I toured Flourishing Little Leaders after hearing great things from a fellow mom. I had to reach…read moreout to the owner several times before we made contact. Even after speaking with Ashley to set up a tour date, she never followed up with the address of the facility. I ended up finding the address online somewhere and showed up to house. I think I caught her a bit off guard as she had her young son with her and had me wait for a few minutes before starting the tour.
Anyways, the tour went well. I liked what I saw and heard. I was really looking to change daycares at the moment since I was days away from giving birth. I told Ashley that my son was exhibiting son challenging "terrible twos" behavior. She said that her assistant and herself were more than equipped to handle behavior issues. She also said that in all of her years she only had to terminate one contract due to challenging behaviors and that was after months of working with the child and family. She also said she really works with families if the kid is having challenging behaviors before terminating a contract.
I decided to try this place out because they had a lot of age appropriate activities I felt my son would love. Days 1-5 were a bit rocky, he exhibited some poor behaviors I expected. My son is not malicious, he is just in a time of transition and is getting very frustrated so easily these days. I would check in with the assistant, Raevyn, and at the time she felt my son was just trying to transition and was optimistic about him being successful in the future.
By Day 5 we started getting phone calls about his behavior basically telling us to pick him up during the morning. On Day 7 I gave birth and my husband was called to leave the hospital to go pick up my son early, the call was received around 10am. Same happened on Day 8, since my husband couldn't be in two places at once,daycare had to wait until I was discharged until we could pick my son up. I decided to pick him up since I had not seen him while I was in the hospital. Usually you are able to go inside and get your kid, today he was brought out to me. Then Ms. Raevyn told me, "Let me know if you need anything." I told her I needed a full day of childcare.... No response was received.
On Day 9 I arrive to drop my son off and the assistant, Ms. Raevyn, asks me, "Do you think he will have a good day?" I told her that I cannot predict that. She called the owner and gave me the phone. The owner, Ashley, said she would not be in today and the assistant cannot handle my son on her own. I repeatedly asked for clarification so Ashley finally said they would not accept my son today but I could expect a call later in the evening with some ideas on how to support Patrick. She specifically said she spoke to a friend who is a behavior therapist and we would discuss some new tips during our evening phone call. Ashley never called me. I called her twice and texted her around 8:30pm and was unable to reach her. I afound this to be so unprofessional. If my son was being excluded, I should know ahead of time, not when I arrive to drop him off.
Day 10, when I drop my son off I can already sense the irritation with Ms. Raevyn. I asked her if everything was ok and she said, "Yeah, I'm sick. I mean I have allergies." I get a text from Ashley shortly after drop off letting me know that once my child has 2 more incidents, he will be terminated immediately. Since Ashley doesn't stay onsite all day, she doesn't want my son there after she leave. She texted me I had to pick up my kid and our contract was terminated although he didn't reach the two additional incidents.
I would like to thank the team for revealing their true selves so early on so that I would not have to subject my child to their negative energy anymore. (That complaint on the community care licensing probably had more merit than I originally thought).
But again, Ashley and Raevyn, I thank you for teaching me a valuable lesson. I was so focused on making sure the childcare checked off the educational boxes my mama teacher heart desired, I wasn't making sure they checked off any social emotional boxes. As each day progressed, I noticed my son becoming increasingly angry. By Days 8-10, he didn't really want to get out of the car to go in to the facility. I should have paid closer attention to this behavior and have not written it off as a new issue arising from his 2 day old sibling. My 2 1/2 year old has been in daycare since he was 4 months old and I never experienced these behaviors from him. Since we stopped taking him to this daycare, he is back to being his normal, happier self.