The Learning Experience

Unfortunately I had a bad experience in this center with my infant. I started dropping him at 4 months old, at that point I expected given the child to caregiver ratios some holding time needed at that age, I never saw a teacher holding my child even if he was crying. Furthermore, they realized the only way he wouldn’t cry was to leave him in the bouncer seat so every time I went to pick him up or visited at lunch he was on the bouncer seat. When I asked the teachers about it, since I know tummy time is very important at that age, they told me he was very fuzzy. I approached the admin staff to work on that but I didn’t noticed any difference. I am very much aware that a daycare can not give one to one attention to one child but I didn’t expect it to be this way, it look to me that one of the teachers was more concern about having an organized classroom than making my baby happy. I said that because on the morning she was cleaning and organizing instead of receiving my baby so I had to let him crying alone. Also, one day she was doing «art» with the kids, I noticed she painted other kids foot during diaper change and print it in a paper for parents, it wasn’t a learning activity (like a sensory experience) for them since she painted the foot quickly and remove the painting immediately. When I picked up my child that day the report said «my baby didn’t collaborate with the art». Was the purpose of this activity to produce something for the parents? I would have preferred they spent that time making him happy than trying to get a painting for me.
Finally, they didn’t listen to me, I knew my baby sucked his fingers to sleep but they swaddled him in the crib so he couldn’t find his hands, so I explained to the teachers I stopped swaddling at 3 months since he was using his hands to self soothe; next time I found him on the crib he was wearing his sleeping sack with his arms inside even when he was sweating. I was afraid as a new mother the daycare was not for him or I was doing something wrong for dropping him instead of staying at home, anyway I decided to switch daycares and I can’t be happier with the decision, having same rates I saw how they attend to my child, hold him, gave him tummy time and built his trust. He has been one year now in the other place. I am grateful I listened to my instincts and switched.