Starting a daycare has its ups and downs. One of my biggest challenges was dealing with parents on a day to day basis. Some can be just down right rude and totally off based.
For example, one of the girls I cared in my daycare had 2 parents that where both attorneys. The child, who was really a sweet girl, had a couple of concerning habits. The main one being that she was very picky with her food and developed the habit of only eating green beans. Period. Green Beans.... She would eat 4 to 5 servings of beans a day. The first couple of weeks it didn't seem to be a big deal but a month into it I was getting concerned. It doesn't take a doctor to figure out how unhealthy it is for a 20 month old to only beans day after day.
I had never had a really good relationship with the parents to begin with but all in all they were OK as customers and followed most of the rules. Being concerned for the child's health I tried to talk with them about this and they became extremely defensive right from the start. They made it very clear that this was none of my business and that it was not up for discussion. It immediately changed the whole tone of the relationship and the parents became very quiet and when they did talk, they were very short and hostile. This awkward situation lasted for a little more than month or so and all along I worried about both girl's health and the weird relationship that had developed. I really don't like it when people don't like me, so this was very hard for me and I really questioned whether I had screwed up. However their belittling tone began to wear on me.
And that's not even the half of it! The child's bowel movements started to become this strange concoction of green diarrhea that I had to change 4 or 5 times a day. Besides just the foulness of it I was really worried about her becoming dehydrated. I brought the issue back up with the parents and they were again very clear that I was not qualified to question the girl's diet and that I should just be a good "baby sitter" and be quiet. At this point I was just plain mad and felt, well just disrespected. But this was in the beginning of my little daycare and I only had 4 kids with 1 of them as a part timer. So, I just kept my mouth shut having felt that I did my best.
About 2 weeks after the second odd encounter the girl got sick with the flu and had green vomit and diarrhea coming out of "both ends". It was absolutely disgusted (and concerned) and I called the parents to have them immediately pick her up - which they adamantly denied! They told me how disappointed they were with me that I was unwilling to care for her just because she was a little sick. It was "during the day and it was my job" to take care of their sick child, so they thought!
I firmly reminded them of the contract they signed and what they had agreed to regarding sick kids. They had to pick up the child if they showed any symptoms. This is both for the child's benefit as well as the other kids enrolled. They blew it off and reminded me of how important they are as busy (personal injury) attorney's (suing someone because they burnt their lip on hot coffee). More than anything I was shocked by their lack of compassion for both their own child and the other kids I took care of that we're in real danger of getting of catching the virus.
As a side note, a few of the other parents noticed how sick she was and were very upset that their child was exposed all day to the girl. It was a bad reflection on me as I was responsible for keeping all of the children safe. In addition the other parents were well aware of the rules on having to pick up their child no matter how inconvenient for them, as for the benefit for the whole daycare.
When the parents finally arrived, 15 minutes late, I told them it was over and I would no longer care for their kid. They where furious and threaten to take me to court as they wanted 2 weeks to find another daycare. I was firm, though really scared, and told them goodbye and shut the door.
Nothing happened with the lawsuit and I never heard from them again though I do see them walking around town once in a while and my involuntary daycare nervous twitch acts up. Looking back, that was a rough 2 months. My reputation with the other parents was revived when I told them that I fired them as my sincere concern for everyone's safety was that important in my daycare.
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