I worked at a daycare, purely out of desperation after quitting a job without finding a new one first. Thankfully I was only there 3 months. It wasn't the worst job I've ever had, but it's close.

This is only of a description of my personal experience with one day care chain.

Teachers got paid $7-8/hour based on education level and experience. Turnover was ridiculously high due to the stress and low pay. There were no substitutes. Missing workers set off a chain of shuffling children and teachers around to different rooms. To go to the bathroom, do laundry, or take your lunch break, you had to find another teacher to come in.

Consider the schedule for a day where 1 girl quit the day before, 1 just walked out, and 2 have called in sick (variations on this scenario were all too frequent):

9:00 a.m. I arrive and the worker who was in at 8:00 has to go to the toddler room. That leaves 2 of us for 9-10 babies, which is not only exhausting but also totally against the law.

9:05 a.m. Change diapers, finish breakfast for late-comers, change more diapers, wash dishes and high chairs, and pick up toys.

10:35 a.m. Lunchtime is a blur of making bottles, heating bottles and jars, mixing foods, washing bowls, bottles, chairs, and babies. At some point I wind up bottle-feeding a baby in my lap while feeding 2 in high chairs. Meanwhile, my co-worker is sitting on the floor bottle-feeding one and feeding one in a low chair. Must stay alert for diaper changes and make notes for what time, what food, and how much food is eaten on each baby's chart.

1:05 p.m. Hopefully everyone is fed by now. Change clothes for the ones who got too messy, and wipe faces, legs and arms (ours too). Change more diapers and put babies in swings and beds, rock in rocking chair, or pat them to sleep.

1:35 p.m. Everyone is asleep, and we have 5-10 minutes before the light sleepers are up again. We run around the room cleaning and picking up toys, making notes on charts, taking dirty laundry to clean and folding the clean laundry.

1:45 p.m. The light sleepers are already awake and have to be changed again. If we're lucky they are happy and we can play quietly while the rest sleep.

2:15 p.m. Most likely everyone is awake, and they need diapers changed. Older babies get a snack and some little ones get another bottle.

3:15 p.m. Clean babies, dishes, bottles and chairs from snack time.

3:45 p.m. My co-worker is supposed to leave at 4, so we start calling to find out who will come in and when.

4:15 p.m. My co-worker who was with the toddlers comes back, and the exhausted one leaves late.

4:20 p.m. Another round of diaper changes.

4:30 p.m. A couple of babies are picked up. We start cleaning and organizing the room and getting all the babies' stuff together for when their parents arrive.

5:00 p.m. This co-worker now needs to leave, and if I have more than 4 babies left either the extras go to the other baby room, or someone comes in to help me.

5:05 p.m. I frantically run around picking up toys, holding screaming babies, and gathering things for parents.

5:45 p.m. Parents are running late and I'm left with 3 unhappy babies. I try my best to keep them all entertained. I'm holding 2 on my lap and jiggling a toy at 1 on the floor. A baby starts crying inconsolably right before his/her mom arrives, who then gripes me out because the baby's upset.

6:15 p.m. I was supposed to leave at 6, but I'm still stripping sheets, cleaning toys, countertops, mattresses, and dishes. I take out the diapers and trash, gather the laundry and put it in the machine.

6:30 p.m. I leave 30 minutes late that I don't get paid for. I wonder what is wrong with the world that I'm mentally, emotionally and physically drained, and yet I'm barely living paycheck to paycheck. I go home and collapse.

Where is all the nurturing and loving and learning you were promised in the brochure? There were indeed good days when we had enough people, and even better days when we had people plus 1-2 babies out. We played, cuddled, sang songs, clapped and waved, crawled around, held their little hands so they could practice walking. All of the baby room workers genuinely loved babies and wanted to take care of them, but the business made it so hard.

Two suggestions when shopping for a daycare:

1. Try to find out what the teachers are paid. Teachers making $10/hr are much better off than those making $7.50 and probably happier at work.

2. Show up unexpectedly, or if you take a guided tour visit more than one room. While many teachers love babies/children and are patient and caring, many others absolutely hate what they're doing and have no business being in day care. They may be sweet when a parent is in the room to pick-up or drop-off, but the rest of the time they're yelling, cursing, jerking kids around, and making the whole class miserable. BUYERS BEWARE!

So sad to read.

I did have a brief experience (two half days) with an "exceptional" daycare center (NAEYC accredited, very low turnover, high hourly pay, etc.), and those two fateful days turned me off to the whole idea. The grandmotherly ladies in the infant room, where my 8-month-old was, had been at this center 10 years each. Inspires confidence, yes? Well, I spent some time with them and my son to try to build a bridge of understanding and trust. Yeah, sure. They were nice at first, but then cold, patronizing and annoyed that I wanted to spend a few minutes more at drop-off and pick-up times. Babies were not held, not cooed at, no funny face exchanges, etc. They all just fended for themselves in the corner. All that with me, a paying parent, sitting right there. It was like a dark cloud hung over the whole place. Oh, and my son was a wreck at the end of each six-hour day, and he was very ill for two weeks following (I came down strep throat also).

So, that was it for us. I kept him home with me and made do with dad deployed overseas and an at-home writing job.

Day care ain't like the brochure, folks. May look nice on paper, and many caregivers may be well intentioned, but ratios can't always be met, and even when they can, these kids aren't being nurtured! Even the kindest souls lose their patience in the company of so many kids. I do with my own. With someone else's kids, it's impatience plus no long-term vested interest! Caregivers and their charges rarely develop an emotional bond, since all of these kids eventually move into new rooms as they grow.

Relatives, trusted neighbors, nannies, in-home group caregiving -- any of these are far superior to the daycare circus. I can only hope more parents exhaust these options first if they can't stay home to raise their own.

All that said, to daycare workers trying to do their best in such miserable circumstances, my heart and prayers go out to you and to the kids in your care.

I worked in a day care facility for 2 years with 3-5 year olds - now this was a good daycare; one on a military base, naeyc accredited and all that. I loved my job and wanted to do something similar once I returned to the US (I was in Okinawa, Japan). Despite my experience, I was unable to find a job that paid worth a damn because I didn't have a 2 or 4 year degree in a related field and I refuse to go into debt to get a degree for a job that pays so little. So now I make a good living at an insurance company. having seen the sorts of daycares that exist here in SC I can tell you, no child of mine will attend one. They are poorly funded, understaffed by under-educated people (people who do have a degree or certificate, nonetheless). Yet they seem to know little or nothing about children. It depresses me that we as Americans seem to be constantly encouraged to place our children in the care of others who, even if they are wonderful, are not ourselves. And they are underpaid, always overworked, and definitely under appreciated. Something needs to be done.

The only preschool I have ever seen that I really liked how it was run are the Montesorri kind. I wish they began younger than 3.

I find that despite reputations, a daycare company can vary in quality from center to center. It is hard to gage which center's will provide care, since workers usually feel uncomfortable with new parent's hovering. I used to work as a toddler teacher and I don't think that btumid's assessment of childcare is fair. My center was never out of ratio and I still have relationships with the families and children I taught.

Obviously it isn't acceptable for day care workers to be disrespectful of parent's wishes, but I find it highly unlikely that the infants were never "cooed at." Experienced daycare workers know that if a parent stays in the mornings--especially when the child is new--it makes it exceedingly more difficult for the child to adapt to the daycare schedule and they will always resist drop offs and have a hard morning. It usually takes children well over a week to adjust...which is amazingly fast.

It is also hard at the end of the day if parents want to hang around as centers are trying to reach ratios so that the workers can leave on time. Daycare is rough on the immune systems for everyone new--for workers too which is obviously part of the problem.

Daycare is sometimes like the brochure, folks. Try to give a child more than 2.5 days to adjust to a completely new lifestyle, and an emotional bond will be formed.

There are many studies showing that children 2 and under get ill more often if they are in centers with 5 or more kids. The illnesses include serious things like pneumonia and ear tubes. Other child care options are better for the health of young children.

The problem with child care is that most of it is not high quality. Your experience may not reflect what most places are like. Unfortunately the problem is likely to get worse as the first generation of child care workers went into the field to change the world. Women now are more likely to either have careers or want to take care of their own kids.

As a mom, I have found that teachers are wrong in their belief that kids adjust better if you go away quickly. The kids will cry less that day at the center so the teacher thinks all is well. They show other behaviors at home, including greater reluctance to go to day care, increased fear of separation all the time, etc. Leaving them before they want you to go just causes more problems in the long term. Taking longer to say goodbye in the morning is not necessarily a problem with leavetaking, although it may inconvenience the teacher.

I was a Montessori kid and I only have fond memories of the experience. I don't think that the "method" would work if there were that many kids under the age of 3 there.

Personally I think it would be better if more companies had an onsite daycare room with reasonably paid attendents. I bet they'd get a lot more productivity that way. (And I think it would be better for the families!) The NASA campus I worked at did that, and it seemed to work very well. (However, I don't have any kids so take this observation with a grain of salt!)

There are several issues with the post that started this thread. First I will say that as reguard to the length of the drop of process that it is not length as much as technique to a successful drop of. I have some families that spend time in my classroom everyday playing and reading with their children prior to saying goodbye and the drop of is wonderful, while others drop of fairly quickly with like success. The issue arises when a parent says goodbye and then does not leave. Other parents see their child engaged and repeatedly point out they are leaving even after the child has said goodbye until they have created an issue. These two issues usually occure when the parent is still dealing with seperation issues of their own. To have successful childcare experiences you need to have an opportunity for the parents and children to develop a trusting relationship with the caregivers.

As for the statement about health issues in childcare, if you compare the health of the children in childcare by the time they start public school to their stay at home peers in Kindergarten you find the children new to large group settings are sicker. We all have to have time for our immune systems to adjust to the increase in exposure to germs. Also Getting "ear tubes" is a treatment to correct a problem with the ear passage not properly draining of fluid not an illness it self.