Boy I'd sure love to review this drop-in childcare place, but when I DROPPED IN so they could care…read morefor my kid while I went to a meeting, even though I was there during their business hours and there was NO evidence of them being closed (no signs on the windows or doors, etc,) they were all locked up, not a soul in sight. Um. What gives?

Terrible management which bleeds into every aspect of the childcare. Mostly good teachers, a few…read moreexceptional ones, and a bad egg that shouldn't be around small children. Lots of turnover and they look stressed out. They don't handle normal toddler behaviors well. Overall experience is unreliable and stressful childcare. And expensive even though they constantly ask parents to keep kids home and have terrible food. Have asked for feedback from other parents and this is not how other daycares are. New daycare is the opposite, no problems. Pulled him out despite no childcare for a while because it was so bad.

Was absolutely horrified today as a teacher (Brittany) spoke very nasty to an adult in front of…read morethree elementary age children. If she is talking to adults like this in front of any child in a supposedly caring and nurturing environment then how is she talking to children when adults are not around. I would never recommend any child to be near this establishment with employees like her in charge.

Our daughter recently broke her arm at pals. She was crying all day. No call from the staff all…read moreday. We were noticed when we picked her up that she had been crying all day. We have since pulled her out and still have not heard from the owner and pals would not give us her number. Owner lives out of state with no contact info. Place is dirty and the staff is very young and not very professional. Refused to give us contact info for the owner. CPS involved now

We only visited this daycare and instantly knew something wasn't right. There is absolutely no way…read morewe would ever send our infant daughter here . The interior is filthy, as the director was giving us a tour she mentioned that although the "rules say" no blankets in cribs or swaddling infants they would do it if requested. I have to assume that the recent positive reviews are fake to up the rating since the possible closure, no mother of an infant would ever feel comfortable leaving their child here, it is not safe.

Had an awful experience with the program, the staff, and the owner. I regret choosing this program…read moreand would not recommend to others. Please do your research before sending your children here. I now see they have dozens and dozens of violations on the OCFS website and are constantly getting more added.

We were looking for part-time care for our first born and had very few options in the capital…read moredistrict. Luckily, Eco Kids helped us out and we could not be more pleased with their care!

This company swindled us out of 2500 dollars when they placed us with a nanny who conveniently…read morequit, with no notice, one day after the two week trial period. She then threatened to take us to court when the payroll service (also very expensive) recommended by ANEN failed to pay her. This person came with Melissa's highest personal recommendation. The most disturbing part of this was how Melissa completely disregarded the terrible effect this had on our children. After this experience we're never having another nanny again.

I've only had two bad experiences with New England Nanny, but when you're charged with caring for…read moreother people's children...two negative experiences (one that could have cost me my job and the other that killed my cat) in the span of less than a year is more than enough to severe ties with a company. They're great for parents who have an ever-changing work schedule and for whom daycare might not be the most ideal. They're generally pretty good about fairly last minute assignments and changes and the sitters we've had have, for the most part, been pretty good, although some are inexperienced college kids. They also don't have an emergency line to reach out to the company outside of business hours and the line they always use when something goes wrong is "in all the years we've been around, we haven't had something like this happen!" Except, I doubt I'm THAT unlucky to have all this crazy stuff happen to my family? Don't think that's plausible. Now for the bad: The first incident was over the winter. There was an impending snow storm, but it hadn't started yet. I get a phone call from our assigned sitter asking if I still needed her because she didn't want to drive that far in the winter (don't effing accept assignments in Albany if you live in Glens Falls then!). I explained that I had a class to teach that couldn't be cancelled and I had no sub coverage so, YES, I did still need her but if the weather got terrible, I would try to figure something out. She got to my house on time, I went to work, it was fine. At 10:30am (still no snow yet), I got a text from her, frantic, because she was watching the news and apparently there was going to be a travel ban at 2:00pm for the Northway because of the potential storm we were expecting and she was afraid if I didn't get home by noon that she wouldn't be able to make it home. It didn't sound quite right but why would a caretaker lie, especially about something so easily fact-checked, right? WRONG! So, I left work extremely early (I was supposed to be there until 6), lost wages, risked losing my job by leaving so early unexpectedly, rushed home by noon (still no snow!), paid her and she left. Suddenly, it dawned on me how strange the whole thing sounded and I googled it! No, no! Travel ban was actually issued at 8AM (not 2pm) for trailer-style transport vehicles. Not some dumb B's 2001 Toyota Carola! So I call the agency, furious. They apologized and refunded my fee (but not for what I'd paid the sitter, which they should have done, given the fact that she didn't do her job, lied to me, risked my own job, and lost me quite a bit in pay). Also, fun twist to the story: it didn't start snowing until 4pm and even then, it was only flurries. Also! She is still currently employed by them. Incident two occurred yesterday. The sitter showed up, made a joke about how she's not a fan of cats but mine were cool because they were small. I didn't think anything of it. She was really nice, my one year old son clearly liked her a lot and throughout the day, I checked on them via text, no problems. I get home and am told that my strictly indoor, one eyed, 3/4 blind young cat ran out of the house while I was gone and she "didn't know if he was supposed to" but that she "wasn't going to go after him." Well, he's rushed the front door like that before I doubt today was a different story. He runs out the front and then freezes, slowly exploring the porch. I mean, he's missing an eye and has some damage to the other, he's not going anywhere strange very fast. He's easy to catch if you just step out the door and grab him. So i ran to pick my daughter up at school and we come home to look for our boy. We look around the perimeter of our house and under the porches for about half an hour before we hear some woman across the street scream, because she found a dead cat on our across the street neighbor's lawn, clearly hit by a car. OUR DEAD CAT, who couldn't even make it across the street on his first try, poor buddy! My seven year old is utterly devastated. I called them but it was around 5:00 so no one was there. I found their Facebook page and messaged them but after a half hour, I hunted down the company owner's personal pages and messaged them. I finally had someone call me back and they apologized, said "nothing like this has ever happened" and when I explained that after this I was DONE with the company and that this may have been a "mistake" but that it's not like a "my bad" can change the reality that my daughter's cat is dead, she should have instantly offered me a refund on the membership fee I'd paid in February since I will no longer be using their service. Or offered to pay the adoption fee on a new cat when we were ready to do so. Or offer to pay cremation fees for our young, perfectly healthy cat who died a completely preventable death. I also own a small local business, so I know what I'm talking about. They didn't handle this appropriately.

The Southern Saratoga YMCA has truly outdone itself with its recent renovations. From the moment…read moreyou walk in, the space feels brighter, more welcoming, and thoughtfully designed for members of all ages and abilities. The upgrades strike a perfect balance between modernizing the facility and maintaining the strong sense of community that makes the Y so special. The fitness areas are more spacious and better equipped, making workouts more enjoyable and accessible whether you're a beginner or a seasoned athlete. The improved layout helps everything flow seamlessly, and it's clear a lot of care went into making the space functional and inclusive. The courts and program areas feel refreshed and energizing, creating an even better environment for activities like pickleball, group fitness, and youth programs. What really stands out is how these renovations support the YMCA's mission. It's not just about aesthetics--it's about creating a place where people can connect, grow, and thrive. The Southern Saratoga YMCA continues to be a cornerstone of the community, and these updates only strengthen its impact. Truly a fantastic improvement that members can be proud of!

Overall decent facility but it literally has the brightest spotlight installed in the steam room…read more It is brighter than any steam room I have been in (well over 50 in several countries) making very uncomfortable and headache inducing. It ia about 10x brighter than the other branches. I feel like grabbing my sunglasses when I am in there. I am not the only one who feels that way. It seems everyone complains about it. Other than that I have no complaints. Staff seems very nice when I visit there.

I would give zero stars if I was able to. We kept our daughter, an almost 2 year old, in this…read moreprogram for only a little over a month. We had ongoing issues with staff which we were regularly communicating with staff and the directors about. We decided to sign up for the video streaming service to see what was going on and pulled her that day. Staff were inattentive (one example being on their phones while my daughter was crying during nap time) and overly physical around the kids (one example being pushing cots while kids were on them and then when they fell off and were crying the adult didn't check in on the child). When I spoke with the director about what we saw she didn't deny any piece of it. One of her teachers was very nice but out often absent. The other teacher was cold and unsupportive (something the director even admitted) and should not be working with kids this young. Additionally there was only a small fenced in patch of grass by the road for my daughter's age range to play in and the playground was only for older kids to use. We only left our other day care, Wee Care in Albany, which was amazing, because we moved and needed a daycare closer to our new house. The drive in and out of Albany in rush hour daily would have been better than coming to Smart Early.

We've had our son, currently 18mo old, at Smart Early for over a year now, since he was 3 mo old…read more And while I would agree that yes, the owner is almost never there, the Director and General Manager are who actually run the operation and they're fantastic. We did have some issues in the very beginning with a particular teacher being very rude and grumpy but she was fired within a month (we weren't the only ones), which in all fairness we didn't actually raise the issue with the center until after the fact since were new parents and still unsure of ourselves (no longer the case). It's a great facility and by-and-large, the teachers there seem to genuinely care about the children. From time to time, issues do come up, which I'm okay with since it's how they get handled that's more important. In our case, they've always been very responsive and directly handled any issue we raised whether it was facility or staff related, usually within the same day. My son loves it there and I have complete trust that they take good care of the children. They only loose 1 star because of cost. Don't get me wrong, I do put a high value on the people and institutions entrusted with my child, but that being said, it is one of the most expensive daycare centers in the area (second to Bright Horizons which is way down in Albany).