Goetting, Rachel

**MY experience with Rachel’s daycare. Finding a new baby sitter for an infant can be a challenge as we want the best for our children and choosing a complete stranger to watch over and care for our children can be such a scary feeling. Especially when your child is too young to tell you how their day is. What I’ve learned is I need to listen to how I’m feeling from the start and know I’m feeling certain ways for a reason. Cons: - Initial interview and Rachel was curious who else I had interviewed. Once I had given her one name, she immediately spoke negatively on the couple and suggested I contact licensing for complaints as she was aware of a few incidents. So I did, and the licensed facility was 100% clear. - Rachel’s hours state 7am-5:30pm and I confirmed this during the interview as I work 9-10 hour days and would need care for this whole time period. On the contract, I listed 7:30am-5pm as this would ideally be our schedule with dad dropping off. We had dropped off around 7:15am one morning and she seemed frustrated about it and stated if we are dropping off outside of the contracted hours, we have to text her first as it would be an additional fee. I asked her to confirm her hours and being we pay her weekly, it didn’t make sense to me to pay an additional fee. I let her know on some occasions, I will be coming after 5pm, no later than 5:30pm and she stated she closed at 5. I found this odd as we wouldn’t have chosen her so I went back to my notes and even a postcard she initially provided me with, that all state 7-5:30pm. I then discussed it with her again and Rachel stated while her hours are those, she doesn’t anticipate children to be there from her open to close hours. My response was, “Unfortunately, some parents need this schedule and if an additional fee is needed, I’ll update the contract to 7-5:30pm.” She stated it was fine and just to give her a heads up when coming earlier/later than the scheduled time. - After about 1 week of care, I was picking up my child and Rachel states my son is such a breath of fresh air! It was a nice comment but she followed with pointing at another infant and says if it wasn’t for his sister also there, she would have let them both go as he cries all day long and only stops crying when someone picks him up. I stood there shocked to think I could potentially know these children’s parents or what is being said about my child when I’m not around. I found this to be completely unprofessional and did later speak to Rachel directly the following month on this along with a few other issues that had been bothering me. Rachel initially denied saying these comments but as she had told me directly, she remembered and apologized. In addition, the mother of both of these children ended up being a co-worker of mine. - Rachel prefers to be paid weekly on Fridays so I had set up an autopay through ChasePay. The autopay somehow did not send over payment on the scheduled day and I received a call from her as she did not receive payment and was on her way into the bank. She explained how payments are due by a certain time and a late fee will incur if I do not provide payment but to avoid a late fee, I had to bring her cash, as she will not be going to the bank again that day. I immediately contacted Chase and they confirmed that the funds were there but that the error shows at the end users end with the ChasePay. I relayed this to Rachel and she was extremely frustrated and stated she would have her friend/teller Christina look at my account to confirm what was wrong. Christina should not be disclosing anything from my account?.. I contacted Chase again and had them remove the payment and send a one-time payment over which was successful and how I continued to make payments to avoid another issue. Rachel later texted me apologizing if she sounded really frustrated and later asked my husband if I was okay as she had not seen me for 2 days at pickups. - Rachel has a strong personality and can be very direct which can sometimes be intimidating as she tends to tell you how to care for your child but when you share with her your preferences, she seems to not welcome the suggestions as she has commented that she knows how to care for children. To me, all children are different and what works for my child, may not always work for another so anything I can share to help my child’s day go smoother for them, I’ll provide. - From the 5 months with Rachel, my child was sick about every 5 weeks. Not with a simple runny nose, full on fever/cold. I would always pull him out and care for him at home which became an issue to have to take the time off from work as it would sometimes be a week. Problem here is we would notice other children at the center did not follow the same practice and would still be allowed to attend. When I raised this issue to Rachel, she immediately takes defense and states the facility is always “healthy” and my child must have gotten sick from home or being around other germs. - On multiple occasions, my child’s clothes would be dirty from his diaper and I would ask them to change his diapers more frequently as the infants tend to be in the high chairs often, when not eating. This started to occur less but I would have to remind them when it started happening too often. - Rachel prefers not to have daily walks which was unfortunate as she lives in a court and even a court walk would help the children on a break. - If weather is bad, the children are all in only the one room, which can be a challenge with so many children. Pros: - Rachel is not always onsite as she has her staff (Rosa, Monica and Nina) with the children. The staff have been there for several years. Staff are more warm and welcoming. I never had an issue with any of them. - Great classroom setting for toddlers - Great classroom curriculum - Nice outdoor area After a week of being sick again, we had given our two-week notice but on day 4 of the notice, I arrived earlier than normal and found my child crying unconsolably while he sat outside in the highchair while the other toddlers were outside. I immediately went straight to him and asked what was going on. Monica was onsite and looked really worried and said she wasn’t sure what was going on but he hasn’t stopped crying. They had also put him on the floor to crawl and that he kept crying so Monica thought it could be his tummy but also mentioned he had not napped…. My immediate response was why I had not been called to pick him up if he was crying so much. Rachel comes over to where we were and stated he didn’t nap but she wasn’t sure if I held him too much….. I was trying to console my child in my arms and he couldn’t even catch a breath which broke my heart and to receive a response from her like that, at that moment beyond disappointed me again. I turned to Monica and thanked her for all of her time and effort in taking care of our child and to thank Rosa and Nina as well. I confirmed he would not be attending after this day and had taken all of his items to the car as Monica walked with me. Rachel did not say a word. To find him crying this way really surprised me as they provide a daily report on the infants and it would rarely state he was fussy so to leave him crying the way they did, they should have tried a bit harder to care for my son, knowing something was wrong, especially if it was his last few days with them.