Darlene’s Little Angels

Our daughter attended Darlene’s Little Angels from the time she was 6 weeks old. This is a family run establishment with convenient hours, a focus on caring, and they follow all state mandates to the T. Ms. Darlene, who owns the facility, really enjoys children and is so warm with them. Her mother, Ms. Judy, works in the infant room with Ms. Donna. The two of them are a wonderful duo. They insure the infants’ needs are met with a constant rotation of feeding, diapering, playing, and cuddling. Ms. Judy is a fountain of practical advice and support for new mothers. Ms. Donna is a patient, observant soul.
Being a working mother is riddled with guilt, so finding a place for your child to stay while you are at work is of parmount import. Because I worked at Vanderbilt, I was given the opportunity to enroll my daughter in their daycare center. However, I chose not to, after a site visit. Even though Darlene’s Little Angels was more expensive, I found them to be far more warm, emotionally involved, and present with the infants than the teachers at Vanderbilt. Everyone’s experience will differ, of course, but for me, I was very happy to have a place where I knew my daughter was loved, nurtured, and carefully looked after. They called if she showed signs of sickness and talked to me about any new behaviors she demonstrated during the day. Each day is documented on paper so you know when your little one ate, napped, and played.
This is a small family-​run daycare, not a franchise or large establishment. As such, they are able to provide a different level of service. For example, you need not prepare you bottles for each day. Just provide clean bottles each day along with breast milk (frozen, fresh, whatever) or formula and they prepare it on the spot and Ms. Judy is quite frugal, so she will only prepare what she thinks baby will eat and if baby wants more, then she will make more. It’s a small touch, but it demonstrates how this family really looks out for your family. I couldn’t be more pleased with our experience there. I can only hope we find some place as warm in our new location!

I had my kids here for 5 years and really loved them. Located with easy access from Hillsboro Village and West End, they are very convenient for anyone living and/​or working on the West Side. They take children from 6 weeks to 5.
They aren’t anything fancy and you aren’t going to get Pre-​k curriculum or anything if that is part of your criteria. However, it’s a family run daycare and many of the ladies have been there quite a while. They all seemed to bond with my babies and were genuinely sweet to them.
More importantly my kids loved going and as hard as it was to leave them, I at least had the peace of mind that they really didn’t mind being there.