December 2018 by Pam Mancuso
My daughter and I were searching for daycare for her one year old for 2-half days a week. That is a difficult task in and of itself with all the wait lists and rules of individual daycares. We choose Carousel because it was clean and seemed ok. The red flags were there right from the beginning: lack of a double door entry for safety, no one found at the front desk on multiple visits (had to wait and then seek out the right person), and for lack of better words, a "stepford wife" feeling to the people running it.The first half day wasn't great, but as the pick up person, I was trying to get a feel for things. The second half day (5 hours long), I went in to pick up my grandchild and was met with this scene: one girl on the floor holding a swaddled 10 month old child, and one young lady who saw me coming attempting to get my belongings. Three other children during nap time; two were toddling around in the dark, and my granddaughter was on the floor in a jumper type chair staring off into space. When I walked in the girl on the floor looked at me and said with no expression and total lack of care that "she didn't drink today and she didn't eat today." I responded by asking if she went to the bathroom to which she replied "no" and then said and she didn't sleep today either. I commented to her "it was a bad day then?" and she replied "yea". Why was my child locked up in a chair and not allowed to crawl around while two others were walking around having fun and only one was sleeping in the daycare workers arms? Why did this person not show some empathy, compassion or at least fake it? A one year old baby starting a new situation needs a little extra TLC, not only was there no TLC, but lack of understanding that there should have been. On our way out I had my one year old wave bye bye and the worker said (with no tone whatsoever) "oh, happy birthday." No animation, never moved from the floor and totally lacking in emotion. The fact that my grandaughter went without any food or drink for 5 hours on a very hot day is unacceptable, but to tell me with no empathy for the child is just as bad. Our child could have become dehydrated, and my daughter should have received a call to let her know so she could make the decision to leave work and go feed her. I have watched many children over time, and with a little one new to a situation they can be cajoled to partake of drink or food with a little effort.I called and talked to the Assistant Director and told him I was upset and what the occurrences were. Instead of immediately apologizing he made excuses about how he knew they held our baby today, etc. He finally said he was sorry and would talk to the girls and the Director. My daughter never even received a call from either person to ask what really happened or just say "sorry". We picked up our belongings from the daycare two days later. My daughter told the Director she couldn't believe she never even heard from her, and her response was that she had a busy day and she proceeded to stick up for her staff.If you have your child in this daycare, I suggest a pop-in visit to see how your child is being cared for or not cared for as was the case for us!
