Imagination Time: Childcare and Preschool

We have been with this daycare since 2018 with both of my kids. The communication that I have had with every single teacher has been great. My kids absolutely love going and I see a huge change in every single one of them. I know it’s not easy being a daycare Every single one of them that has taken their time to take care of my kids while I have been working. As I’m reading these reviews, it makes me sad that these families feel like this daycare is not worth it. I have been here for nearly 7 years and going and I have a really good communication with every single teacher and I ask them every time what I need to do at home to make it easier for them at Daycare it’s not Daycare‘s responsibility to teach my kids manners and respect.

It started out okay, and there are some genuinely great teachers here, but even they clearly struggle because the center doesn’t support them. You can tell the staff is stretched thin by the high turnover rate. From the beginning we tried to work with the staff, offering strategies we use at home and asking for updates, but communication was very nonchalant at best and nonexistent at worst. When I witnessed a staff member physically handling our daughter while she was clearly upset, they were so dismissive and minimized what happened to the point where I felt like I was being gaslit about what I’d actually seen. They took no accountability and offered no real resolution. Immediately after this occurred, they suddenly brought up serious behavior issues that had never been documented or communicated to us before and couldn’t provide a single incident report when we asked. It felt extremely retaliatory and like they were trying to shift blame. In the end, their only “solution” was to move our daughter into a different class with no transition plan or real support. Between the lack of transparency, high student to teacher ratios, and frequent staff turnover, this center simply isn’t equipped to support kids who need extra help or who don’t fit their mold. If you want a center that truly partners with parents and treats children as individuals, definitely look elsewhere.

Since we’re gaslighting in response to reviews, I guess I’ll input as well when I never intended to. I have worked in Utah’s top rated therapeutic preschool and have mounds of education on mostly every staff that works there in terms of child development and managing children who have higher needs (extreme needs. Not the minor issues my daughter displayed due to lack of support). “I’m sorry you felt this way” is called gaslighting. I’m sorry your actions caused my daughter to feel physically violated by a staff member, then dancing around the issue like it wasn’t a big deal. Physical intervention on a child in a state of stress is insanely damaging. You denied every single thing I offered to bring and help for my child, and told me “oh it works different for parents” when I recommend changing how you phrase directions to ALL children, not just mine. You’re unwilling to put in the effort of anything different that would not only benefit your staff, but the other children. The lazy physical forced compliance done on my child is a great example. YOU chose not to collaborate with parents. If you knew anything about child development and neurodivergent children then you’d know that your “plan” to abruptly move her without expressing how you’re planning to help her transition wouldn’t be effective. Without proper support in which you refused to answer how you planned to do that. We told you we had OT scheduled as well (weeks ago) and waiting for an evaluation to help better support our child, and make sure that staff and other students are in a good place with our child. Please explain how that’s not trying. My child doesn’t display these behaviors at home. Anyway, I didn’t have any extreme animosity towards you guys until you decided to blame shift AGAIN (right after being called out for it), and throwing me under the bus and smearing my child as if your lack of support isn’t also to blame. I’ve never seen so much stress displayed by staff managing children since working in the field. Your ratios are insanely too big and dangerous, and dancing the fine line of being illegal. If you actually hired two teachers for each class then you could better support all of the kids who need extra help. There’s a handful. I see them constantly sitting in time out. The same kids. Condoning physical harm is HILARIOUS. What patent would do that? I constantly asked if she had harmed other kids, and since we have so much footage you can see my response to all of that too and you know it wasn’t condoning her behavior. We asked you over and over again what we could work on at home. We also told YOU what to try and you refused. Isn’t that your job? Maybe learn how to be adults and communicate that’s how you feel instead of using it as an immature jab. Your response to my husband makes you look bad. That’s on you not us. You lack integrity and accountability. I really enjoy a few of the teachers there, especially her main teacher. I have no hard feelings towards a handful of the staff. Whoever is responding is unprofessional at best. We’ve never had this much strife until today. Lastly, shall we discuss the footage of me saying stuff I didn’t say? I’d love to hear it. I asked for the footage of that and the physical violation of my child that you refused to give us. I also asked for incident reports. Mostly to share what was going on with OT, but you don’t have that either. For someone speaking like they have such high credentials with the attitude in response, that’s really unwise to not implement as a business owner who manages children. It’s also really risky legally. Again, I had zero intention of writing this until you wanted to gaslight and blame shift more.

They worked with me on payment arrangements when I was unable to pay which I really did appreciate. Unfortunately I didn’t feel that they were very personable or empathetic at this daycare. felt as if my daughter was another number when she did attend. Her other daycare and her doctors all get excited to see her but I didn’t feel that way with this place. They also do charge above the current market rate so if you get childcare benefits from the state you will still owe over $300 to them on top of the state benefits. Just be sure to look into this. They also had me sign a contract when I was in rush to drop my daughter off that apparently had a lot of stipulations they threw at me when I was unhappy with the payment. The other daycare I went to has you meet in advance to sit down and talk through the contract, read it, and questions. I know yall won’t be happy with me leaving a review but I want to leave a review so other parents know that they you don’t charge market rates and dont have a meeting before enrollment to go over the contract so nobody else goes through what I have.

This daycare was great when I first started bringing my kids there about 2 years ago. As time went on some of the teachers seemed burnt out. My daughter has some issues with dairy causing her severe constipation and there were some instances where they had given her dairy. She also had issues with having accidents due to the dairy and also a condition called encopresis and only one teacher communicated with me about the issues. For more context, my daughter withholds and when she gets constipated it causes her to leak loose stool. Sometimes she has accidents when she doesn't feel safe to go to the bathroom but has to go. When she has dairy it makes it worse because her colon is slow from withholding. I did provide them with a doctors note stating she could not have dairy to help with her constipation and withholding. We had worked hard with her to feel comforable to go and she stopped having accidents. My kids didn't have to go for a couple weeks but when they returned she was given dairy again and had a couple accidents that day. I was told by the evening teacher she had to come in pull ups or she wouldn't be able to attend. I informed that teacher that was not a solution. My daughter had stopped having accidents everywhere else except the daycare. At one point they wanted me to buy her a potty watch, (which i had already tried and it did not help), my daughter needs someone to take her to the toilet and encourage her. She needs to feel safe to go. She had mentioned they weren't very nice to her about having the accidents. I decided they could not meet her needs and found a new daycare. I want to say my situation is complex and not everyone has the same experiences. I would not say this daycare is a bad daycare. I just did not feel they could meet my daughters needs. They do a lot of fun things with the older school age kids. I did not have any issues with my older son attending other than he mentioned one teacher in his age group is not very nice. I also feel there could be better communication happening.