Livid at New Childcare - feedback?

[Tobily]

As some of you know we've recently moved to a new town and both of my kids are in a centre. E has been in a centre before, but T is only two and a half, and has always been in family daycare so it's all very new for him.

As well as new child care, my kids are trying to adjust to a new town and a new house - so they're a bit unsettled.

We had a horrible experience dropping them off this morning (today is their 4th day) and I am absolutely spewing. What happened this morning would never have happened in a million years at our previous centre. I am considering pulling them out but I'm not sure I can get them in anywhere else suitable yet My gut feeling wasn't 100% about the place when I enrolled them, even though it seems to have a very good rep here. Once again my gut feeling is 100% correct

I've just written this to the director - have I been too harsh? Anyone working in childcare would appreciate your perspective too.

Dear x
I'm sending you an email as I don't think I'll get time to chat with you this afternoon since I won't be back there until after 5.

I just want to let you know that I was really, really disappointed with the way that our drop off went this morning, in particular in T's room.

As you know, we've just done the big move and at the moment the kids are extremely unsettled - they have had a new town, new house and new childcare thrust on them in the last fortnight...our kids are really used to routine and we do our best to sustain that for them so the move has been a bit rough. Everything familiar to them has changed. T has also never been in a centre environment and is missing his family daycarer who he was with since he was a bub, so he is trying to adjust to that as well.

When we dropped the kids off this morning, the assistant in T's room (I'm sorry I can't tell you her name, she barely looked at us let alone introduced herself) was doing paperwork. She sat there doing paperwork for a good 10 minutes while the kids cried and Ben and I tried to leave without them having a complete meltdown. Not once did she acknowledge the kids, or make an effort to connect with them or try to assist us in any way to leave the room. She completely ignored the whole situation while sitting 2 ft away from us. It wasn't until the teacher came in and sat down with T that we were able to leave. T was sobbing his heart out by this point. We left the room with E and that was when we ran into you outside - and you kindly offered to allow E to stay with T for a bit. So we open the door to take E back into his room, and find our son is sitting at the table - alone again - crying his eyes out.

I'm so upset this morning and sitting here at work, wondering if my son is being left to cry on his own. As you know my kids have been in care before - so I know that they will have an initial settling in period where they are going to be upset when we leave etc and I fully expect that for a few weeks yet. But I don't believe it is too much to expect of their childcare centre that during this initial adjustment period the attendants in the kids rooms would be aware that a) they are experiencing a particularly unsettling time at the moment, b) we may need some extra help at drop off time to distract them so we can leave and c) when they get upset someone would offer to take them and comfort them and continue to do so until they are settled (not walk off and leave them sitting alone crying as soon as we leave the room as occured this morning).

We are also a bit concerned that every morning there is a different face in the room for drop off. I understand that this is obviously a staffing issue, but having used other centres we've always seen some consistency (eg. the same person/people are in the room every morning for a week, or whatever). Not knowing the person in the room - and the kids not knowing them either - every morning is making dropping off even harder. While I appreciate that eventually the kids will get to know all the staff I think it's worth pointing out that this is the fourth day the kids have been there and every morning they've been left with a different person on arriving. The first morning we came in we had no idea where to put nappies, drink bottles, fruit etc - we were standing there looking pretty lost and no one came near us or asked us if we needed help. It was honestly pretty unsettling that we were obviously new faces and no one in the rooms came near us. My usual experience in centres has been that on your first morning the person in the room knows you're coming, and shows you where to put things, introduces themselves to the little ones etc. I had to walk up to someone and say "umm, excuse me we're new. Can you help us out here?" It's not that I expected a welcoming committee but I did expect that someone would at least know we were coming. The majority of the staff seem to me to be very young and I expect many of them wouldn't have children of their own. I wonder if they really have a good understanding of what it's like for parents to leave their kids in care? The girl in Toby's room this morning honestly seemed to me she either had no idea, or just didn't care how traumatic that whole experience was for us.

It didn't inspire alot of confidence I'm afraid.

I'm sorry I have to email you this in only our second week but I have to say I'm really upset about what happened this morning and I do feel somewhat concerned about the other issues I've mentioned. It's not the fact that my kids were upset at our leaving, as much as they way it was pretty much ignored and we had to leave for work knowing they were upset, and not at all confident that anyone there was going to really care once we were out the door. That's truly how we felt.

I hope we have the opportunity to discuss these concerns at some point, perhaps I will catch up with you tomorrow morning if we make it in early enough.

Kind regards

[Pandora]

I think its great, have you sent it already?
Just the last line, Id aske her to make a time that suits you or your DH to discuss it, not just hope to catch her.

[Emma1979]

hi, i don't have any experience with child care centres at all but i think it your letter is worded really well and doesn't come across harshly whatsoever, it just comes across as honest and as a concerned mum... i think its quite polite and decent and wouldn't have any worry in pressing the send button.

[MamaPan]

i think this is excellent - and i am disappointed for you how the drop off went, this is so not how it should be...
if you can make a time with the director i think this is a good idea... better to discuss in person esp at this stage when you can get some understanding etc.

[BrightSparkles]

Your very controlled! I would have gone off my nut....obviously not in front of kids though.
I think you have every right to feel the way you do.
Let us know what happens.
xx

[~Kim~]

I think it's worded really well.
I totally get your POV and would be feeling exactly the same.....

[Cassius2]

i think that it is a great letter. polite, firm and to the point and provides examples and expectations.

i'm really sorry that the centre has not been up to par. I too would be quite concerned by your recent experiences. how lonely for you and the kids to have no acknowlegement on your first day!
is there any FDC system available for where you guys are?

[ll80]

are you in Toowoomba now?
I am happy to ask a friend of mine who worked in childcare before she had bubs the names of some of the better ones. She has mentioned them to me before but I can't remember *blush*
I know most of them have a pretty hefty waiting list though but never hurts to put your name down if you end up wanting to change and towards the end of the year places sometimes come up.

It's a shame FDC is so hard to get here.

Anyways just PM me if you would like..