Update: Angie is an absolute liar. The story of my 5 year old biting is completely untrue and…read morecompletely fabricated it blows my mind. First, I did not badmouth two previous daycare. We had an issue with a previous one that my second one wasn't thriving (the youngest they took was 3 and he started at 2 and was not doing well but NO issues with biting ever. Wtf?!), which is why I pulled him out. However, my oldest thrived there, graduated and finished out there without a single issue. He did so well that they wanted him to continue kindergarten there. Also, i was not seeking immediate enrollment. She was the first school I visited and had 3 more schools lined up the following week. Angie gave a special discount to celebrate her birthday and that she would waive the application fee. I made an impulsive move to enroll immediately and lesson learned, I should have waited and interviewed the other schools. I've never met anyone ever who've lied so much!
Disclaimer: As the third family in 6 months who've gone through her bizarre behavior, here are our takeaways. She has threatened families in the past with legal actions to anyone who left with a negative experience.
My second son, Miles, has been going there for about ten months. Everything was going great, at least; we thought so. Besides knowing that she was having issues with two other sets of parents over the last 6 months, I didn't think much of it. I thought it was just two isolated incidents. But now, counting our family, it accounts for 50% of her classroom!
The whole week has been incredibly normal. She was nice and jovial with each pickup. She even liked my Mother's Day post on Instagram on Sunday. By Wednesday at 4 pm, Matt went to pick up Miles. The interaction was normal like usual, except she handed him an envelope. Not thinking much about it since Miles's last day is next Friday, 05/26; we thought it was a receipt. Matt took it, buckled Miles, and left. He saw this letter when he got to a stop light to open the envelope. It was a letter of termination without any explanation or clarification.
My husband called me frantically. I was shocked because I had no idea what we had done. I tried messaging and calling her; but she wouldn't return any of our calls. I checked our app, and we were kicked out promptly at 4 pm. Since we were friends on Instagram, I went there only to find she blocked me. Initially, I was worried. I thought she was getting shut down or something had happened to her. I messaged the other parents to see if they got the same note. But none of them did. That night, my husband and I were trying hard to figure out what we'd done wrong to receive this magnitude of a response. There was no clarification in her letter of why we were getting terminated either. All of our interactions have been positive and brief. No written or verbal warnings either.
The next morning, my friend sent me this video from her Instagram. This is what blew my mind. She posted this video on her social media blasting me and the other parents with these unfounded claims and untruths!! Here's the kicker - She posted this at 1:30 pm BEFORE we were even notified that we were getting terminated at 4 pm when she blocked all communication. We didn't even know why we were getting terminated, and I was trying to get answers so I could even apologize!
Livid, I left her a scathing voicemail to ask her to take that video down! It was then she acknowledged us and emailed us saying that we were dosing and dropping Miles, which is a complete lie! Miles had a mild cough, but we NEVER medicated him as he did not exhibit any symptoms of sickness or infections. She never even communicated with us at all, saying that his cough was problematic. We've also never received any verbal or written warnings for any violations. She said she can terminate based on suspicion, which is fine. It's her business; she can do whatever she wants. But to post a pre-meditated video based on false narratives, gossiping about parents before even notifying us we were getting terminated AND blocking us off social media just takes the cake.
It makes me sick that I placed my child in this woman's care who could turn on you just like that. This whole ordeal has been so strange and weird. And now I feel terrible because Miles has told me several times that she was mean to him. I didn't think too much of it since he's 4 and figured he was blowing it out of proportion if she had a firm voice or something.
Moral of the story: Please find a licensed daycare. She's unlicensed, which should have been a red flag. This has been verified by the licensing department. She markets herself as license-exempt, but they check their database and she's not listed. The office said license-exempt is only reserved for churches, etc, not an in-home daycare. If you do go through an unlicensed daycare, make sure to find a spot where there are at least two people working or someone who doesn't lie.