Drop Off Cut Off of 1130 am?

[Anonymous]

If this rule is in the handbook then you have to follow it or leave the daycare.

That being said, it is not in the best interest of parents to have this rule for all the reasons that the OP said. Lest we forget, daycares are in existence because of the need of working parents. These parents pay a huge amount of money to have their kids in a safe environment while they work. It is also a parents job to take their kids to dr. appointments, which really can't be scheduled on a whim.

I imagine that this daycare is not a corporate one, like Bright Horizons and the like, as they typically do not have such rules as they know the needs of working parents.

After a few days, OP, you might want to set up a meeting with the daycare director to discuss the policy. You never know, you might be able to come to an agreement that would benefit everyone.

[Anonymous]

Just talk to the director and say you have no choice, that's the only time you could get an appointment. I'm sure they'll be ok with it.

[Anonymous]

Do you go to my daycare? I’m not sure how prevalent this rule is but it applies where my kid attends. I had to be reminded of the drop off time cutoff in the infant room too when we started but didn’t question it or push further because in the grand scheme we are overall happy with the center... moving forward we have been able to get the first or last well visit of the day at the pediatrician so it has maybe only affected us once or twice but I know it’s annoying when you have to go in for the more frequent first year check ups and when we were going in for things like asthma and eczema specialist check ups. I do think it has to do with ratio/staffing and routines.... I don’t think it would hurt to ask the director at the very least for the rationale. There are a lot of policies and things to learn and especially in the infant room a lot of health and safety licensure regulations they have to consider. It’s a lot when you first start daycare so like you were saying the rule didn’t stick out to me in the handbook until the situation came up. I would suggest asking yourself if overall it’s a place you can trust and go from there.... other daycares may have different annoying policies. For example, at a friend’s daycare she has to wash and send in fresh crib sheets every day so they have to do the crib sheet laundry themselves which I would find super annoying but they don’t require that at my daycare. I do think the drop off cutoff time can be a PITA and share the frustrations about paying for full time care and whatnot but there are other benefits we have found to be more important than that policy. I sort of chalked it up to the difference between center based care and choosing a home daycare or nanny where maybe we would have more room to request flexibility or exceptions. If you *are* at my daycare, I will say that the management is really receptive to feedback and questions when presented calmly and rationally so if it’s still bothering you address it and see if maybe you can get clarification, get them to consider making exceptions for appointments communicated in advance, or at the very least help them change the way they onboard new families / how the policy is communicated.

[Anonymous]

Is this appointment for shots? Might want to check the handbook to make sure they accept children directly after they have received vaccinations. Some centers have a 24 hour rule.

[Anonymous]

Because their nap time starts probably at that time

And my kid sleep shouldn’t be disrupted because you didn’t read the handbook.

ALL daycares are like this, don’t interrupt the babies schedule or the teachers routine


Wtf

[Anonymous]

We have been at a center for ten years through several children and I’ve never heard of anything like this... and one of my children had/has some significant medical needs from infancy.

OP, I would push back. It’s outrageous to have to plan the timing of appointments with pediatric specialists around a boneheaded policy at your center. Or find another center but for what infant care costs (and the margins are very very thin unless you’re at a corporate center) it’s not unreasonable to expect some grace from them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes this is normal. It’s disruptive to the schedule (meals, outings, naps) when kids get dropped off after that time. Schedule the earliest or latest possible doc appts.

For infants? I think it is a crazy rule either way. Is the reverse true - that I can’t pick up my kid during nap time? Bet not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Because their nap time starts probably at that time

And my kid sleep shouldn’t be disrupted because you didn’t read the handbook.

ALL daycares are like this, don’t interrupt the babies schedule or the teachers routine


Wtf

I have never heard of this rule. Been to 4 different day care/preschool centers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We have been at a center for ten years through several children and I’ve never heard of anything like this... and one of my children had/has some significant medical needs from infancy.

OP, I would push back. It’s outrageous to have to plan the timing of appointments with pediatric specialists around a boneheaded policy at your center. Or find another center but for what infant care costs (and the margins are very very thin unless you’re at a corporate center) it’s not unreasonable to expect some grace from them.

My center doesn't have this rule and I think it is misguided. But to call it outrageous seems misplaced because they clearly laid out the rule before OP started. If she didn't like the rule she was free to go elsewhere, or she could leave now. I'd like to think that there would be some grace, but I can also understand why they feel they need to enforce the rule, unless they were willing to scrap it all together.

As an aside, why do you think that corporate centers have a better margin? if anything, a franchise can be worse off, because in addition to everything else, they have to make payments (either flat and/or percentage) up to the franchisor.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I honestly think it's BS too, OP. You're likely paying a ton of money and they treat you as if it's your privilege to be there.

Dr's appointments must happen. I'd just take the kid to daycare and if anyone says anything, shrug my shoulders. It's their frickin' job to watch your kid for the day.

I also think it’s ridiculous that there are no exceptions for doctor appointments but she did sign a contract agreeing to their terms. Just because somebody didn’t think that the rules applied to their situation doesn’t mean that they can just shrug it off.

Again - *shrugs shoulders*

What is anyone going to do about it? Sometimes you can't get a doctor's appointment when it's most convenient for daycare workers (I feel crazy just writing that...)

Kids and caregivers need to adapt. Welcome to life.

Terminate your contract

*shrugs shoulders*

[Anonymous]

Any rule that forbids parents from freely accessing a daycare center would worry me. Is there a rule you can't pick up your child during lunch or nap time so no pick ups before 3? That would mean a center has no outside accountability during lunch and nap. They might not want parents to realize during lunch hours when teachers are taking a lunch the ratios of working teachers to children are high, perhaps even higher than legally allowed.

[Anonymous]

I've never heard of that. Our preschool encourages kids to be dropped off before 9am, so they can be there for the beginning of the day (circle time, etc.) but we've dropped off after that and it's been fine.

We give them notice when we're picking up unusually early, but they don't require notice. I just think it's courteous, especially if we have to pick up during nap, so they know to have our daughter ready to go, so we don't have to go into the classroom and disrupt the other kids.

[Anonymous]

Director here. Our policy is 9:30 in general and 11 for appointments.

It is disruptive to other children and staff and can really mess with ratios so we are pretty strict about it. It is explained to parents at intake and those who don't like it are free to enroll elsewhere.

I make my own children's appointments in the afternoons so that it's a non-issue with my child-care provider.

[Anonymous]

Our didn't have a strictly enforced rule but rather a "If you have to pick up early or drop off late, please be considerate of lunch and nap time and try to not drop off or bring your child in between X and Y hours." It made sense to me (but this was also in toddler classroom)

[Anonymous]

I’m the PP (Not OP) who is at a center that has this rule and I’ve picked up several times (including unannounced) during lunch and nap times and it hasn’t been an issue so they aren’t hiding anything.