ATTN: Leeseville/Ft Pok parents/gaurdians-
Our experience at…read morethis center was very disappointing. A little bit of background: my husband is a contracted doctor on Fort Polk and I am in sales management for a health & fitness company and I am an Air Force reservist specializing in behavioral health. Our schedule required a part time care provider for only the overlap of our shifts-usually midday. We have used daycares in the Midwest and in Georgia during our various moves.
Start with a positive: there were a number of individuals at this center who seemed to love their job (i.e. Mr. Brown, infant room caretakers, and JJ). Not all associates at this center deserve to be grouped into the category that I am about to define. One bad apple can sometimes spoil the image of a daycare center for all.
Warning to potential parents: there was a major lack of effective communication style and approach when dealing with parents and attention to the fact that each child may require differing care styles and techniques. We were told prior to enrolling our toddler and infant that the center had great communication avenues with parents and would text and reach out if anything was seemingly off with our children's routines. This was untrue. The truth: the daycare would sometimes tell the parent at the END of the day that the child had failed to eat (no alternative food options offered if child does not like 1st choice meal), or that the infant (5 months) had drank a dangerously low amount of formula (5 oz in 6hours). There are no alerts for the parents as these events occur throughout the day, prior to your child being exhausted and starving. The daycare takes no responsibility for these patterns and seems to shrug off any possible causal behaviors they may be doing that are altering your infant/toddlers behaviors in the center vs. 180 degree difference out of center. We were told that it is us who can't be made happy and so that we were free to leave. In which I replied, "of course we are unhappy with a center who does not adequately feed our children" when we pay good money for your care services.
The head of the toddler room was a huge factor in our deciding not to have a meeting with the daycare's CEO in order to attempt ironing out the issues and attempting some sort of progressive evolution towards an agreement in care quality. This woman was the opposite of what we would expect as a full time childcare personality. She never smiled, she was completely unapproachable, she would argue if we attempted to explain anything about our child (i.e. he doesn't like milk, or does not typically nap well away from home), and she was generally abrasive and confrontational at every turn.On our last visit to this center she aggressively confronted me THREE times in my attempt to collect my children and leave the building, while my 2 year old was frightened and in my arms. Our impression was she either never liked children, was just there for a paycheck, had grown jaded after too long a career at the center, or some combination of those outcomes. It is my belief that when a customer pays good money for ones services, that puts you in the category of a "customer service" rep and that this title carries with is some level of understanding people, some level of empathy, human-quality, something warm and approachable. Instead I had to avoid interaction with this surly-aggressive-opinionated woman at every turn and visit to center. She was the sort of person who you can only assume had something happen to them in life in which they feel the need to always be on their toes in a defensive and lash out position. So bizarre and not appropriate in a childcare setting. If my son cried there was zero response from her. I felt very uneasy and untrusting when leaving my toddler in her care because of a lack of any maternal seeming instinct emanating from this person.
I was made late to appmts and work due to the toddler room teacher demanding that I change my son's diaper upon arrival and that it was not her job because he had soiled his diaper on ride to the center-because I have any control over a two year olds potty timing.
We were also told during orientation that only nutritious meals/snacks were offered, however we came to find that it was mostly sloppy joes, corn, hot dogs, French fries, and fruit cups of corn syrup. Not to mention that large food portions, such as adult size sandwiches and hot dogs on bun are not recommended for the 2 year old age group and are a major choking hazard. If they believe these options are "good nutrition", then clearly competence is also an issue at this center.
All in all a horrible experience and a horrible choice to go off base for daycare in Leesville, LA. We are now happily enrolled in on base daycare, for half the cost, and all providers are certified or hold a BA in child development having gone through the rigorous USA.gov application process to work on Ft Polk. The
