Please let me be the first to say, “Beware if your child is infant or toddler aged!” The first few weeks at Children of America went well, though we quickly started to notice some things that worried us. On one occasion, for whatever reason, the staff forgot to feed our infant her scheduled bottle. A month or two later, we also noticed, through the “Always close by” camera system, that the staff would strap our baby girl in her car seat at 5 PM, knowing that we would not pick her up until 6:30 PM. We didn’t want to be “complaining” parents, but for the fee we were paying and the level of care we were promised, my wife decided to speak to the staff about these issues. The next day we noticed on the “Always close by” cameras that the staff again strapped our baby girl in her car seat at 5 PM, but this time, took her out a few minutes before my wife picked her up, I guess in an attempt to appear that they had not put her in the car seat early. Were they trying to be sneaky or did they think we were stupid? After this incident, I decided to talk to the Director myself. Following the conversation, to Children of America’s credit, things did get better. The simple fact is that those things should have never happened in the first place. Over the next few months, mostly due to our lowered expectations, the level of care continued “status quo”, but by no means was exceptional. When we began to transition our child from the bottle to baby food, we found she would only eat the baby food if it was warmed. We explained to Children of America the issue we were having and they agreed to warm her food before feeding it to her. The very next week, my wife was told by the staff that due to “State Regulations”, they would no longer be able to warm our child’s food. Worried that our child would not eat, my wife called the State to inquire about this “regulation.” The State informed my wife that no such regulation existed. That’s weird, huh? So the next day, my wife relayed the information she had learned to Children of America and miraculously they once again agreed to warm her food. I’ll ask again, were they trying to be sneaky or did they think we were stupid?
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