The owner puts her realtor job in front of her childcare job. She is double-dipping and scamming parents. Read on for the full story, or just drop your kid off and pretend it's fine, never ask questions, never hold these expensive in-home daycares to a hire standard, never say "hey, uh, let my kid play outside for more than 20-25 minutes, how hard is that??? No, I don't care that it's not 76 degrees and sunny. Stand at the door and watch from inside for all I care." Maybe if parents cared more, these places would provide better service. Sickening experience all around.
Said Sickening Experience:
I'm a single father with full custody (24/7) of two beautiful sons , who were 3 and 1.5 when under this provider's care. I work as a full-time lawyer at a non-profit in Springfield. I live in South Riding.
I was concerned about my older son feeling cooped up; he, like every three-year old boy, needs to be outside. I couldn't afford a larger center, and I wanted my boys to remain together anyway, so we ended up here.
My extra concern for my older son led to me dropping my boys off as late as possible sometimes.
One day I dropped them off at around 10:15 AM to find the owner not home. Just her assistant, Marta. I counted the children and, including mine, there were 11 children. This included at least one young baby in a bouncy (maybe technically an infant), multiple babies in high chairs (still eating breakfast, right?), and some other toddlers. I absolutely regret not taking a video.
I asked Marta if the owner was home. Marta doesn't speak much English (to be generous) and was clearly coached what to say in this event, and she tried to tell me the owner's mother was upstairs "making lunch." I sat there and counted the children in front of Marta and she got the picture.
In fact, she understood so well that she contacted the owner, who immediately contacted me and wanted to know why, if I have a question, I didn't just call her.
I told her, in not so many words, hey, I'll talk to whomever is watching my kids, and trust me, you're on the list of people I am going to speak with, we'll talk at pick-up.
I got there at pick-up time and, as usual, there was only one person. (It took me awhile to "pick up" on the one-person thing. In the AM, I figured, 'ok, not everyone is here yet.' In the evening it was 'ok, some of the kids have been picked up, two people are no longer required.')
This time, the one person was not the owner's 17 yr old daughter, who occasionally was there by herself at pick-up, it was the owner herself.
And, in classic "I'm guilty as bleep" fashion, she came at me hard. "Why were you questioning Marta? YOU MADE HER FEEL UNCOMFORTABLE! Counting the kids!? You should've called me. I told you to call me." etc.
I told her it was my intention to make Marta feel a little uncomfortable, just as it's my intention right now to make you feel uncomfortable for leaving my kids here under supervised and borderline neglected while I pay you out the ears to watch my kids.
Then she tried to tell me her mom was upstairs.
I said, "Ok. Is upstairs downstairs? No? Well then I think we can agree that her being upstairs does not count as her being downstairs. And where was her car? The boys have been here for months. You always talk about your mother, yet I have never seen her."
Owner: "Are you calling me a liar?"
Me (with supernatural help to remain calm and not flip out and cuss her out): "Yes. Yes I am."
She said we should part ways. I said, yes, we should. But I need the rest of this week and next week to find a new place, and we agreed.
The next day, for the first time, I saw a vehicle I hadn't seen before (her mother's) and her mother was downstairs with Marta. (haha) Quite the "coincidence."
Anyway, two days later Marta was downstairs alone with the kids again.
I JUST ASKED HER IF THE OWNER WAS UPSTAIRS. She said yes. I went outside to my car.
The owner comes out her house (dressed REALLY NICELY to WATCH SOME KIDS ((clearly preparing to leave, again, to show a house...what a piece of work)), approaches me at my car as I am about to leave for work, gets huffy that I am "questioning" Marta again, and tells me to take my kids RIGHT THEN. Totally breaching our written (and verbal) contractual agreement. On a Friday, at 9 AM or so. SO MUCH FOR GOING TO WORK.
She proceeds to talk nonsense as I go to get my kids, so I basically tell her to shut up and that she left 11 kids with Marta so she could go make even more money (perhaps for another $50,000 Mercedes) selling houses. She says "I never left 11 kids here with Marta. There were not 11 kids. And Marta can watch up to 7 kids by herself by law anyway." Which led to my favorite part of this whole fiasco, as I proceeded (recording all of this on audio, by the way) to count the kids there at that moment, and there were 8. It was great. Her response was, VERBATIM "Really? One extra kid?"
Yes. If the one extra kid is mine, then yes. And ya know what, even if the one extra kid is someone else's. Because there are people who exist who care more about children than money, believe it or not. I know that is a foreign idea to you. It shouldn't be though, because you RUN A DAYCARE.
I contacted CareLuLu who did a decent job, but there wasn't much they could do except plan to do more drop-ins. I asked for the contact information for the state agency that supervises childcare places and they gave it to me. They refunded me the appropriate amount of money and offered to help me find another place.
Thank God I have since moved on from in-home daycares.
It's too bad, she could've done a great job---she is high-energy, high-performance, and seems pretty caring.
But she's walking a fine line, ethically and practically. Had my kids gotten hurt, this could have gone much differently.
Response from the provider:
Mr. Joshua L
In response to your review of my business, I would like to respond with the following. First and foremost, I have never put my daycare behind my other career, nor have I put a child or family at risk in any way, shape, or form. The day you came in where you counted eleven children my mother accompanied my assistant in the daycare. She had to go upstairs and make lunch for the kids, which is customary and necessary. When you questioned Marta, she merely answered your question. When you came in later that day to pick up your children, I did my best in answering all of the questions you had. I mentioned that you had made Marta uncomfortable because I expect the same mutual respect to my workers as we provide to our clients. You created a hostile environment that was inappropriate. I also mentioned that you should have called me as the owner of the facility, so that we could have addressed your concerns or questions promptly.
Two days later when you saw me in my driveway, I did not tell you to take your kids right then and there without reasoning. You verbally attacked me, cursed me out, and started displaying violent behavior while picking up your kids. You continued to yell and act unprofessionally, creating a hostile and uncomfortable environment. In fact, you were so unprofessional, I had to ask you to leave the premises as I can not have that kind of disturbing behavior around the children.
I then contacted social services and the police to report this incident. You verbally attacked me on my personal property and to make matters worse, after making passes at me and asking me out, you attacked me personally in retribution to a denial of your advancements. You made inappropriate and irrelevant comments about my lifestyle and my personal income. None of which is any of your business. I found this to be very invasive and inappropriate.
I am sorry you are so hateful and feel you must try and bring others down due to your unhappiness. You dropped the kids off so many times, telling me you hated your life. Even to the point where one day I was so concerned, I spoke with you outside about it. Additionally, at our first meeting, you mentioned how bad your current provider was, so I tried my best to understand your requirements. We tried our best to make you comfortable but your demeanor and unprofessional behavior made it impossible. The kids were happy and safe but you let your personal issues get in the way of the situation they were in.