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I just feel "off" about this daycare...

mcdmawmcdmaw
in Babies: 0 - 3 Months

I relocated last July to a small, rural town in central Missouri.  It is stinking impossible to find good child care here.  I mean, it is haaarrrddd.  I finally got a great in home/center hybrid to take my 20 month old.  I love it the provider and she loves my daughter.  My daughter has really thrived.  BUT-- she can't take my son until he is walking.

 So, I searched and searched and finally found another place-- a center-- that will take my 7 week old.  I really like the owner/provider but her workers just seem really lax and unprofessional.  Plus, today when I dropped off paperwork (owner was not there), there was one girl with 5 children under the age of two.  She was not wearing shoes and didn't appear to be listening too well.  It makes my stomach knot up!  

I just feel so "stuck" because there is no other in home/facility that (a) takes infants, and (b) has openings.  o_O

I am almost to the point of getting down on my knees and begging my current daycare to take my son.  = ( 

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Re: I just feel "off" about this daycare...

  • mben1119mben1119 member
    No shoes inside seems like a good thing, to me. That way they aren't tracking nastiness in with their shoes.  In what way was she not listening?  To the kids?  5 under 2 can be overwhelming, and not all voices can be heard at the same time.
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  • Annie234567Annie234567 member

    Follow your instincts.  If the place gives you a bad vibe, don't leave your baby there.  Begging the place you like is always an option.  Also, there have to be other places that take infants because there must be other people in your situation (I would think so anyway -- having a newborn sounds like a pretty common issue).  The key is to find those people and ask them what they do.  Do you attend a church or have any friends in that area yet?  Ask anyone you know or anyone you see with a young kid what they do for daycare.  You also might be able to find moms in your area through meetup.com and ask them what they do.  Eventually you'll hear of somewhere you hadn't heard of yet.  GL!  

    ETA: This might be a dumb question, but have you asked the provider you like if she knows anyone who takes babies the age of yours?  She might know other caregivers in your area.

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  • jsillyfunjsillyfun member
    Hmm, I'd go with begging. Could you look for a nanny maybe? An au pair? Sounds like a tough situation, but I wouldn't go with someone who gives you a bad feeling. How can this woman care for a 7 week old in addition to five other kids under the age of two? 
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  • annette4797annette4797
    Go with you guy!! It it gives you an "off " feeling don't live your baby there!!
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  • mcdmawmcdmaw

    imagemabenner1:
    No shoes inside seems like a good thing, to me. That way they aren't tracking nastiness in with their shoes.  In what way was she not listening?  To the kids?  5 under 2 can be overwhelming, and not all voices can be heard at the same time.

    She wasn't listening to me very well.  I was explaining cloth diapers and also what you can and cannot do with them. She didn't make good eye contact.  I feel like if I had said "so, what did you hear me say?", she would have just stared at me blankly.  I was also explaining about BM vs. formula and how I wanted that done. 

     

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  • mcdmawmcdmaw
    imageTheWishiest:

    Follow your instincts.  If the place gives you a bad vibe, don't leave your baby there.  Begging the place you like is always an option.  Also, there have to be other places that take infants because there must be other people in your situation (I would think so anyway -- having a newborn sounds like a pretty common issue).  The key is to find those people and ask them what they do.  Do you attend a church or have any friends in that area yet?  Ask anyone you know or anyone you see with a young kid what they do for daycare.  You also might be able to find moms in your area through meetup.com and ask them what they do.  Eventually you'll hear of somewhere you hadn't heard of yet.  GL!  

    ETA: This might be a dumb question, but have you asked the provider you like if she knows anyone who takes babies the age of yours?  She might know other caregivers in your area.

    I know it sounds strange but this town is seriously hurting for childcare under the age of 2.  Now 2 and over, you are golden.  I know my boss at work takes her baby ( now 12 months) to the Catholic daycare and pays almost $200 a week.  Again, this is rural Missouri, and those kind of rates are ridiculous!  Plus, I even checked with them and their wait list has 17 names on it currently waiting for an infant spot.

     This is also an economically depressed area of the state/country.  Every daycare I've talked to has mentioned sliding scale, WIC, etc  (not judging, just saying we don't qualify so it does me no good).  I know there is a "teen mom" crisis in this school system currently and so I am not really sure what these people are doing with their children.  And oh, there are some places with openings but generally, around here at least, if the center has an opening and you didn't have to wait -- its probably not fit for your pet.  I toured one center when we first moved here that had dried vomit on the floor and a child was in a onsies with poop smeared on it.  I wanted to cry.

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  • Annie234567Annie234567 member
    imagemcdmaw:

    I know it sounds strange but this town is seriously hurting for childcare under the age of 2.  Now 2 and over, you are golden.  I know my boss at work takes her baby ( now 12 months) to the Catholic daycare and pays almost $200 a week.  Again, this is rural Missouri, and those kind of rates are ridiculous!  Plus, I even checked with them and their wait list has 17 names on it currently waiting for an infant spot.

     This is also an economically depressed area of the state/country.  Every daycare I've talked to has mentioned sliding scale, WIC, etc  (not judging, just saying we don't qualify so it does me no good).  I know there is a "teen mom" crisis in this school system currently and so I am not really sure what these people are doing with their children.  And oh, there are some places with openings but generally, around here at least, if the center has an opening and you didn't have to wait -- its probably not fit for your pet.  I toured one center when we first moved here that had dried vomit on the floor and a child was in a onsies with poop smeared on it.  I wanted to cry.

    Ugh, that sounds awful.  I'm sorry you're going through this. I'm from MO originally.  What part of the state are you in?  Boot heel?

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  • cswatchcswatch
    imageTheWishiest:

    Follow your instincts.  If the place gives you a bad vibe, don't leave your baby there.  Begging the place you like is always an option.  Also, there have to be other places that take infants because there must be other people in your situation (I would think so anyway -- having a newborn sounds like a pretty common issue).  The key is to find those people and ask them what they do.  Do you attend a church or have any friends in that area yet?  Ask anyone you know or anyone you see with a young kid what they do for daycare.  You also might be able to find moms in your area through meetup.com and ask them what they do.  Eventually you'll hear of somewhere you hadn't heard of yet.  GL!  

    ETA: This might be a dumb question, but have you asked the provider you like if she knows anyone who takes babies the age of yours?  She might know other caregivers in your area.

    This.  If you get a weird vibe then I would trust your own intuition and either resort to begging the current provider to take your LO or try to get recs from them or something, but for me personally, I wouldn't want to leave my LO somewhere if I got a negative vibe or bad feeling about the place.  Good luck! 

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  • vjmc21vjmc21 member

    Listen to your gut.  If it feels off, then it's probably off.  That being said, was she walking around in bare feet or socks?  I've worked at several daycare centers through high school and college and none of the infant/toddler teachers ever wore shoes to keep the floors clean.  Also, the ratio in my state for infants is 1 worker to 4 babies.  1 to 5 is probably your state's ratio.  While it might seem like a lot, you'll be hard-pressed to find a center that will be under the state's ratio of children to care-givers.  As far as her not paying attention to you, think of it this way, if someone came in to talk to your child's care-giver would you rather she paid more attention to the person talking to her or the children in her care?  Like you said, she had 5 kids to watch, she should've been paying better attention to them than to you. 

    Again, if you feel it's off, don't go, but from your description, it sounds pretty normal to me. 

    Edit:  I read back through this and it probably seems like I'm trying to encourage you to go there.  I'm not doing that, but just from your description, a lot of the things seemed typical to me, so I'm not sure if other centers would be much different.  Hope that makes sense :)

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