruthInTelevision. Any combination of poor management, unmotivated or unskilled low-paid staff, poor facilities etc. can lead to this.

If it's the kids, you can expect the place to be a kiddie version of a prison, where the employees act (and sometimes look) like prison guards. They'll punish kids for even the tiniest of infractions (like "having fun"), or sometimes even worse. Other works may have employees who actually seem nice and friendly, but are maybe a little ''too nice''. [[MisplacedKindergartenTeacher These employees will treat all the children, regardless of age, like little kids.]] In this case they will use excessive "baby talk" when addressing the kids, sing all kinds of cheesy, terrible, overly happy songs, and always wear an ultra-creepy smile on their face. In cases like this, the younger children may not mind so much, but older kids will absolutely HATE it. But in darker stories, the staff might even be physically abusive and the parents [[AdultFear will be horrified]] because they are entrusting the safety and well being of their children to the staff, only to find out that their children are being abused.

[[folder: Video Games]]

[[folder: Web Original]]

[[folder: Western Animation]]

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* In one episode of ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'', Stewie is in a daycare center where the caretaker just doesn't care. Brian wants to help him, until he meets the caretaker and she's hot. Then he doesn't want to help, hoping to have sex with her instead. He does eventually have her arrested, but only after he finds out that she already has a boyfriend. An earlier episode has Stewie mentioning something about a daycare where the teacher hits the kids.

Many times when a daycare center appears in a work of fiction, it is the furthest thing from a happy, fun place. It's often a place of misery, of torment, [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin of.....nightmares]]. Of course, whether it's the kids or the adults working at the daycare who are having the nightmare depends entirely on the work itself. The point is ''someone'' is not having a good time.

If it's the kids, you can expect the place to be a kiddie version of a prison. Where the employees act (and sometimes look) like prison guards. They'll punish kids for even the tiniest of infractions (like "having fun"), or sometimes even worse. Other works may have employees who actually seem nice and friendly, but are maybe a little ''too nice''. [[MisplacedKindergartenTeacher These employees will treat all the children, regardless of age, like little kids.]] In this case they will use excessive "baby talk" when addressing the kids, sing all kinds of cheesy, terrible, overly happy songs, and always wear an ultra creepy smile on their face.. In cases like this, the younger children may not mind so much, but older kids will absolutely HATE it. But in darker stories, the staff might even be physically abusive and the parents [[AdultFear will be horrified]] because they are entrusting the safety and well being of their children to the staff, only to find out that their children are being abused.

Needless to say this can be TruthInTelevision. Any combination of poor management, unmotivated or unskilled low paid staff, poor facilities etc. can lead to this.

[[folder: Films -- Animated ]]
* ''WesternAnimation/ToyStory3''. An odd example, since it's not a nightmare for any humans involved. Andy is now 17 and heading for college. He tries to put his old toys in the attic for storage, since they have a lot of sentimental value for him. But a mix-up during cleaning gets them donated to Sunnyside Daycare by accident. At first it seems like a dream come true for the toys, since any time the kids get older, newer and younger children will simply come in to replace them. However, it isn't long before the they learn [[spoiler: Lots-O-Huggin Bear runs the daycare and rules over the other toys like a dictator. He forces the new arrivals into the "Caterpillar" room, where the children are all toddlers who are too young to know how to play with those particular toys. They break real fast. And anytime a toy tries to either escape the facility or move themselves to the "Butterfly" room where the older, more well behaved children are, Lots-O's guards will grab them and imprison them until the next morning when the kids return]].

[[folder: Films -- Live-Action ]]
* In ''Film/ThePursuitOfHappyness'', Gardner has to leave his son at a daycare while he desperately tries to make ends meet for his family. However, he becomes increasingly displeased with the service because the children seem to receive no education at all, have to watch TV the whole day, and [[ArsonMurderandJaywalking a mural outside the daycare spells "Happyness" rather than "Happiness".]]

[[folder: Live-Action TV]]
* ''Series/AdamRuinsEverything'' says that this trope is part of the reason for TheEighties' panic over UsefulNotes/{{Satanism}}, saying that since daycares were a relatively new innovation at the time, and because the traditional NuclearFamily had changed thanks to more and more women going into the workforce (and staying in it even after [[CareerVersusMan marriage]] and [[CareerVersusFamily babies]], something that many people did not approve of at that time) people were more than willing to believe that they were engaging in Satanic child sacrifice/sex rituals. Police who interviewed witnesses, interviewed frightened children, and even manipulated those kids into confirming those rumors, leading to many daycare owners (who, of course, had ''not'' engaged in any of those attrocities) losing their jobs and being thrown in {{Prison}}.

[[folder: Newspaper Comics ]]
* Uncle Duke from Creator/GarryTrudeau's strip ''ComicStrip/{{Doonesbury}}'' operated the "Nuthin' But Orphans" daycare center in Aspen, Colorado. State inspectors cited him for numerous deficiencies, but "plenty of duct tape, though."

[[folder: Video Games ]]
* ''VideoGame/{{Kindergarten}}'': The eponymous kindergarten is a BlackComedy version of this, complete with a bloodthirsty janitor, apathetic teacher, TriggerHappy principle and [[spoiler:[[OurDemonsAreDifferent some kind of demonic being living beneath the sandpit]]]].

[[folder: Web Animation ]]
* The main setting of the first three seasons of ''[[WebAnimation/ShutUpCartoons Smosh Babies]]'' is a run-down daycare center owned by the appropriately-named Mrs. Buttz. Half the time, she is apathetic towards the children of her clients, and the other half the time, she and her dog, Bark-Bark, enforce physical violence on them. In the first season, the playground was rusted-up and guarded by a [[TerribleTrio trio of three-year-old bullies]], and in the second season, it was replaced by a parking lot for old people [[note]]because a man paid Mrs. Buttz a lot of money to let him build it there[[/note]]. [[FreezeFrameBonus The Daycare's certificate of authenticity is revealed to be expired]], and on top of all that, the daycare apparently doesn't have a diaper service, as there is a shed near it that has the sole purpose of storing [[NauseaFuel soiled diapers]].

[[folder: Web Original ]]
* The {{Creepypasta}} story ''HappySunDaycare'' centers around one of these. The narrator, a reporter for an online news site, decides to do an investigation on the titular daycare, which had closed years prior to when the story begins. Throughout the story, he finds out that people heard strange noises and children were found with mysterious injuries. He then learns that particularly unruly children were sent to the "Gray Door" room and trapped inside with a vicious dog as punishment. After heading to the abandoned daycare and investigating the aforementioned "Gray Door" room, he comes to the horrifying realization that [[spoiler:it wasn't a dog that was used to terrorize the children]] but the janitor [[spoiler:who happens to be a werewolf completely unaware of the horror he had caused.]]

[[folder: Western Animation ]]

** One episode, "[[Recap/RugratsS2E3TheBigHouseTheShot The Big House]]", had Tommy dropped off at a daycare where the staff acted like prison guards and proudly proclaimed to the parents that there had never been an escape. Tommy and the other babies try to do just that [[spoiler: until the parents just happen to show up at the moment they were about to break out]].
** Subverted in another episode, "Dayscare", where Chuckie and Kimi are sent to another daycare center. This one is shown to be a very cool and fun place. But Chuckie, being the shy, paranoid, easily frightened little boy he is still spends the whole episode expecting something bad to happen until his sister finally convinces him to chill out....literally, they're having ice cream!

** The episode "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS4E2AStreetcarNamedMarge A Streetcar Named Marge]]" showcased a daycare center that ran like TheAlcatraz (and to take things further, it was named after Creator/AynRand) that locked pacifiers away to force children to stop depending on them. The whole sub-plot with Maggie then runs like a parody of ''Film/TheGreatEscape''.
** The ThreeShorts episode "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS20E20FourGreatWomenAndAManicure Four Great Women And A Manicure]]" goes further with the Randian psychology by making the whole Maggie plot/short a parody of ''Literature/TheFountainhead'', having Maggie battling a daycare center principal that enforced conformism amongst all children (to "train them" for lives where they were all the same... that is, mediocre and accepting of it) and thus sees Maggie's artistic aspirations as a threat.
** The episode "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS20E16EenyTeenyMayaMoe Eeny Teeny Maya Moe]]" has Homer using a daycare center that had just opened right next to Moe's Bar to leave Maggie while he gets drunk. It turns out that the kids in the center are all hyper-territorial bullies that gang up on Maggie, [[AdultsAreUseless and none of the adults in the center (and the Simpsons, at least at first) notice this]].
* In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' Stewie is in a daycare center where the caretaker just doesn't care. Brian wants to help him, until he meets the caretaker and she's hot. Then he doesn't want to help, hoping to have sex with her instead. He does eventually have her arrested, but only after he finds out that she already has a boyfriend. An earlier episode had Stewie mentioning something about a daycare where the teacher hits the kids.