Avila, Barbara

Barbara is great with the kids when she has them. We used Barbara for almost a year and I’m sure she only had them for half of the time. Always making excuses not to watch the kids. Either she says she’s sick, they’re sick, she has this or that to go to. Always asking if we can pick up early. She gets paid her full pay no matter if she has them or not. This would be fine if it wasn’t so frequent. Literally every week of work I would be stressing out about what I was going to do and who would be watching my kid when I was paying a high price already for this daycare. So glad it’s over and would never recommend.

I used Barbara for about a year. Things were great for a while, and then she became unreliable as well. She was constantly taking vacation days, or sick days. The last straw was when we gave her our two weeks notice and she conveniently had a family emergency. The funny thing is that, I hadn't even seen this review above until now, and I wish I had seen this earlier. She has had 2 other families leave her in the time we were there, and each time it was "their fault" for xyz reason. She is extremely unprofessional.

We have done business with Barbara and, her husband, George for a little over three months and have since terminated care due to financial reasons. She's great with kids and my daughter adored her husband, daughter and granddaughters. My issue with Barbara is her professionalism. She has a contract, as most providers do, and I'm happy to oblige and follow her rules. Even the rule of, if she's open and I choose not to bring my child to her that day, I still have to pay. That's fine by me. What I'm not okay with is that she can sometimes be unreliable. In a span of 3 months, she had informed me approximately 5 different times that she would not be able to pick up my daughter from school due to car issues or family emergencies. I'm not cold hearted and understand that things come up, but what I don't get is, why do I still have to pay, if she doesn't care for my child? In my last week with her as my provider, she had a family emergency AND a car issue and when I asked to be refunded for the days she became "technically" closed since she was unable to perform the task of picking up my daughter at school, she became defensive and wanted to bring up previous circumstances in which I was late to pick up my own child. I'm fine with being charged for picking her up late but when you dismiss it and say "That's okay this time," don't go back on your word and tell me you're now going to back charge me. She likes to make up her own rules and charges as they are convenient to her. If you decide to go with her as a provider, set CLEAR GROUND RULES and PRICES.