Update to the day care fiasco

So we narrowed it down to three finalists. Two home care providers and a girl from the day care centre the boys had been going to who was willing to come in to the home to babysit. In the end we hired Sarah to care for the boys in our home.

We are thrilled with the arrangement. Dave doesn't have to wrestle with coats and waking Big C up if he is sleeping. The boys are in our home so we know that the environment is safe for them. They are having a blast and the transition was easy since they both already knew her. Did I mention that she also does the luandry and starts dinner? This solution will last until the end of June since Dave will be home for the summer.

We have made arrangements for September and are gladly putting this whole crazy experience behind us. Thanks to everyone who helped out along the way, we could not have done it without you.

The letter I wrote to the day care...

March 1, 2007
Dear Mr S,

As discussed Tuesday February 20, 2007 with M, then the director of Greely First Steps Daycare, Monkey and Big C could not be accommodated at your facility after Friday March 2, 2007. Thank you for your letter dated February 22, 2007 offering to extend this original date to April 2, 2007. As discussed this morning, we will not be taking you up on your offer. We do appreciate that you are trying to assist us with this very difficult time.

As a parent I am sure that you can understand the emotional toll that this situation has taken on us. This upheaval started, for us, with the overly dramatic and unnecessary way in which R delivered the news to us. She left a voicemail on my cell phone telling me to “call the day care immediately”. She called at home but never tried us at work. I panicked, concerned that something may have happened to one of the children, and called back only to be told that she didn’t know what was going on but that M would call me that night. Less than an hour later R informed Dave that there was no spot for Big C as of March 2. Many phone calls to M went unanswered and the promised phone call from her never came. I finally had to get in touch with you the following day to find out that both children had the same accommodation issue and that an extension of the March 2 deadline would be possible.

This has been a very difficult week for us. If we had known in advance of my return to work on February 14 that this would happen less than a week later we would have taken the time and care required to secure appropriate child care for our children. We have spent the last week interviewing at least one and sometimes two providers per day. We have had to take the children through an unending series of new experiences that have been both confusing and frightening to them. It has rocked the confidence that they had in their day to day routines.

Monkey has come to be very comfortable there. He is confident, knows what to expect and feels safe and loved. We were very comfortable with the care that is provided at Greely First Steps Daycare and had no hesitation to send our second son Big C to your facility when the time came. Monkey is a very bright child and has been asking many questions. He knows that he will have to soon leave all of his friends at the day care and he doesn’t want to. We all felt safe and secure in that environment, having it taken away so abruptly has been very upsetting. Monkey is not sleeping well and to be honest, I am not either. It is hard to know that your children are confused and scared and not being able to protect them from it.

We are now in a position to have secured two possible options for the children’s ongoing care that are available to start immediately. In light of the toll that this situation has taken on our family we intend to get the transition started immediately so that the children can start to get settled and get on with re-acquiring a feeling of stability and confidence in their daily routines.

So, as discussed with you by phone this morning we will terminate this agreement as of March 2, 2007.

I would like to make a special mention to you of the care that K and C have taken during this time. Both have been very helpful and supportive as we have been making arrangements for alternate care.

Update on the day care fiasco

We have been to see a day care centre, a licensed home care provider, an unlicensed home care provider. We have screened many people over the phone. We have applications through the local agencies, we have more interviews set up this week.

Monkey is taking it hard. Really hard. He wants to stay at his old day care and he is getting confused and discombobulated with every new place that we go and see. I share his discombobulation. We are trying to ease the transition on him, but it is hard. He is very perceptive.

Children's Universe Day Care was underwhelming at best. It seemed to us that the place is staffed by a bunch of women who really don't like their jobs. None of them has been there for more than about 8 months and not one of them seems to have any real drive to DO anything with the children. I could go on and on. I won't. I will just say that was obvious to us why this licensed day care centre was the only one in the city without a waiting list.

The licensed home day care lady is lying to the agency that she works for. As best I could figure out from showing up 30 minutes early and then chatting with another parent there are already 6 children there. My kids would make 8. She has them balanced around so that the agency doesn't know they are there. This is a practice called "ghosting" and if that is just what I can figure out it worries me what else might be going on. UPDATE: After I reported this to the agency she has decided to leave the agency and go out on her own so now no one is watching over what she is doing. Scary.

That is just some of it. We have another interview Tuesday, one on Thursday and a friend who doesn't currently do home day care thinking of taking the boys on and a lead on a recent ECE graduate who is looking for work until July.

Now both boys are out of day care

Yep, never mind that we have had a relationship with the day care for over 1 year and a half. Both boys are out, just like that. Apparently the day care director has been spending all of her time at work dealing with her personal life and hasn't noticed that the day care is over it's limits. The results, give a bunch of kids the boot with no warning. Since my kids were part time they were the first to go. They never offered us to pay for a full time space.

Oh, and the cowardly director never did call me. I finally had to call the owner. That is when I found out that Monkey is out too. I have reminded them of their contractual obligation to give me some notice. So we are not on the streets until the beginning of April. So, we need day care for April, May and June.

I was shocked to find out what is out there. Here are some options we have seen (cost is for both kids based on a 21 day month):
1-Home day care from a mom with first aid, CPR, 1-5 ratio no police check and no ECE, 2 months experience, close to home -$1680 per month

2-Licensed day care centre that serves snack but we send lunch and has a 1-3 ratio for Big C, 1-8 for Monkey, 20 minutes out of the way -$1500 per month

3-Home day care 1-8 ratio, with an ECE, close to home -$1428 per month

4-Licenced home day care, close to Dave's work, 1-5 ratio -$966 per month

We have some interviews set up and will be exploring all of our options. We do welcome thoughts from your experiences with this!

Big C Loses his Child Care

Oh my goodness, we are totally scrambling! I have been up since 4 since I can't sleep. Yesterday I get a message on my cell phone "call the day care as soon as possible".

I PANIC-who wouldn't? I call and they tell me that the director is going to call me that night, they don't know what it is about, the kids are fine (in that order). They lied since as soon as Dave arrived, they knew exactly what was going on and filled him in. Jerks. Big C has lost his day care spot as of next Friday.

Four months ago I asked the DC that Monkey has been at if they would take Big C part time. They had to think about it since they don't normally do that. The answer came back about a month later-yes. Fantastic.

Now yesterday they are trying to say that it was a temporary arrangement and that now that a child wants to come in full time, we are out. They didn't even offer us the option to pay for the FT spot. If you know me at all, you know that I don't like risk. Can't handle it. If I had known that he could get bumped that easily I would have taken the time to find a permanent arrangement while I was off work and eased Big C into the transition.

So we have been given 10 days notice. Big C has not even been there for a week. They would have known when we signed the forms last week that someone wanted the spot FT. They never warned us. They have already given the spot away. If I wanted to pull one of the kids out, I would have had to give a months notice. That is what the contract that I signed says, the thing is, she has yet to sign the contract and give it back to me-I guess she knew that she needed the leeway.

So now the spot is gone and the director never even called me last night to tell me if Monkey still has a spot or what. We spent the night calling home day care providers and totally panicking. We are really upset since we like this centre and have felt very comfortable with them. More than anything, we feel betrayed.