Wednesday, February 22, 2012

A Very Angry Mum!

Tonight I'm seething! I picked up Miss E from childcare today and her face was grazed, small cut above her right eye, bruising and both knees grazed. Now I know accidents happen, toddlers run and fall, but no one can actually tell me what happened ad there was no incident report for me to sign. To top it off it's clearly a head injury and regardless of how minor it is, legally they are required to call me and report it.

About two months after we put Miss E into this childcare center I began to think it wasn't the best place. I don't know why, maybe it was other Mums telling me of the problems they were having, maybe it was the center director running around like she had ADD and making all her employees nervous wrecks, maybe it was because aftyer 2 months Miss E still cried and clung to me every time i tried to drop and run.

Childcare spaces are limited in my town so I put her on a waiting list for one a block from the shop and on meeting with the director and doing a tour, one I felt immediately comfortable with.

We have had several incidents in the past 3 months with our current provider. Actually I can count them, five to be exact. In each occurrence the she had scratches, cuts, bruising or head injuries severe enough to contact me however the call wasn't made. In each case the incident report couldn't be provided at the time because the casual who was supervising the children had gone home and didn't fill it out. Each time I could seriously question the amount of supervision given because of things like Miss E was eating strawberries from the garden and no one realised till they saw the white shirt she was wearing had red juice down the front. Come on!


So this is my baby after I picked her up today. She was very grumpy and the bottle was the only way to keep her settled. It's a pretty bad photo and you can't see the grazing that well. It's not even the severity of the injury, it's the balls they have in blatantly breaking policy and the law!

Anyway, I'm happy to say we've been accepted to the new childcare center and she starts next Friday. Tomorrow morning I am definitely going to make a huge complaint to the director, and then I'm making a complaint to the Departments of Community Services. Five times in three months is way too much.

Have you ever experienced anything like this and what did you do about it?

4 comments:

  1. Good on you for making a complaint to Docs ... that is bloody poor form. I pulled Rocco out of his last year - you know when you just KNOW they're not getting looked after properly? Yeah. His new place is fantastic.

    Good luck with it.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Honestly Eden if I had a choice today I wouldn't have taken her in. Unfortunately it's my only form of childcare until my parents return from holidays next week. I was assured she would be stuck like glue to her fabulous usual carer, who does an awesome job but wasn't there yesterday, and we change centres next week. Holding on till then......

      Delete
  2. I walk past the back of a daycare every day. Do you know what I see? childcare workers..sometimes one, sometimes two, sitting on their i phones while 20+ kids play in the yard. I have seen fights go unnoticed and kids scaling the gates. The young "caregivers" sit there giggling and face booking. It horrifies me.
    People push for me to put my little 2 into daycare. I just cannot do it.
    Funnily enough I am doing a cert 3 in children services at present, which means when I have completed I can work in a daycare...I don't really want to.
    Your poor little missy looks like she has some swelling:( I hope she settled fairly quickly. I would definitely be making a complaint..obviously they need a wake up call!!

    ReplyDelete
  3. I've never experienced anything like this, but just by the photo I would definitely do what you've done! Those injuries are not just playground matters, and even if it is, it looks bad enough to warrant a phone call. I hope you have better days with the new centre

    ReplyDelete

I love comments!