Anonymous
10/21/2021 13:40
Subject: Re:Review of Farhana Ahmed's home daycare (in South Arlington) and lessons learned
Yes, reading the contract is very important! We almost sent our DS to a different in-home (also in South Arlington) when we saw in the contract that if we left before a year we would have to pay for the entire year. This applied even if we had to leave the area, which was a possibility because of my job. I understand 2 months, but the entire year was too great a risk. We asked the provider to negotiate to 3 months payment. She said no, so we went elsewhere. Just a reminder to read the contract very closely.
Anonymous
10/19/2021 15:20
Subject: Review of Farhana Ahmed's home daycare (in South Arlington) and lessons learned
This is not Yelp. You just came here to trash the day care because you didn't read your contract. Go trash her on Yelp, that's what it's for.
Anonymous
10/19/2021 15:13
Subject: Review of Farhana Ahmed's home daycare (in South Arlington) and lessons learned
Anonymous wrote:If your contract specified on thing and then she closed every other Friday, don't pay and make her sue you for the balance.
+1. She fundamentally changed the terms of bargain on you after you signed, but wants to hold you to the letter of her contract now. Unless the terms give her free will to close whenever she wants like this, she’s in breach and you owe her nothing.
What a racket, though. I’m sure some people need care and will sign this, but there are plenty of other providers with more reasonable terms.
Anonymous
10/18/2021 23:50
Subject: Review of Farhana Ahmed's home daycare (in South Arlington) and lessons learned
dporAnonymous wrote:shame on yelp and file bbb and a door complaint
Anonymous
10/18/2021 23:50
Subject: Review of Farhana Ahmed's home daycare (in South Arlington) and lessons learned
shame on yelp and file bbb and a door complaint
Anonymous
10/18/2021 23:41
Subject: Re:Review of Farhana Ahmed's home daycare (in South Arlington) and lessons learned
I had a bad experience with this provider some years ago. Kid was screaming and terrified to enter the home. Also was mislead about the number of children who would be in her care - she was most definitely out of ratio. We quickly left and had a much better experience at the next place.
Anonymous
10/18/2021 23:22
Subject: Review of Farhana Ahmed's home daycare (in South Arlington) and lessons learned
i think that asking someone to pay for two months fees after they have been with you just one day is unreasonable. I think a two week trial period is good for all parties.
Anonymous
10/15/2021 20:10
Subject: Re:Review of Farhana Ahmed's home daycare (in South Arlington) and lessons learned
How did the conversation go when you told her that closing every other Friday won't work with your schedule?
She was ready to help you find back up care?
She was ready to help you find back up care?
Anonymous
10/15/2021 19:35
Subject: Re:Review of Farhana Ahmed's home daycare (in South Arlington) and lessons learned
This is not really a review of the day care, OP, it's venting about the contract terms. Which is fine but if I were wondering if this would be a warm and supportive and safe place to send my kids, it wouldn't help at all.
Anonymous
10/15/2021 19:12
Subject: Review of Farhana Ahmed's home daycare (in South Arlington) and lessons learned
Why did you pay?
Anonymous
10/15/2021 18:50
Subject: Review of Farhana Ahmed's home daycare (in South Arlington) and lessons learned
If her contract didn’t specify the Friday closing then I wouldn’t have paid for anything extra.
Anonymous
10/15/2021 16:28
Subject: Review of Farhana Ahmed's home daycare (in South Arlington) and lessons learned
If your contract specified on thing and then she closed every other Friday, don't pay and make her sue you for the balance.
Anonymous
10/15/2021 16:24
Subject: Review of Farhana Ahmed's home daycare (in South Arlington) and lessons learned
Just wanted to mention that years ago, we had our child in very occasional back-up care with Farhana. No contract, since it was back-up care, but I'll just add that our experience with her was positive. Not trying to invalidate your experience with the contract, OP, just saying that I thought she was well suited for the job of providing care to a child.
Anonymous
10/15/2021 16:18
Subject: Review of Farhana Ahmed's home daycare (in South Arlington) and lessons learned
Anonymous wrote:Long post, but as a mom searching for daycare for the first time, there were several mistakes I made. Hopefully, you can learn from them!
I had my son at Farhana Ahmed's home daycare (3120 13th St S) for 3 weeks, after which we had to switch providers due to availability and communication challenges. Since my son was only at Farhana’s for a short period, I cannot speak too much about her actual care of my child. I do believe that she will care for your child to the best of her ability. My tips if you are considering Farhana (but can apply for any in-home daycare provider):
1) Make sure to ask for a trial period in the contract if not already specified. Otherwise, you will need to pay for two months of service from the date of notice plus her vacation time, even if you had only been there for one day.
2) Make sure to have the days/hours of care clearly specified in the contract (even if verbally discussed) and what is paid for/not paid for. This would include the total number of sick days, specific holidays, other planned closures, etc. instead of a general “all holidays and sick days will be paid for”.
In my case, it was not until after I had signed the contract that Farhana had mentioned she was planning to close every other Friday for the rest of the year (3.5 months) in order to have extra time to clean. The first time she mentioned it, I told her this did not work for me due to my work schedule, and she said not to worry. Over the next two weeks she again told me 3-4 times that she intended to close every other Friday, and I repeatedly told her that it didn’t work for me. In addition, if I had ultimately agreed to take my son every other Friday, she still expected payment for the full week. Eventually I was skeptical that she could accommodate my schedule which is what led me to search for other daycares.
3) With that in mind, when asking for referrals, try to speak with referrals that are current clients/families. They will have the most up to date knowledge of how the daycare is currently being run. Especially if there are new assistants or different hours.
4) Specify vacation payment expectations in the contract.
After being at Farhana’s for 3 weeks and telling her I was withdrawing, I was told I needed to pay for two weeks of vacation on top of the 2 months termination fee. When I had initially asked about vacation time in the interview, Farhana explained that she normally took one week off at the end of the year and one in the middle, during which both weeks would still be paid for. It was not until my second to last day that I was told that the vacation time fee would be treated as an additional benefit to be paid out if she had not taken vacation during my time with her (regardless of how long I had been enrolled). We settled on me paying for only one week of her vacation, but this is definitely something that I wish I had been aware of from the beginning.
5) In general, revise the contract, even if things were clarified/discussed verbally. Her contract was poorly written at the time and I excused it since English was not her first language and I thought I understood the intent. That resulted in her being able to default to her contract even if she had verbally explained something differently.
My fam operates an in-home daycare so I can speak to some of your issues. I think your overall advice, "read your contract" is obviously crucial. Even if her contract was poorly written/included bad terms, she didn't "default to her contract," she followed the terms of her contract, which is EXACTLY what she should have done. The contract is key to protecting you, your child and her business. Conversations will always be trumped by contract terms, full stop.
As for trial periods/cancellation fees, please keep in mind that daycares (especially home daycares) only have so many spots, which are often assigned weeks/months in advance. You took a spot and decided to pull your child (reasonable!) after a few weeks, and therefore that paid spot is now empty. Her termination fee covers that gap before she can fill it with another child. Now, her claim about unused vacation being paid...that's definitely the first I've heard of that! Seems a bit much, but again, if it was in your contract? You're liable.
It sounds like her closing every other Friday was not in the contract? Then I think you may have more recourse, but it's unclear.
I appreciate the tone of your review and I think it's clear you tried your best not to sully her reputation, which is a breath of fresh air on DCUM! But I also wanted to point out to those new moms looking for care that it's all about the contract contract contract.
Anonymous
10/15/2021 15:26
Subject: Review of Farhana Ahmed's home daycare (in South Arlington) and lessons learned
Long post, but as a mom searching for daycare for the first time, there were several mistakes I made. Hopefully, you can learn from them!
I had my son at Farhana Ahmed's home daycare (3120 13th St S) for 3 weeks, after which we had to switch providers due to availability and communication challenges. Since my son was only at Farhana’s for a short period, I cannot speak too much about her actual care of my child. I do believe that she will care for your child to the best of her ability. My tips if you are considering Farhana (but can apply for any in-home daycare provider):
1) Make sure to ask for a trial period in the contract if not already specified. Otherwise, you will need to pay for two months of service from the date of notice plus her vacation time, even if you had only been there for one day.
2) Make sure to have the days/hours of care clearly specified in the contract (even if verbally discussed) and what is paid for/not paid for. This would include the total number of sick days, specific holidays, other planned closures, etc. instead of a general “all holidays and sick days will be paid for”.
In my case, it was not until after I had signed the contract that Farhana had mentioned she was planning to close every other Friday for the rest of the year (3.5 months) in order to have extra time to clean. The first time she mentioned it, I told her this did not work for me due to my work schedule, and she said not to worry. Over the next two weeks she again told me 3-4 times that she intended to close every other Friday, and I repeatedly told her that it didn’t work for me. In addition, if I had ultimately agreed to take my son every other Friday, she still expected payment for the full week. Eventually I was skeptical that she could accommodate my schedule which is what led me to search for other daycares.
3) With that in mind, when asking for referrals, try to speak with referrals that are current clients/families. They will have the most up to date knowledge of how the daycare is currently being run. Especially if there are new assistants or different hours.
4) Specify vacation payment expectations in the contract.
After being at Farhana’s for 3 weeks and telling her I was withdrawing, I was told I needed to pay for two weeks of vacation on top of the 2 months termination fee. When I had initially asked about vacation time in the interview, Farhana explained that she normally took one week off at the end of the year and one in the middle, during which both weeks would still be paid for. It was not until my second to last day that I was told that the vacation time fee would be treated as an additional benefit to be paid out if she had not taken vacation during my time with her (regardless of how long I had been enrolled). We settled on me paying for only one week of her vacation, but this is definitely something that I wish I had been aware of from the beginning.
5) In general, revise the contract, even if things were clarified/discussed verbally. Her contract was poorly written at the time and I excused it since English was not her first language and I thought I understood the intent. That resulted in her being able to default to her contract even if she had verbally explained something differently.
I had my son at Farhana Ahmed's home daycare (3120 13th St S) for 3 weeks, after which we had to switch providers due to availability and communication challenges. Since my son was only at Farhana’s for a short period, I cannot speak too much about her actual care of my child. I do believe that she will care for your child to the best of her ability. My tips if you are considering Farhana (but can apply for any in-home daycare provider):
1) Make sure to ask for a trial period in the contract if not already specified. Otherwise, you will need to pay for two months of service from the date of notice plus her vacation time, even if you had only been there for one day.
2) Make sure to have the days/hours of care clearly specified in the contract (even if verbally discussed) and what is paid for/not paid for. This would include the total number of sick days, specific holidays, other planned closures, etc. instead of a general “all holidays and sick days will be paid for”.
In my case, it was not until after I had signed the contract that Farhana had mentioned she was planning to close every other Friday for the rest of the year (3.5 months) in order to have extra time to clean. The first time she mentioned it, I told her this did not work for me due to my work schedule, and she said not to worry. Over the next two weeks she again told me 3-4 times that she intended to close every other Friday, and I repeatedly told her that it didn’t work for me. In addition, if I had ultimately agreed to take my son every other Friday, she still expected payment for the full week. Eventually I was skeptical that she could accommodate my schedule which is what led me to search for other daycares.
3) With that in mind, when asking for referrals, try to speak with referrals that are current clients/families. They will have the most up to date knowledge of how the daycare is currently being run. Especially if there are new assistants or different hours.
4) Specify vacation payment expectations in the contract.
After being at Farhana’s for 3 weeks and telling her I was withdrawing, I was told I needed to pay for two weeks of vacation on top of the 2 months termination fee. When I had initially asked about vacation time in the interview, Farhana explained that she normally took one week off at the end of the year and one in the middle, during which both weeks would still be paid for. It was not until my second to last day that I was told that the vacation time fee would be treated as an additional benefit to be paid out if she had not taken vacation during my time with her (regardless of how long I had been enrolled). We settled on me paying for only one week of her vacation, but this is definitely something that I wish I had been aware of from the beginning.
5) In general, revise the contract, even if things were clarified/discussed verbally. Her contract was poorly written at the time and I excused it since English was not her first language and I thought I understood the intent. That resulted in her being able to default to her contract even if she had verbally explained something differently.