April 25th...Daycare Debacle

I haven't forgotten about this, I just haven't had time to sit down and write. I was tooling along thinking Primrose was the best decision I've made in a long time, only to be proven wrong the fateful afternoon of 4/25. My usual routine is to come in the front door and sign her out, walk past the baby room door (and peek in to see if I can see her) and take of my shoes, and then slowly open the door to see if she's sleeping or eating. If she's eating and she sees me she starts crying and won't finish eating, so i usually duck down and sit on the floor and play with the other little one's until she's done. If she's sleeping, I go to the other side of the room and get her bag ready to go home before waking her up. Good move, right? Anyway, as I begin my routine, I pass the door to take off my shoes...I see kelby sitting on the floor with two other kids playing. I took off my shoes. As I reached for the door handle, I saw her scooped off the floor (by the part of her arm between her elbow and her armpit), hoisted over the crib rail, and dropped into her bed...being told the whole time "Kelby you're in trouble your momma saw you, you can't push the beds around." When I walked in they were all laughing like I caught her in the act of being bad and they were all proud of themselves to tell on her. I was so furious I didn't know what to do. I just collected her and her things and went to the front desk to vent. Of course they looked at me like I had 14 heads when I told them I needed to talk to them that very moment. I told them exactly what I just witnessed, and how that was completely unacceptable to me. Of course, they asked me if I wanted to confront the offender. Hell no, I want you to deal with it. If I have to confront her, I'll be in jail. I didn't really say that, I said that I wasn't emotionally stable to confront her. Well, we talked everything through...sorta. I asked questions like "what is your discipline policy for infants (knowing what it already was), what is your policy for putting kids in bed (knowing it's only for sleep), and what is your policy for picking up children"? I was so flustered that all I could say is deal with it, I don't ever want to see this happen again. I got home and told Chris about it, and then felt like I really missed the boat and had so many more questions to ask. I went ahead and dropped her off the next day, and of course I worried all the way to work how her day was going to be. So much in fact that I called around all over town looking for a new place to take her...even back to LaPetite. None of the other similar care facilities had room for her, and the local church only takes 30 month olds and older. I was so dismayed by all of that, that i called back and asked for an appointment. I told them after speaking with my hubby there were a lot of unanswered questions, I was still upset, and I really wanted to resolve this issue. They were more than willing. I got there at 1pm. I think I finally left at 330pm. We talked over everything I could think of. Even about the next room that Kelby will be going to, and how we're not too comfortable with the two Asian women in the class who can't speak english teaching our kid how to talk. Can you believe their retort was, we teach sign language in that class so it's not as big a deal. That was the comment after they told me that they tried the older Asian woman in the 5-yr old class and she didn't work out because the kids didn't understand what she was trying to tell them to do. We also weren't so cool with the discipline over there either...maybe it's an Asian thing, but they're arm jerkers over there. We saw it on Halloween Parade Day. I know it was crazy and hectic, but jerking kids arms is pretty dangerous in that you can dislocate their elbows or shoulders. We talked it all through again, but this time I left feeling like they really understood how I felt and really wanted to make things right. I asked that this particular care giver never touch my child again. I told them that I realize they have staffing issues (maintaining child to staff ratio), but I didn't think she was competent for the older babies. She wears her frustration on her sleeve and all of those babies pick up on it. They are all more uptight and generally more fussy when she's in there "taking care of them". I told them that I really liked their facility and Kelby has really thrived and I wanted to do whatever it took to work it out, because I didn't want to leave this facility. So, I felt really good when I left. It only took a week and a half before I noticed some familiar initials...EJ. She was on the older baby side. i was really pissed at first, but I noticed that her initials were on the changing diaper line. It's much better now. Because of me talking to the directors there have been some policy changes. All young children have to picked up face to face (except in an emergency) to reduce instances of being picked up by the elbows. And, kids are put in their beds for their safety (in case one is a biter) in instances where there are 5 kids, 1 adult, and one of the kids needs changed. I'm okay with all of that. Plus, when parents walk in, they are to explain why their child is in their bed if the child is actually awake. Which I really like that. I don't mind that she's put in her bed for her safety, as long as she's not told that she's being put in there because she's been bad. so, back to normal...whatever normal means!!