Daycare Woes and Life December 1, 2005
Posted by spacemom in : Kids , 1 comment so farI’ve been a little AWOL lately. I feel I should explain.
We got back from a wonderful Thanksgiving trip on Saturday. It was a ton of fun. Soleil and Luna had a great time, but I must say, that driving in New Jersey SUCKS. (Sorry Kristen). At one point it took 15 minutes to go 2 miles on the Turnpike. Sigh. And we returned on the easier drive day! It took less time to cross the GW (George Washington Bridge for those who are not familiar with NYC) and drive to Boston than it did to drive through NJ!! I kid you not!
Sunday was spent readjusting Soleil and Luna. Soleil was mostly fine. There was a dusting of snow, so she wanted to go out. Luna was not happy with the snow. She screamed that every outside toy had snow on it. "Slide" sob… "Ball" sob… "Slide"sob..
We also had to adjust Luna to her stuff again. The cousins we visited have a boy that is 9 months younger than Soleil (yes, they got pregnant just as we were on bedrest with Soleil). He played great with Soleil, but everything was "mine" if Luna touched it, including the dogs!
Monday night, I checked my sitemeter and discovered the Julie was hunting around again…Sigh
Tuesday morning, I had an email from our friend L, whose daughter Rachael is Soleil’s best friend at daycare…
Let me back up and explain about daycare.
When we found this one, the infant staff had been there for 10+ years. The newest infant staff member had been there for 3 years. I was only 3 months pregnant, but since I was out of the first trimester and it looked like this pregnancy might actually work, we decided we better get on the list. It is not uncommon in the Boston area to wait 8 months or more for an infant spot. It is like buying a Prius. Soleil did great there. We were thrilled. The paperwork was lacking, but hey, they took care of Soleil very well.
Then when i got pregnant with Luna, we told them about her. I was put on bedrest again for 3 weeks (another long story) and Dr. Jay took care of Soleil and daycare. I found out when I was able to move again and I was off the "really nasty medicine" that the director was leaving. I was very upset. She had been there for almost 15 years.
The change happened while I was on maternity leave. Day care has gone downhill since that day.
The new directory, Mary, is an autocrat. She is horrible. She will dress down the staff in public notes posted where the parents can see it. She has implemented policies of "no inappropriate shoes" and "no inappropriate dress". Turns out she didn’t want the staff wearing flip flops or shorts! Hello? Who cares? I want the staff to be happy and relaxed and keep the kids happy, and safe.
The toddler coordinator left at the same time as the director. She was great! But they moved Joan to that
position. Joan is an infant person. She runs the toddlers like little
adults. Poor Luna. She can sit down in a chair in two seconds flat.
Why? Because of the way Joan runs the place. It makes me sick!
There has been an outflow of staff. We’ve gone through at least 5 toddler teachers. The preschool is short staffed, toddler 1 and 2 are always short staffed and the started mixing the classes. These classes are separated by age. This is important because toddler 1 is 15-24 months. Toddler 2 is 24-33 months. Luna has been picking up the lovely habit of WWE smackdown from one of the toddler 2 kids. I have seen him come up to me and hit me, followed by Luna running up to me and hitting me the same way. UGH.
About 6 weeks ago, a terrible thing happened. The Toddler 2 staff was below state regs, so they made one of the preschool teachers go over. The staff was stressed and forgot to count the kids as they went in from the playground. One student was left on the playground. We work with his dad, so that is how we found out. Mary fired the two teachers involved. I asked Mary to tell the parents what happened and she said she was advised not to by the district office.
The preschool program has deteriorated since the preschool teacher left. There is little art work done. There is very little educational stuff.
Every day I find Soleil playing on the computer when we pick her up. I
was told by the staff that Soleil could read. Really? NO SHIT PEOPLE!!!
I TOLD YOU THAT MONTHS AGO!!!! I know the teacher that was fired was helping Soleil with
reading, but the other teachers have let it slide. Come on folks, the
girl is INTERESTED. She doesn’t nap, so take that time to work with
her. It isn’t that hard!
Now they are moving preschool 1 kids up to preschool 2
because they are short staffed. This means preschool 2 is over loaded
and the kids are suffering. The single preschool 2 teacher is at his limits. There are violent events everyday. One kid punched another in the nose and he had a bloody nose. One kid constantly beats on Soleil and Rachael. This same kid pulled down another kid’s pants. Yesterday, Soleil said that kid M kicked kid R so kid R turned around and punched Soleil i n the head. And Kid M, reportedly says "fuck" on a regular basis.
So L called me and told me that they are moving Rachael to another daycare. I went to the tour of the facility with them. It was amazing. This place is teaming with projects, happy kids, clean areas. The art work is cool, the toys are neat. I get good vibes from this place.
All of the teachers are happy in their classrooms. Nobody looks stressed. They gave us a 90 minute tour. They answered all of the questions I could think of at the time.
I mailed the cheque yesterday. Soleil and Luna will start in January.
The stresses of life!
