My Husband and I are having a bit of a struggle with Daycare options, and are looking for unbiased opinions on our situation. This will be a long one to give all of the specific details.Tl;dr: Issues with current daycare center are weighing heavily on us and we aren’t sure if we should jump ship to a new facility that is more educationally driven and has an app to check on our son at any time.Our son is 5 months old, and has been in daycare at his daycare center (We will refer to it as DC1) since 14 weeks because I returned to work full time.In recent times, I’ve been noticing some things at DC1 that I don’t particularly care for, and they were also recently investigated by the state for neglect. This claim of neglect has been posted all over the internet (Google reviews, Care.com reviews, Facebook, etc.), but the parent kept the child in the facility for 4 weeks following the incident. I’ve never had any issues with his room or his teachers- I absolutely love and appreciate them. They treat my son extremely well.The first incident that I wasn’t to keen on happened on February 8th. There was a sign up for a “Center Valentine’s Day Party,” and I decided to sign up to bring in homemade cupcakes for the students who were old enough, and the staff.Since it is a Nut-Free zone, I asked one of the workers (We will refer her her as ND. She is now the director, but I will get to that shortly) who was always trying way too hard to talk to me about the policy and procedure for bringing in homemade items since there was an allergy in the facility and I did not want to bring harm to this child. I told her that it says right on the cake mix that it is prepared in a facility with nuts, and we also use various nuts in our home very frequently.ND copped an attitude, and told me she didn’t know. I told her that I wanted to make sure that everyone was safe, and that is why I was inquiring. She responded again with “I don’t know, just individually package them or something.”I kind of dismissed it, and read up on it myself to make sure that I did things appropriately. ND is young (23-24ish if I had to guess) and it’s clear that communication isn’t her strong point.On 3/6 I walk in at normal time to pick up my son. At this point, they 1-2 year olds are finishing up their snack and getting changed. The ratios are correct for the children and staff, but I notice that ND is sitting on the floor not paying any attention to any of the children while they’re running around outside of the gated area near the exit door/office. I also notice 4 children on a large plastic stroller (Holds 12 children) that does not have brakes playing on it. They’re jumping up and down, standing on the seat, etc. ND has her back turned to them while sitting, the other two staff members are fully engaged with wiping up kids/changing them on the other side of the room, and against my better judgement (I feel awful for this in hindsight) I walked into my sons room to get him.I am in his room for 10 minutes. I get all of his belongings, talk with the staff, stop and talk to some of the 3 year olds, and go back by the exit and the stroller. The kids are still on the stroller. Yes, I should have immediately said something. Yes, I was wrong. But, ND was doing the exact same thing she was doing 10 minutes previous. Hasn’t moved, hasn’t anything. The other staff are still rounding up kids and doing what they were supposed To be doing.Fast forward to 3/8. The current director, who was an awesome person, has resigned and ND is now the director effective immediately. I go to the office manager and I ask her to point out the new director for me just so I am sure. She does, rolls her eyes (Likely because of the WTF look on my face) and goes I know, I know...throws her hands up, and says it’s just one of those things. I’m now pretty unsettled about this person being in charge of the facility that I pay to care for my son after learning this information.Back to the state investigation now, the incident occurs on 2/21 and state came in on 2/23. I’m one of the lucky recipients of the random phone call on 3/13 to ask my feelings about the center and all of that legal jazz. I raved about his room and the staff. I tell the woman I count ratios when I walk in, and I probably pay a lot more attention than most as my background is in education, and I have a soft spot for kids. She thanks me for my time, and we hang up.I decide to meet with the head director of the other large facility regarding the call from the state and also my concerns with the new director. I lay everything out, and she openly admits that ND has some serious shortcomings. She also tries the “Well she has an associates degree in early childhood, so she will be great!” I respond with “I have 3 undergraduate degrees, in addition to my Masters degree. I will be the first to tell you that a piece of paper doesn’t mean anything. Experience does.” She agrees, and says she will facilitate a meeting to discuss effective communication and the importance of keeping the children safe.I was honest with her and told her that I wasn’t feeling warm and fuzzy about my son going over to the room with ND once he is mobile. I still feel this way.The next day, when I go into the facility it dawns on me that I’ve never seen any creatives, music, or educational things happening. It is all free play. The tv is frequently on with a movie, and you have 20 kids running around like crazy. This doesn’t appeal to me because I want my son to learn and grow creatively if he is stuck someone for 45 hours per week.As I said, I love the staff he currently has, but his time with that staff is limited. He is already crawling and once he starts walking, he is getting moved into ND’s room.We decide that it’s best to start exploring other options and find a newly licensed facility (We will refer to this center as DC2) near mine and my Husband’s places of employment. It has been open since June of 2017. It is a brand new building, absolutely spotless and smelled of cleaner, the staff was extremely polite, and they use an app for communication/sending pictures/schedule updates/facility updates/paying tuition/etc.The teachers were very nice and answered all of our questions. There were educational activities everywhere, creatives everywhere, and we both had a really good vibe. The director at DC2 was willing to work with us on additional vacation days, and we could do an additional day (I will be working from home 1 day per week now so I will keep him home) with no notice.I sent DC2 an email the following morning after our tour and let them know we wanted to enroll our son. I went back over our agreement for additional days, and asked the director to respond in writing that she concurred with everything we agreed upon. I called to let her know I sent the email and would also be in to pay the deposit for his spot. She said no problem, please come in anytime and you can meet his lead teacher if you are here before 3:30. She also said she would email us the handbook when she responded to the email.I go in, meet the teacher, pay the deposit, get the enrollment packet, and then I am told that the lead teacher opens the facility and could potentially be late because she takes an Uber. I would be dropping off as soon as they open, and would have 15 minutes to get to my work to be on time. The lead teacher also made it sound like she was the only person who arrived to open, which is a safety concern for me, also.Yesterday morning I still hadn’t heard back, so two business days, so I sent another email and also added my concerns regarding the opening of the facility. At 2:00pm we still hadn’t heard anything so my Husband called. No one answered so he left a message asking for a call back.At 4:45 I received a call, and addressed everything over the phone. I was assured that more than one person opens and that someone would have the facility ready to go at their opening time. She told me a boatload of reasons as to why she didn’t get back to me in a timely manner. The lack of communication was disappointing. It does worry me that if I can’t get ahold of them to enroll my son, what happens if there is an issue? Am I going to be avoided for days?She gives me access to the app and says to contact her there if I have any more questions so she can “hopefully” get back to me sooner.I don’t think I was being overly aggressive with the communication or anything like that. I just wanted to make sure that she agreed with everything we had discussed in writing and wanted to make sure that the facility was a good fit based on our morning drop off needs. We still haven’t received the email confirmation that she concurs, but she verified verbally that she did.Here is the dilemma if you’ve stayed with me thus far...DC1: - Love the room, love his current staff. - Don’t love the director or the fact that my son will be in her room by mid summer. - It is convenient, but a bit higher in price. - Once he is 3, a policy is enforced to pay additional money if he is not picked up within 8 hours (Idk how this works well for parents that work full time) - Dislike the lack of educational activities, even though they say they’re accredited.DC2: - New building, very clean, very educationally driven. - Kind staff. - Dislike Lack of communication from director - Closer to my Husband’s work so he could potentially drop him off. Same distance for me. - Uses an App to communicate, send pictures, pay tuition, check in/out- Weary that they’re a newly licensed facility.Any insight or thoughts would be greatly appreciated. Our son adapts easily, and is a pretty easy baby overall with an incredibly bubbly personality. A move wouldn’t be difficult on him. via /r/Parenting http://ift.tt/2G8jBLw
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