Daycare's Drop-Off Policy
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Daycare won't allow drop-off after 9:30am
July 2014
My daughter is 21 months old and is going to a nice and rather expensive daycare. I am seriously thinking of switching her to another place, because one of their rules adds a lot of stress to my life: they do not allow to drop off babies or children of any age after 9:30 am, unless there is a written doctor's note justifying a later drop off. If you are even a couple of minutes late, they turn you away.
Is that a common thing for a daycare, for children under 3? Have you ever seen that rule enforced?
From what I can tell, her daycare doesn't have much of a structure to the day other than lunch, nap and snack, so I'd think that one should be able to drop off their child within an hour or so from lunch. Note that I ALWAYS pick my baby up early, by 4pm (they close at 6 pm). And, my daughter is a super easy baby, and takes no time at all to transition. I literally drop her off with a hug and a kiss, and she toddles off to play with dolls or whatever other toys she decides to play with. She takes naps on her own, without bottle or pacifier, and nobody has to even pat her or touch her at all - she just drops off to sleep. I am not an early person, plus I have another child, so mornings are very hectic, and I often find myself rushing through yellow lights to get my baby to the daycare. We are paying A LOT for the daycare, and while it's not perfect, but there are many pluses, and the biggest one is that it's in the same building as my husband's work, and in walking distance from my work. And, my daughter is totally comfortable there.
-Isn't the daycare supposed to make one's life easier?
I don't consider it ''unreasonable'', but certainly it's not ''flexible''. (My son's preschool continually reminded parents they wanted the kids there by 9... I think I was queen of the 8:55 AM dropoff!) It's their rule, they are clear about it, and it doesn't work for you. This equals, a new daycare for your family. it's really not that big a deal in the scheme of things; after a month or so you'll all get used to the change. As a side note, one family's ''flexibility'' is another family's ''what the heck is up with all these inconsistencies and changes?! my child never knows what to expect each day!'' mom of 2
We attended 1 preschool with similar rule but earlier - they said it was to get parents ready for Elementry (we were supposed to drop our younger one off earlier than the Elementry drop off which was a huge hassle). We left that preschool after about a month for a variety of reasons. We looked at another and it also had a drop off by and we ended up not going there for a variety of reasons - very strict in odd ways. It did not work for us but here is the thing to consider - our preschool was very flexible so from about 8 until noon parents might drop off - and it was disruptive - whether it was a child's difficult transition or it was the parent needing a long teacher check in. If 10 would make a huge difference, and you could commit to it, I might ask about that. If you want a time all over the map - well - I don't think that is ideal either. I've seen it both ways and I think 9:30 is ok... Good luck