The Learning Corner

There is a reason TLC is the only daycare around that seems to have openings regularly. We took a leap of faith and enrolled our boys in the spring after moving from MA where they attended a wonderful center, but have just taken them out after an unbelievable few weeks in which TLC refused to acknowledge, communicate about, or adapt to changes with the delta variant. After weeks of rebuffed parent outreach by email, phone, and Brightwheel app to inquire whether they would be following local school districts to resume masking (spoiler alert, they won’t!), we received a letter that included such helpful sentences as “I, or we, will not be debating or continuously reviewing with our parents the policies we must follow to run a safe and loving center during the age of COVID.” and “In the meantime, we will remain busy caring for your children 10+ hours a day.” Despite not having another childcare option, we do not feel that our boys are safe in this place with so little transparency and an uneducated bent against vaccination and masking. If you are desperate and have no other options, you should also know about the other problems that we’ve been enduring along the way. You are not going to hear very much about your kids. I have interacted very little with either of my boys’ teachers. I couldn’t pick them out of a lineup. The app updates are generic to the class, other than the photos, and there is no information about individual academic, social, or physical progress tracked or shared at all. Most questions in the app are responded to by the director instead of your child’s teacher. Your concerns will NOT be met with timely responses and most definitely not with empathy. They reward the children for good behavior with candy and crappy toys instead of teaching them the skills to behave, and set them up for failure by feeding them sugary garbage. I only know this is occurring because my son will say things like “we counted with marshmallows today and ate them and then I got in trouble for not being a good listener…” or “we had freeze pops after lunch today but then I wasn’t quiet at nap time and got in trouble…” So, if you are ok with bare minimum COVID precautions, haughtily sold as gold standard, and you don’t mind the rest of the problems I’ve mentioned, then maybe this is the place for you? Childcare is riddled with impossible choices right now, and I feel for anyone who has TLC is their only option.