….and I have.

Inspection after inspection….

…the last one the woman lifted dining room table, entry rug and sign-in table to tell me I need to sweep and mop.

NO DISRESPECT, I work 11+ hours a day taking care of multiple children. I sweep and mop. I imagine I am the worst provider in the world because I do not lift my furniture and rug every time I sweep and mop.

Note: All the lifting was done when I was out of sight or handling the children. More inspections coming, YEAH ME!

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I'd love to see HER home.

I'm sorry you're dealing with this ridiculousness. I'm frustrated reading how much is expected if providers, how little we are paid, how stressful the job is, how much liability is on our shoulders. There needs to be more support and recognition. At least we can support and recognize each others hard work here!

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Another provider who is a dear friend said the same thing.

Thanks for the kind words!

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I should log out....LOL but you should see my floor! It's awful right now and it's been awful when I've had DHS visits. Playdough, paper scraps and if she comes at the right time....yes, food crumbs. I clean after breakfast and lunch....but sometimes I can't get to it right away. It's life.

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I have no words. You know how I feel about how about this profession and the direction it's heading.

I'm sorry about all the BS you are having to go through.

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Hold your head up! You are a great provider.....These inspections are getting crazy and I think they will only get worse as time progresses.....Providers here got word this week the "bar" was fixing to be raised......waiting to see what this exactly means!!!! FCC is being attacked from every angle!

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Miss Ann your words made me giggle.

For Army Providers BC I am really worried for them (us until sometime in August). It’s as if they are trying to push us to close. We are homes that people live in, children eat, play, paint, boo boo and snot in all day long.

It’s why I am in the process of getting my state license. Thanks for the hugs!

Annalee I do. However, I am coming to the point where I can’t look at these people anymore or address their ridiculousness because I am 2 seconds from going sailor on them. Their ridiculousness is about people who have never done what we do, deciding the regulations that an OCD housekeeper couldn’t comply with… belay my last. He/she could if they crated the kids all day.

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Funny, I've never seen anyone age 0-5 lift a dining room table so they could play in the dust under the rug. You better make sure there is no dust under any other heavy piece of furniture, because it's such an easily accessible play area.

Sorry you are going through this. That is just ridiculous.

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That's crazy! Where does it specify in the regulations how "clean" things have to be? I'd get a copy of the rules and study them - whatever isn't spelled out is open to interpretation, and if your inspector is overly strict I'd seriously consider filing an appeal. You can only be held to standards that are written out.

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Awwww

That's just ridiculous! Those people have no clue what it takes to take care of multiple children, plus clean. Sorry if I have a little dirt under a rug, a rug!

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Just nuts!

These people do realize we take care of children all day long right?!

Sorry if our priorities are the children and not the rug under the table.

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What state are you in?

In Texas we are not allowed to clean while children are in care, unless it poses a hazard to the child, spilt milk, etc.

Other than that we do our regular surface sanitizing and such but we are not allowed technically to sweep, mop, do dishes, laundry, or any other cleaning that would take attention away from the children.

I honestly have a hard time not cleaning while kids are in care because I'm a bit OCD but looking under rugs good grief, I would just have to shrug my shoulder and bite my lip because that is ridiculous.

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Holy cow, that's just as stupid as looking under the rug...

Middle ground, please????

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Yes, middle ground. Here, someone was written up and fined for having a dirty table where kids eat, and food on the floor. I would guess that occurs about three hours a day here! Little kids are not always neat eaters.

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Well I sure am I glad I didn't get a surprise inspection today. I was just looking at my kitchen floor thinking, "Oh gross!"

It looks clean, but then I saw stuff in the corners. Oh how does it even get there. *Shudder*

Every one on here seems like a great cleaner, but not me! Don't get me wrong, I clean and sanitize and run a tight ship and all, but ... I despise cleaning. Boring! I'd rather be out having fun

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Guess who came to see me right as I was making lunch today?

My licenser....

By the time she left, the floor was pretty gross!

No issues, thank you! I should be good for another year.

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What a bleep!!!
I've yet to have an unannounced visit from licensing but I know it's coming sooner or later.

The DCM I have now told me originally they wanted to find a military daycare because she knew their standards are so much higher than the state's standards but couldn't find one.

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Let's all just stick the kids in front of the tube while we make our homes immaculate. As far as I know, no one from my generation died or got sick because of crumbs on the floor or a cobweb in the corner of the windows. Com'on people!! We're here to keep the children safe, fed, happy, loved, learning, healthy. A little dirt never hurt.

Even if we did daycare in a hospital, there'd still be something in some corner or under something.

I feel they've been trying to wean out home providers for a long time. Pretty sad too. Thankfully, there are still families who don't want to send their small children to 'school'.

Besides, if our kids are brought up in sterile environments, how will their little bodies develop their own immunity systems to fight off germs?

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When I was an Army FCC provider, they were CRAZY. I ended up going state. They went into an area NOT approved for daycare and complained that it was cluttered. It was gated off, had a sign that said "no entry" and they entered! Then, on the same visit, there were dishes in the sink. They came RIGHT as I was getting the kids down for nap and we had JUST finished lunch. I explained this to the woman, and it was JUST the breakfast/lunch dishes, yet I still got a citation. I was like seriously? Then, because our window broke, we had to replace with Plexi glass temporarily, again in the non-daycare approved area, they cited that! So then they wanted to come every TWO weeks! I went state and told them I was no longer willing to be FCC certified. It was too ridiculous, it's like they wanted 100% perfection and would cite anything and everything when life just ain't perfect.

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Go take a look at your walls..
Don't ask me what is on them or how it got there!

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I appreciate everyone’s words of encouragement, experiences and information on varying regulations.

Mom of 4 while you were an Army FCC Provider did you ever have anyone move your furniture or lift your entryway rugs? Also, did you not feel the inspectors were overstepping boundaries and regulations?

The nutritionist today looked at my sink. I had just loaded the dishwasher. However, I was tempted to ask her “What if I hadn’t just loaded the dishwasher? What does my sink have to do with you checking my menu or refrigerator? Preventive Medicine came earlier this morning to check on the cleanliness of my home and he said I met all expectations.

It burns my big toe that the inspecting individuals don’t have the same set of standards and don’t stay in their lanes.

People have told me state will be a cake walk for me after what I’ve been through.

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Some of these inspectors/specialists are absurd and are simply determined to list something negative about your daycare. I think their superiors think of them as better inspectors/specialists if they find problems.

I absolutely HATE my daycare specialist. I don't use the word hate often. I have been in business for over 20 years and have NEVER had 1 thing found to be wrong during any inspection! I had 2 specialists for many years each, then recently, went through specialists on an almost monthly basis due to them flopping specialists around. So I have had plenty of specialists over the years and 1 inspection per year then when they flopped specialists, each of them came out to 'introduce themselves' and do an inspection. I never had anything written up about me by any of them.

THEN I got my new permanent specialist. When she came out to introduce herself and do my initial inspection by her, she listed like 20 things - I just looked, it was actually 12 things!!! Many of them she actually listed multiple times, but reworded them! So she really only found like 5 things, but reworded them 4 different ways each. She also included things that were in rooms that are off limits to my daycare therefore she had no business inspecting that room at all!!!

She just came back out for my normal yearly inspection and found 4 things wrong. They were all things that were just fine the last time she was here and that the other specialists didn't say anything about.

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Woo hoo!

My new licensor has a reputation for finding something wrong every time she visits.

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I just pulled up the inspections in my area. I looked at a couple of daycare providers that I know typically do not get anything found wrong during their inspections. For everyone that had 'no non-compliances found' for their inspections the previous year (with the old inspector/specialist), this new inspector found an average of 6 - 12 things wrong at all of our daycares!

I could not find any daycare that she said had nothing wrong during the inspection whereas before she was here, many of us received perfect inspections. hmmmm.... what does that tell you?

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Wow, thank God I have never been written up for my teen kids bedrooms and bathroom! I just tell my licensor each time I open the door "oh, you don't want to try to walk in there." They never do. I just tell them I close the door which is what I do!!!! It is our home. I vacuum and clean every morning and evening before children arrive and leave but it is just that our home and we live here too! My kids unplug outlets, spill things I don't see, leave their dirty socks and shoes here and there. I try to have those things cleaned but alas right now it is summer and like I said, we live here! I've seen one of my daycare children's home and well you could have a meal off the kitchen floor. My other child's mother tells me, "you should see my house yours is immaculate compared to mine."

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Well...this is how it works now, from what she told me yesterday:

You know that booklet with all 765 or so regulations in it? They start a new one with each licensing renewal. Then, they are supposed to visit annually, and get through as much of the book as possible each time. If there are any non-compliances, they are supposed to come back and check on those a couple month later (looking for corrections). Then, at your next annual visit, they are supposed to go through the REST of the booklet. Of course, if they see anything ELSE while they're there, then they have to site that, too.

It's a lot!

There is a new licensing chief, and they will most likely do more reorganizing yet to even out case loads more. Apparently, some areas have huge case loads while others have smaller ones.

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Trying again...

I don't know if anyone lifted rugs or checked for dustmites lol I wasn't allowed to bring the DC kids in the non-DC area. I thought that was pretty messed up they went into my home and inspected the way they did in areas not DC approved. There was no reason for them to act that way. Lifting up rugs is insane...I'd have been LIVID if I had seen anything like that. I mean WHO does that!?

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