Need your opinion about this daycare policy…

Hello parents! I’d love to get your opinion on something that’s bugging me.

I’ve started looking at daycare options for my 8-month-old baby. Ideally, I’d like her to start around 12-13 months. Where I live, we have a public system of subsidized daycares. We register on the waiting lists of the daycares that interest us, and then we choose among the ones that call us back when a spot becomes available.

One daycare actually called me this week. It checks basically all of my criteria ! However, there’s one major downside: their policy is that they do not allow parents to be present during daycare hours. This means that I visited the daycare while it was closed. I wasn’t able to see the educators interacting with the children, observe the atmosphere of the group, or simply see whether the kids seemed happy.

It also means that I wouldn’t be able to stay during the transition period. I find it quite abrupt to go from being with my baby 24/7 to simply dropping her off with someone she doesn’t know yet, even if it’s just for a few hours at first.

I’m also wondering about attachment. I worry that my baby might feel abandoned. (Even though she is an extremely sociable baby.)

What do you think?

Would you accept this condition if the daycare met all your other criteria?

Would this be a dealbreaker for you?