Received Monday, August 18, 2008. - Perspective & Opinion
This article appeared in our local paper yesterday on the front page. I had heard about this story from other parents, and when I read this story, I realized that yet another provider was neglectful in her profession, which caused the death of an innocent baby. Upon reading the article, the provider was unlicensed, and didn't follow the mother's explicit instructions to have the baby lay on her back for naps. This provider didn't follow through on what she was told to do by the mother, and had this baby sleep in a broken crib. This incident makes parents scared, frightened, and concerned with finding childcare for their children, especially infants. Parents shouldn't have to go through that. I thought you might want to share this with your readers, and let those of us who take our jobs as nannies and childcare providers raise our standard for childcare even higher and provide the best possible care for children. Let those nannies and providers like this one and the ones we read about on ISYN take a lesson from those of us that are professional in how to properly care for children, or leave the profession since they don't love their work with children as much as we do!
Love, Miss Dee
URL: http://www.madison.com/wsj/whatcounts/toptoday/index.php?ntid=301036&source=rss
(Thank you for sharing this Article with us MissDee)
First of all, this is a horrible story and my heart goes out to these poor, poor people. What a horrible thing for them to have to go through.
ReplyDeleteSadly, one phrase in this article made me take notice: the father was quoted as saying that the price of the daycare was a factor in their decision, but not the main one. (this daycare in which the child died was the cheapest one they looked at.) Now I do in no way think that price is always a reflection of quality. However, if the price is ridiculously low, it is usually not a good sign. And while these parents are not at fault,(nobody deserves this to happen to them) I do NOT agree that with many parents finance is not the major factor. I know a woman personally who chose her daycare due to the low, low price and they can afford a whole lot better. This is not the case with the parents in this story: they are working class and were not rich, from what I read. I do NOT mean them when I say this, but for many, many, parents, it is too much of a concern that they save the money and go with the cheapest provider.
Also, for those of you who did not read this whole article, this childcare provider was caring for seven children when she was only supposed to be caring for up to four. (she was not licensed, and so was only allowed four and she had seven!) I feel so bad for these parents, but if they had done some unexpected drop-ins maybe they would have seen the extra kids? I don't know! it's so horrible, my prayers are with them, so so tragic. I hope people learn from their story that you cannot be too careful. :( so sad.
i feel for the parents and for the caregiver. a 26 year old woman in jail for six months? she's even younger than me! her career is over and she will always live with what happened.
ReplyDeletei don't blame these poor parents, but i will say this. our country desperately needs to change it's priorities. free or cheap childcare for low and middle income families is a basic necessity. i mean, it's bad enough to have to working parents who STILL struggle to make ends meet. the least we could do is have high-quality, government funded childcare centers in every major office building and neighborhood.
why does that seem like a dream?