Daycare expectations for infants?
Hi there. My son (9mo) has been enrolled in our local daycare since he was 4 months old when I sadly had to return to work. It's one of the best daycares offered in my area, despite my issues which ill lightly touch on below, but what sets it apart is I have access to cameras. This feature is not something offered at any other daycare in my area, so switching daycare centers and not having cameras feels borderline impossible at this point. That said, I want to get an understanding of other parents expectations of their infant daycares to see if I am expecting too much/little.
I feel like I have had issues left and right, most of which have been fixed after I complain, but without me having camera access I would have NEVER known they were happening. (Hence my inability to go to a new center w/o camera access) I also just feel exhausted from constantly having something new to complain about. Some examples:
- feeding two bottles of breast milk (10 oz) within a one hour period (if you BF you know this is impossible to keep up with and overfeeding)
-when he was very little they would expect him to hold his own bottle, which he couldnt, so the entire bottle would just leak on him.
- Leaving him to eat his food (BLW) completely unsupervised, so if he choked im not sure how they would get to him in time or if they would even hear it?!
- going 4+ hours without feeding him at all
-putting diaper rash cream on him (when I hadnt supplied them any, so they were using someone else's)
My MAIN issues:
- there is no "curriculum" or activities throughout the day. I am not expecting them to be teaching a 9 month old how to play the violin or sculpt with clay, but reading a book or doing some sort of music time would be so nice to see vs him just crawling around in a 9x9 area day after day.
- They dont send me photos /updates of him throughout the day. I know this seems dumb, but its so hard to send your baby off and feel completely disconnected. The cameras let me see, but I want to see those moment of him smiling and playing. It just feels like im missing out on his life without that little thing.
- Recently they have been ignoring the student teacher ratio (which is already too high), and some days having over 12 students in the room which is also against state law. At one point they had 14 children to 2-3 teachers... I did call this out and they have been better since.
With that said, he is so happy when he gets dropped off/picked up, the facility is super clean, staff is friendly, they listen to my feedback. But it feels like unless I specifically complain or request something, there is no training or guidelines in place.
The root of the issue is they have a staffing problem, and the "main teacher" was basically forced to take on the leadership role and isnt being paid more for it. I try to be understanding of this, even though I don't feel I should be understanding when my child is losing out because of it. But I dont know if with all of the above, am I just being unreasonable? I would genuinely like a gut check on if these are actually valid and concerning or if my mommy brain is being dramatic and these are normal issues to have. Thank you!
Posted Mar 12, 2025, 8:07 PM UTC