did i overreact??

ok so i'm in the middle of finding a daycare for my son to attend a few hours 1 day per week.

1st thing:

the first one i contacted, said yes we have a position available on Mondays. ok so i ask for an information pack. 2 weeks later it still hadn't arrived, so i called them and they said they had some trouble with people not receiving their info packs. Ok so they send out another one. hmmm 1 week later still haven't received it. I call them again and they still have no explanation.

anyway, i finally received an info pack after going in there and getting it myself!

2nd thing:

Someone was supposed to call me back to organise an orientation day and time. I called them 3 times and still no one could help me. The 4th time i called, the lady proceeds to tell me that there are no spots at all for my ds age group.

well i was fuming by this stage and i asked why was i told that there was a spot when there wasn't???

she tried to tell me that they will put ds on the waiting list but they couldn't gurantee that the program would be the same because they were about to change hands! i just told them to forget it and I told her if they can't even organise info pack to be sent to me and someone to call me regarding a day and time for orientation, then there is no way i would trust them to look after my ds!!

do you think i overreacted or am I right?? i just think, why didn't they inform me in the first place that they were changing hands and the program might change??? i only live in a small town with only 2 day care centres, all the others are 30km away and it looks like i might have to send ds to one of those :(

Nope, I think you're absolutely right - if they can't look after simple things such as paperwork, I'd hate to think what they're like with kids!

i would have said the same thing hun. i have no patience for things like that!

TBH, it sounds like they are in the middle of a big upheaval changing owners and I wouldn't go off too much about it. PITA for sure, but it doesn't reflect on the quality of the care does it?

I don't expect CC workers to be great at Admin and bookings, I expect them to be BRILLIANT at looking after my kids though ;)

I agree. If they couldn't call you, or get their act together to send out a form, then it sounds like they're pretty disorganised. Maybe if they're changing hands, you could wait for a few weeks then try again. Perhaps the new owners will be better and improve their practices??

Odd man out here - I disagree

Mostly the people doing the admin and paperwork side are NOT the carers, so I don't think it would be indicative of the type of care your son would receive.

maybe it is a really stressful time for them too - although I agree that the service has been unprofessional.

Good luck deciding :)

Good old Hastings hasnt changed then has it :ROFL:

Sorry to bust the bubble of some of you guys but admin and office are the first impression of ANY business and they reflect on the whole business not just their positions.

If I was treated this way there would be no way I would send my kids there...I would be thinking the same...if you cant get your butt's into gear about getting a simple information pack to me after rings TWICE then what kind of parent-career relationship is there going to be in the future?

Nah, I only care about the people in the room with my child - I don't give a crap who is at the front desk. I think its one of the kinds of businesses that the front can be any kind of colour, the real stuff gets done out the back.....

:ROFL: that sounds so wrong hahahahha

Maybe thats why i never put my kids into CC....I hated the biartches at the front :ROFL:

Well I would mind if they were packing cones or drunk or something.....:ROFL:

:ROFL: thats what half the pop of Hastings use to do when I lived there :o

My DS's cc are wonderful at both paperwork, organisation AND childcare. Although it saddens me to see them doing paperwork when they could be playing with the children. They took the job to play, not to write down observations.

But there's no "front desk" there - just the carers. You ring up, you speak to the carers. You ring the doorbell, the carer answers (often with a child tightly attached).

I've never been sent anything in the post - they e-mail me or I pick up things there.

At the centre I am in, we are the people who deal with enquiries and stuff. I don't know if it's the case at this centre, some do have admin assistants and such, we do as well though only for minimal hours each week, but it is the staff that deal with this sort of stuff at our centre.

And RHF, yes we (caregivers and teachers) would often much prefer to be with the children too, but sadly (in australia anyhow) we are getting to be so tightly regulated and required to write every little thing down that it is getting to be that there is less time for us to simply sit and play and care for the children.
For example, our organisation has recently brought in a breathing checklist where we have to check each baby under 18months every 10mins when they are sleeping to make sure they are breathing. Yes we should be doing this anyhow, but to have to write it down and to drop what you're doing every 10mins to physiclaly go into the nursery (can't just look from the window or door) to check on the children...half the time we are accidentally waking them up. It's such a PITA!!
:redface: Sorry completely off topic.....

Yup, new legistlation here about writing every little thing. Accident reports, OK, but achievement reports? National curriculum for a baby? I dont NEED a record of "Liebling can use three-word sentences to give commands: on 1/6/9 (today) Liebling was playing with a car, Charlie Brown came over and Liebling said "Charlie, play car"." - tbh, you'll tell me this anyway when I pick him up so why does the government need a record of it?

well in my opinion, if they can lie about having a spot available for ds, what else are they gonna lie about?? It just makes me sooo mad when people are dishonest, especially when it is supposed to be someone i am to trust to take care of my son for a few hours on a monday!!

Lulu: yes i thought that too, but when it came to the lying about the space available, that is what did it for me. And i also gave them 3 chances to get the info pack to me, i gave them the benefit of a doubt that they were probably busy with the kids but i think they just couldn't be bothered and they told me it was lost in the mail (i find it hard to get lost 3 times in the mail)


It is a centre where they don't have admin staff, its usuallly the director that does it or one of the other carers.

So i already told them to forget it so i guess that is what my decision is, i will have to send him somewhere else. I am going to check out the other one on Thursday.

thanks for all your replies

are we even thinking that 5 weeks ago, which is what it roughly was there WAS a spot available?

i know that i rang up enquired at 5 centres all have availabilities by the time i got back to some to confirm and book in orientation the spot had gone.

yes its a PITA, but being with a child care centre who just changed hands and is now changing to CCMS isntead of CCB, it is annoying things arent going as smooth as before and its horrible some weeks, it took me 6 weeks to get a statement saying i had paid x amount.

these people are under stress, they are being yelled at from every side.

im sorry you got stuffed around. no it isnt right, they should of followed it up with you they shouldnt of filled teh spot till they heard back from you. but this is the ideal world not teh actual world we live in.

So, you'd love my centre....
- We don't send out information packs at all. You want one, come and get one. I have a 300 place waiting list. If you want the spot so bad, work for it!
- When there's a spot available, you get 72 hours to take it. We call 10 people off the waiting list at a time, and the first one who wants it gets it.

Yeah, it sucks, but we're in such demand that we just don't have time to care. A lot of our time is taken up by people ringing up and saying "I wonder if you have a place for my 11 month old for next week?" (AS IF!) and then getting on the waiting list and thinking they can change their place on it by repeatedly phoning and badgering us about it (does not work)
But the vast majority of our time is taking caring for and supporting the families who already use the service. And keeping up with miles and miles of rules and regulations - if you don't like them, talk directly to the Govt, not us. They're more likely to listen to families - there's more of you that vote.

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well in my opinion, if they can lie about having a spot available for ds, what else are they gonna lie about?? It just makes me sooo mad when people are dishonest, especially when it is supposed to be someone i am to trust to take care of my son for a few hours on a monday!!

So i already told them to forget it so i guess that is what my decision is, i will have to send him somewhere else. I am going to check out the other one on Thursday.

thanks for all your replies

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I think you had already made your made up that you hadn't overreacted before even posting???

Perhaps it shoulda been a Punching Bag vent :lol:

I suppose different centres have different rules. In my experience you have to pester and badger the Directors to get a place. Some centres even recommend that you do. I make a habit of calling monthly just to make contact and let them know I am still interested.

As an example, I waitlisted my son about 3 - 4 months ago for 4 days a week. I rang a few months later and was told they had a place coming up and to ring back in a week. When I rang back was told the 4 days were available and she would get back to me with more details. I visited the centre a few days later only to be told the place was not available as the toddler was not being moved up. Fair enough. That was almost three weeks ago, I rang today to be told they could offer me 2 days. I am absolutely going to take it and build up the days. Something is better than nothing. Point is she didn't ring me, so if I hadn't pestered I wouldn't have anything. Sometimes you just need to go after what you want.

With the centre DS is at currently I pretty much jumped the queue as I called at the right time.

In all the waitlists I have been on I rarely get called to confirm that I am still requiring care and and only once or twice offered a spot.

I totally value the quality of the care over everything else including admin, the look of the building and even the cost.

Anyway, thats my 2cents worth.

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I suppose different centres have different rules. In my experience you have to pester and badger the Directors to get a place.
With the centre DS is at currently I pretty much jumped the queue as I called at the right time.

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I am that Director, and pesterers get labelled as such, we roll our eyes, spend less time with the children, and your spot on the list doesn't change.

I wouldn't use a service where this does work, because it's not a professional way to manage a waiting list, so what else are tehy going to be unprofessional about?