Good Parenting

I recall when my daughter was only 4 months old. Her father worked days and I was working graveyard shift to pay the bills. During the evening and nights he had my daughter, and during the day we had a part time daycare to help while I slept. It was a difficult time for us as a whole because we were just starting out. We chose a daycare close to home that would allow us to do part time and the cost was kept fairly minimal.

One day I received a call that my daughter would not stop crying. They did not know what was wrong with her so I had to come and get her. I had only been asleep for 2 hours, but I got up and went into the childcare center.

Much to my horror I found my 4 month old baby girl strapped in her carrier seat in a corner crying. Not one child care provider was with her. I immediately went over and took her out of the seat and picked her up. She ceased crying immediately. The childcare providers had no interest in my concerns for why my daughter was strapped in her seat in a corner with little to no care at all. They just informed me that I had to take her home because she was too difficult to handle.

I grabbed her stuff and on my way out the door the director stopped me and informed me that my daughter was unsociable. She didn’t like people and I needed to take her places where there were lots of people around making noises like a bar or something like that. Let her sit in her car seat and cry until she gets used to being around people.

I was mortified and by the time I got home I was in tears. My daughter was 4 months old. She had not developed social skills at this point let alone enough for me to take her to a bar and let her cry.

They simply didn’t care for my daughter and their mistreatment was mimicked in the way they treated me and her daily. That is when I took a stand and pulled her out of the daycare.

Over the next several months times were hard, but I didn’t trust daycare facilities and I relied on family members to help me care for my daughter. It wasn’t until I moved closer to my family and used my key principles in business to find her another quality daycare that I was able to turn things around.

As a young parent at the time I was lost and frustrated of what to do. Most of the people in my life had not used childcare services and didn’t have advice to give, so I found myself in need of doing the research alone. I was lucky and my skills led me to the right place but I have often wondered about others and the pain of those in my shoes.