Apple Blossoms Child Center

TL:DR version: Apple Blossoms is not the place for parents who value their child’s early education and basic care. The center leadership is dismissive, passive aggressive, and vindictive. Our daughter (3) had been with Apple Blossoms since 16 weeks old, and we planned to enroll our newest baby when we returned to work, until we started to experience management, hygiene, and safety concerns. Our daughter was bounced around classrooms for months due to “staffing,” and we noticed troubling behaviors at home (hitting, biting, throwing). With a new baby, we passed some of it off as adjusting. However, it became clear that whatever was happening at Apple Blossoms was directly affecting her behavior at home. We reached out to the director and expressed concerns with the constant moving between classes (one+ days a week) sharing behavior at home had been challenging. Instead of acknowledging the reality of what was happening inside her center, the director said it was only “occasional” that our daughter was moved. I requested notice when she was going to be in a different classroom or to have her moved to the next room permanently, but neither of those requests were granted. Shortly after that, we experienced what I can only describe as the neglect of my child’s care. On the first incident, I picked her up and walked into a room reeking of feces. The culprit was our daughter’s diaper, which had been soiled for an unknown amount of time while she was in the care of the assistant director. Due to the director’s dismissive, somewhat unprofessional responses to our initial concerns in the weeks prior, we did not reach out to express our displeasure. We hoped this was one a one-time incident. It was not. A week later, I was helping my daughter use the bathroom when we got home and found poop on the OUTSIDE of her pull up and inside of her jeans and shirt. However, there was no poop in her pull up but some between her butt cheeks. It appeared as though someone had removed a dirty pull up and put on a new one without attending to her hygiene. The next day at pick up, our daughter’s jeans were soaked through. Once at home, we discovered there was no underwear, pull up, nor diaper under her jeans. I immediately sent a message to the staff through the app asking for an explanation. SILENCE. When they closed for snow the next morning, I sent another message asking for information since no one had even acknowledged my message from the night before. The director said she was aware and would get back to me. Her response a few hours later stated that the staff THOUGHT our daughter MAY have taken off her pull up and thrown it away. Our daughter, in fact, could not pull her pants up by herself at this time, so unless she and another child were in the bathroom together completely unsupervised, this was impossible. When we expressed our displeasure that the staff seemingly did not know our daughter was in the bathroom nor ensured she had been helped cleaning up once finished (in her first week of potty training no less), the director told us she expected us to “have compassion and understanding” for her staffing issues. In her responses she showed little to no concern for our daughter’s wellbeing, but felt it prudent to tell us how we should act when this was now the third incident in less than two weeks. Given that the director seemed content with her staff neglecting children’s care, I filed a report with the state licensing board. On the Friday the state representative visited Apple Blossoms, we received an email stating that our daughters care was terminated immediately, citing that they felt they could “no longer continue this relationship in a positive and considerate way,” while taking no responsibility for the lack of concern or care on their part. My daughter did not have the opportunity to say goodbye to her classmates, and we were left without care on a Friday. Apple Blossoms may say they care about children and growing young minds, but in our experience, that is the furthest thing from the truth.

It’s hard enough as parents to put our trust in others to care for our children and as a mother after having such an awful experience at this center I thought long and hard about making a formal review and I do think parents should be aware of the honest truth of what parents and children go through at centers in current time. I do NOT recommend this childcare to any family. Our child attended this center for just about a year and we were removed due to us voicing concerns about our child’s care and consent we never provided them to post our child publicly on Facebook. I found a teacher posting a child on her personal snap chat page as the child sat and cried at a table. (I walked into this in the afternoon when I picked up our child) I voiced this concern to the director and made it clear again that our child is not to be posted online. We were told that was “against their policy” but yet I then found out those parents were never notified of this incident as I was the one to tell them about it when we were removed. Our child was also placed in different rooms consistently for months. We were very dissatisfied with the lack of care, opportunities, play, creativity for months. At this same time the afternoon pick ups consisted of the rooms light was off, no activities out for the kids, soiled diapers and snot filled faces, runny noses, etc. we also picked up our child multiple times with soiled diapers. I voiced this concern as well and of course the owner and director were not available. I brought it to the assistant director and the response received was “it didn’t used to be like this.” My husband and I requested a meeting with the director for nearly a month and was never provided with a time to meet in person to discuss the care for our child. We were brushed off several times. The director and the owner were hardly ever available in person and hardly ever there at the center to speak with at picks ups. They fired the main teacher of our child’s classroom on a Friday without notifying the parents, and that following Monday there was a new teacher that was never properly introduced nor did we receive any announcement of the change. The new teacher hired in the twos classroom speaks too harshly to the kids and frankly is not a nice teacher for the kids as both my husband and I witnessed first hand. As for the social media posting, my husband and I were the ones to find all the pictures we could, sent screenshots of all of them and requesting their immediate removal. They removed some at first, then had to reach out again to remove the video and AGAIN after we were removed from the center. Therefore, clearly they did not thoroughly go through their Facebook page to remove any and all pictures our child was in, including one in a bathing suit. We reported the photos to Facebook as well. In accordance with the federal COPPA law, this is a MAJOR CONCERN for minor privacy protection and parental consent. We received a message in the APP two hours before normal pick up time that our child was being removed and the last comment of the message “it’s unfortunate that you caused us to make this decision.” I was being blamed for them removing our child because that same day I asked for the video to be removed. I left work immediately and upon pick up, neither the owner or director was there to speak with me, per usual it was the assistant director and her response “I don’t want to get involved.” We were treated with absolute disrespect. The experience at this childcare center for last several months was absolutely atrocious. The lack of communication, transparency, honesty and integrity from the two women that run this center proves the lack of overall care for the best interest for the families and overall care for the children. There are a few teachers that are absolutely lovely and it’s unfortunate the center is run so poorly. We value our child’s privacy, education, creativity and safety and if you do as well I ABSOLUTELY DO NOT RECOMMEND sending your child to Apple Blossoms.

Laura and her team at Apple Blossoms have been wonderful with our son. She is willing to work with our nontraditional work schedule where other daycare centers were not accommodating. Our son is always happy and excited to go to Apple Blossoms. Ms Des in the infant room is very knowledgeable and caring.

My daughter has been going to Apple Blossoms for about 9 months. She's in the infant room and I feel safe and happy to put her in the care of the team there. Des, the Infant Room teacher, is an amazing person with infinite patience. Her support staff are excellent, caring, and always happy to see the children. My daughter always comes home healthy and is excited to go back!

Where do I even start! Apple Blossoms has been a part of me and my families lives for the past 4 years. As a new mom it was very hard to find a daycare, balancing affordability (because we all know childcare isn’t cheap) and quality people who actually care about your children. This was a constant stressor during my maternity leave with a child who had an orthotic device at the time. It was a family friend who recommended we check out apple blossoms for our own kiddo. Not only are they a reasonably priced regarding tuition, but their teachers are incredibly caring and kind. The director, Laura, is attentive and responsive to any concerns or questions. Many teachers there have longevity in their careers and all are professional, and most importantly CARING!!! I would recommend anyone to join the Apple Blossoms family. You won’t regret it !!!!! ❤️❤️❤️❤️