With the end of the year ending, I thought it might be fun to share some of our craziest daycare stories.

Here's mine:


I termed a family last year because DCD was way too comfortable. He tried bogarting my staff assistant right in front of me!! He asked how much I was paying and he offered her more money if she'd quit and go to work for him directly!!! Thank goodness her dedication was to me and her wonderful sense of humor told him he couldn't afford her!!

After that incident, I told the family they were on probation and if something like that happened again, they'd be termed on the spot.

The next week, DCD had enough nerve to not only ask my staff assistant again with even more money. Then he had the audacity to say he liked her watching the kids better than me (while I was standing right there, mind you)!!!!

The termination letter was drawn up within an hour after dropoff and DCM picked up and got the news. She handled it like a screen door on a submarine and cussed me out all the way to the car. My neighbor(an off duty state patrolman) heard her yelling and asked me if everything was alright. Which I told him I was fine.

She said didn't like the kids coming to my place anyway and normally I dont entertain comfrontation but I had to toss in, "Yeah, well if you hate me so much, why did they never miss a single day???" To which she finally shut up.


THEN...(oh yes...it gets better)

Dcd shows up at my house after business hours that same day apologizing profusely. I thanked him for his apology and shut the door.

WELL...

He must have thought an apology meant we were resuming our working relationship because he showed up the next day!!!!!

I didn't answer the door or the phone!!

He left only one message that said something along the lines of...I thought since I apologized we were good. Now you're not answering the door. Whatever man, Merry Christmas!

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wow. This was like reading a good book that pulls you in and you just have to keep turning the page to see what happens next. wow

I got nothin...... I have great parents and am blessed in this area. Has not always been the case in past years. Look forward to more end of the year stories

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Nothing! I have the same clients I did this time last year, except I added another wonderful family into the mix. I am so very fortunate to have such awesome families. I have one leaving at the end of the year, but that is due to her child aging out.

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i have a crazy one.....

young couple (not married) looking for daycare for twins.

they come to interview. dad is out of work for a bit due to a work injury but says is going back in a few weeks. finally call me back and decide to sign on leaving a holding fee.

They ask if during the time if they can drop off the kids here and there jsut so they can get them used to me. I don't normally allow this, but at the time I did not have a full schedule and needed the money.

DCD was very friendly and a little flirty, which I declined to play that game.

Well I welcomed them to text or email me call me with any questions. Both of them text and emailed me with more questions.

I also work as a personal fitness trainer and the dcd started to ask questions about it. said he was interested in hiring me for his GF. Ok no big deal.

well one day DCD bring the twins over for the first time. DCD leaves and I take a pic to send to both DCD and DCM to show them that the twins are fine.

Next thing you know DCM is blowing up my phone wanting to know why her kids are at my house?? I am shocked and don't know what to say...
After her screaming at me and then accusing me of doing things with her BF, before I know it, she is at my front door.

I had never had anything like this happen before and it was crazy. The DCM calls me the next day with her phone bill and wants to know what each and every text was about that her BF and I discussed. OMG are you serious. I was like lady, it was about childcare, if you really need it I will copy the text and send them to you......that was dumb of me to offer, of course she said yes....

Ugh so I take all my time and do as I said I would sending over the text messages as I said I would. I had nothing to hide.

So another day passes and its a saturday. DCM calls me and starts asking me all of these questions about everything and anything DCD has said to me. At that point I tell her look, I am sorry you have obvious trust issues with your BF, but I can't help you. Perhaps you guys should consider some couples counseling.

I was so scared that she was going to come over the smash my car up or something or do something else. After all, she had been to my house for the first interview....

After that, I won't text only a DCD without copying DCM on it too

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The worst I have had was the "everything is due to teething" parents.

One day, the child came with hand, foot, and mouth... I brought it to their attention, knowing what it was, and sent him away to get a doctors note. Of course (before going to the doctor), they were upset because it was "just teething." after the doctor, they didnt even admit they were wrong.

Later on in the year, that same child brought rotovirus. I immediately recognized the smell, and sent him packing. They kept bringing him back every other day (bc I kept sending him home and he had to stay home 24 hours after being sent home), and said it was only due to teething. Finally, I drafted a term notice. It was too late though, 3 of the other kids caught it after I let him come back, believing the parents that he had stopped having diarrhea. My favorite text from dcd: "Don't blame C.... For all you know, he could have caught it from your kids."

Needless to say, we have been a very healthy daycare ever since that kid left.

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I had a constipated dcb that kept pushing until he pushed his rectum OUTSIDE of his body. Dcm brought me some rubber gloves and ointment and real casual like told me to just shove his rectum back into his body should it flop out.

Um......that'll cost extra!

no j/k I was not up for performing medical procedures here at the dc!

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Thank you for the laugh. How did you respond? I think I would have started to laugh uncontrollably.

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Strangest ever phone interview.
Mom called me one afternoon looking for care for her 4 year old daughter. The conversation was going great I thought then she started going all weird on me. She lovedmy curricuum and what I had to offer for a child her daughter's age, but when I started discussing the meals I serve she interruptedme and said, "I feed her junk." I was silent for a moment then I said, " Of course we all give our own children candy and doughnuts at times. There is nothing wrong with this. For the most part we should offer them healthy food for their bodies, brain, and to promote lifelong healthy eating habits." She replied,"I have called many daycares and to the ones that tel me they serve nothing but organic health food,I usually tell them that they are full of crap." ummm..ok whatever.

She then asked me what the races of the children in my care were. My response was, "ummm, well I have........a.....uh...... Why do you need to know this?" This question upset me, and I thought if she has a problem with bringing her child somewhere basedon another child's race then she is not welcome here. She said that her child was interacial and she wanted to make sure that I didn't have a problem with interacial or black children in general. I never gave her the rundown of races, but assured her that I would never treat any child differently because of their skin color.

I then asked her the child's name and she bagn to laugh. I was like what is so funny? She then said, "I didn't name her. Her dad did." So I tod her it couldn't be that bad. I am sure she has a beautiful name. Mom then told me that the little gir's name was Hennesy. I again paused and tried to think of something positive to say about this. My best response was, "It is actually a pretty name.... you know..if it weren't aliquor." (foot meet mouth)

We chatted some more. She said some more rude, shocking things. In the end she sounded excited and wanted to enrol, but she lived with grandma. Grandma would want to ca and ask questions as well. I said that was ok, and that I looked foward to speaking with her. Grandma called the next day. I was my usual cheerful self. She tod me that her daughter had called me day before, and I cheerfuly said, "Yeah(mom's name here)! She told me you would be calling! Happy to hear from you!" to which grandma responded,"yeah, yeah... I woud like to come by and meet you." Mind you I do not interview during business hours. This was also my first month in business, and it just so happened that the 2 children that i had enroled at the time were not there that day, an di was really looking foward to getting out of the house on the weekday. I told grandma that I didn't have any children today and was actually about to walk out the door when she called. I asked her if she would like to come a little later that day when I returned or the next day after daycare hours. Her response was,"uh uh, I'm coming when there are kids there." I was silent again. I just realized where the mom got her rudeness from. I told her we would schedule something later when she had her mind made up. she asked if she could have my address so that she would already have it when we scheduled our meeting. I said sure. I have grown accustomed to leaving out the city and state when gicing out my address because typically when the street and zipcode are put into the GPS all of this comes up. Plus, she's seen my ad, and obviousy we are in the same state and city! Why else would you be calling me? I gave her the street name and number plus the zip code and she yelled, "What city?!?" This was the phone interview from hell! I hung up the phone afterwards, finished getting my children ready for our outing, and walked out to the car, at that moment an SUV with an older woman driving slowly drove past my driveway. Like driveby shooting slow! I was so sure it was her! How crazy! She never called back, but I had already made up my mind that if they were to call back I would tell them NO!

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I have to get better at spell and grammar checking...

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People often don't understand why I don't force children to say "sorry" - this is the kind of story I tell to explain Hilarious!

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I had a baby who was constipated and her dcm gave me a box of Q-Tips. She told me if the baby couldn't get the poop out, to help her by digging it out with the Q-Tip. I thought that was bad. I can't imagine shoving a rectum back into a kids' body!

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When my oldest DD was 2, she kept prolapsing her rectum. We had many ER visits. The ER doc also suggested I push it back in. In the end they always had to heavily medicate her because she would get so upset and not relax for the procedure. I'm a seasoned RN and even I couldn't do that to my own child.

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I had a Mom tell me that her 2-year-old daughter sometimes has trouble pooping so using your finger to get it out greatly assists her. We do not do that here, and I can't say that I know of any daycare that does.

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Ok...that takes the cake!!!

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besides the crazy mom from yesterday.

I had a mom call me and ask my prices and when I told her (which is 30 dollars a day) she told me I was too expensive because then she couldn't afford her cigarrettes.

the crazy family who came for an interview (oh wait that day I had 2 wierd interviews) one family had 2 girls, they had so much fun at my house during the interview that they didn't want to go home, so mom said that "because they don't want to go home we can't choose your daycare" I'm glad I didn't get them because a few years later I saw them and they are awful girls.

that same day I had a family come in, look around and were ready to sign when they asked "if dcb and there son can be together when they eat" I kindly tell them that I have no such boy by this name and then they realized that they were at the wrong daycare. Which was wierd because I'm the only daycare out here.

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Well, believe it or not this same dcm asked me to look through dcboys poopy diapers because he had swallowed a penny AT HOME and they wanted to make sure it came out. Did I mention that he swallowed it at home???

Wouldn't a normal person just ask me to save them? This family (who I no longer have) mentions occasionaly that they might have a 3rd child and I just think "good luck with dc!"

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My reply would have been I will save them and you can get out the mashed potato grinder and look for it at home. I don't do that- sorry

lol bumping this thread up for giggles today! Keep them coming

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I had a great interview, sweet little 2 yo girl who played wonderfully with my ds, with toys. Mom seemed like such an awesome match here. Until she asked me to set up a laptop with Skype on my desk and leave it there ALL DAY so she could talk to dcg. She said that is what they did at the last daycare. It was easier for her to intervene when the provider was being unfair to dcg and to reassure dcg that she was always there. She was CLUELESS as to why the provider termed her. (even showed me a generic note!)

It was SO CREEPY!

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The worst I had was a 4 year old that told me a certain race of people were "bad" He said " ---- kids are bad and ---- kids are good " I had to correct him and tell him not to talk about skin color or anything like that .

This same kid's dad was the one who was constantly a no show/no communication, late/non payer . When I finally decided to be brave enough to tell him Im sorry but I can't keep him anymore (because of the bad communication& constant late payments ) it just so happens HE withdrew him , and you know why ? Because he originally went to day care center he owed 500 too and finally got done paying it off, so the boy was going back to the center. Hmmmm I wonder why?! He ddnt pay them either but I was the sucker who put up with the same behavior so he could save up to put him back else where.

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This is probably not the craziest, but one of many....

The place I used to work at transported the children to and from the center and home.

They had a few different vans, and one was a plain white 15-passenger. One of the drivers went to pick up a little boy early one morning, and the mother's bf came out looking like this and said "The van already came and got J--." The driver then looked like and said "Well, I haven't been out this way yet. You didn't put him on our van."

Turns out, the "dcd" had put the little guy on some random daycare van that was in the neighborhood picking up other kids!! I will never understand how he didn't recognize the driver, and the driver didn't recognize the child, and they did not pick up children at that address, but somehow the van ended up driving away with the child. He was basically a missing person for several hours, because the "dad" had no idea which daycare the van belonged to, and the child was mostly nonverbal. Eventually the staff at the other center figured out he wasn't supposed to be there and took him back home.

I just remember praying that it was a daycare and not some creep in a white van all day that day. The stupidity of some people never ceases to amaze me...

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Mine happened a few years ago and man was it crazy. I had the family for about 6 months. Single mom went to school and worked so I had her 2 girls age 3 and 4 a lot (this was a while back when I did 1st/2nd shift). The girls were just rude, rude, rude. When they wanted me to get them something I would never get a please or thank you, it was always give me ___, or I want___. It didn't take them too long to realize if they talked to me like that they would not get a response or the item they wanted. They pushed smaller children down, broke toys....these little gals had no manners, were rude and just plain didn't act civilized. After a few months with me they turned into angels at daycare but when mom came to pick up or drop off it looked like they were filming a remake of The Exorcist in my living room.
It was easy to see why they acted the way they did, mom would constantly give in, was inconsistent and if by rare chance she decided to try and do something about the behavior she wouldn't follow through. I dropped hints about parenting techniques, intervened on mom's behalf to show her it worked and how to do it and so on but nothing helped. One night they were so loud at pick up they woke up my children who had school the next day. They were yelling because the 3 year old didn't want to wear her shoes to walk to the car, she wanted to wear her big sisters. Big sister was throwing a fit because she didn't want to give up her shoes and little sister was screaming because she wanted them. Mom decided the best way to handle the situation would be to give the 3 year old her way and make the 4 year old walk barefoot. It was Spring so it wasn't to cold and the barefoot child would have been fine but to me it was the lesson behind it and I just couldn't keep it in any longer.
I told mom that it was no wonder why her children behaved how they did and that what she just did showed the 3 year old that she was the boss and mom would do whatever she wanted even at the expense of her sister. I said it in the nicest way possible of course but really there was no nice way. Mom didn't hear a word I said and left with the satisfied 3 year old and the barefoot and upset 4 year old. A while later I got a text asking if the 3 year old had her pullup changed that day. The child had been with me for 12 hours, I responded back of course she had and asked if her pull up was full. They were sleeping when mom arrived so I thought maybe she had wet a lot in her sleep. Mom replied no but she didn't think the pull up had been changed (I'll leave alone the fact that the 3 year old was no where near potty trained but wearing a pull up). I text her and asked if the pull up wasn't wet why would she think it hadn't been changed and this ladies, is when the crazy started.
Mom text me and says that the 3 year old came home in a pink Disney Princess pull up with hearts on it. She then said the ones she sent to my house were pink Disney Princess pullups with stars on them and the ones at home had hearts so she must still be wearing the same pull up she came in since it had hearts on it. She then asked me to send a picture of the old pullups to prove she had been changed so I went to my garbage (luckily one was right on top) and I took a picture of it and sent it to her. She then said I could have just put it there so I had enough and told her she needed to find new childcare, immediately. She said she was coming over to get their things. It was almost 1:00 am by then, I was already up past my bedtime and there was no way she was coming to my house. She then kept calling me and leaving messages saying she was calling the police because I wouldn't give her their things. The "things" consisted of a few pullups and the free diaper bag they give you at the hospital. I went and got the bag intending to put it on my porch so she could come get it just to be done with this family and noticed that the Disney Princess pullups inside had 3 different designs. Some had hearts, some had stars and some had a swirl on them. I understand that most likely she was just mad that I finally told her she was not parenting her children or maybe she was mad that they actually listened to me. Who knows. A few months later when we went to buy my newly potty trained daughter pullups for night time I bought some pink Disney Princess ones and guess what, they package had 3 different designs inside.

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oh you bet she was upset. parents will find the most ridiculous thing to accuse you of so they feel in the right to leave.

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Mine is not nearly as bad as some of yours!

A woman called me looking for child care. My hours are 7:30-4:45. She FREAKED out on me because I wasn't open until after 5:00 as she didn't get out of work until 5:00 and who did I think I was closing that early....
I was flabbergasted. Being the boss of my own business has it's perks. It means I can set my hours. They either work for you, or they don't. If they don't, you find a child care that does.
I can't imagine flipping out on someone because they get say, paid vacations or 401K's or HEALTH INSURANCE as a perk of their job...

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A lady called for daycare and we set up an appointment. She never came. Over and over she would call, set and appointment and never call to cancel. I was going to school at the time so my time was precious! She was wasting it! One day she called during childcare hours and said she was on my street and wanted to come visit. I told her no, I did not think this would be a good fit. She screamed at me....WHY?????? I said.....you need someone you can rely on for childcare. In the same token, I need someone I can rely on. So far you have not shown me that you are one I can rely on. She screamed and screamed and screamed something about me wrecking her life and that I had no idea how hard her life was. Mid scream I just said....have a nice day and hung up.

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oh I forgot about the gma who called me and reamed me out because I have a pool. My pool has been inspected by the city and I have a fence around it too, so there is no way a child can get in, even my own can't and they are older. Its all lock and key and alarms.
she said that her son died because he drowned in her pool and blah blah blah. So I said to her, "well, my pool isn't attatched to my house, its all protected and I don't allow my children to go outside by themselves" and then I said "if you would have watched your child carefully then he wouldn't have drown" and I hung up. Yes it was mean, but don't call me and tell me about my pool when you have no idea what saftey percautions I have take.

we use to have a blue walmart pool, lots of people have them. I had a daycare mom call the city and complain (she was crazy) city came out and found nothing wrong. She left daycare a few months later after she lost her 3 child to cas, because she was emotionally unstable and couldn't not handle her child (the dads all have custody of the children)

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I once took on a child that came from a friends daycare when she was closing. The family seemed nice enough and the 4 year old was we'll behaved and sweet. On the first day mom asked how she ate and I said fine and then showed her a picture I took of them eating because I had made the fruit into a flower...mom says "you didn't feed her?" When I asked what she meant I found out that they still spoon fed the perfectly healthy and normal four year old. No wonder she had a problem with utensils! I nipped that in the bud and told mom that even if it was messy she needed to feed herself. They certainly weren't going to spoon feed her in kindergarten the next year.
The mom always wanted to hang out at my house during drop off and pick up and wanted to do after hours things with me. I called my friend who told me that she let mom do that and hung out with her after hours because she didn't know what else to do. I had to set some rules with mom about drop off and pick up and told her I didn't do after hours activities with clients. I could tell she wasn't happy with that. The next few weeks were full of stupid request that I refused to give in to. One day mom drops her child off with snow pants and says it is such a nice day to play outside. School had been canceled due to ice but it warmed up in the afternoon and since my regular babies weren't there we decided to go across the street and play on this huge mound of snow. When mom picked up her child she asked how the day was and I said "she had fun playing in the snow", the next day CPS was at my door. Mom had called and said I let the children play across the street, alone in freezing temperatures. It was easy to clear up, I had photos of them playing, one parent picked up her school ager while we were over there and my neighbor had seen me standing on the mound of snow. The photos had the time stamp on them and so it was easy to look up the previous days temps and see they were well within range of playing outside. I ended up sending the mom copies of the photos, the temperature and statements from witnesses after CPS was done because I didn't want her to spread rumors. She contacted me and said she was sorry, she thought they were alone because I said "she had fun playing in the snow" instead of "we had fun playing in the snow".I asked if she had asked her daughter (remember she was 4) and she said no. She then asked if her daughter could come back. It was really hard to control my laughter.

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