Little Darlings

Things you should notice when touring the facility: no toys accessible for children, no pictures in the wall, no children’s drawings, no songs. Can you still call it a Day Care if they don’t really care? A more appropriate name would be “Child Watch” Yes, they watch you child. No, they are not going to do any learning or fun stimulating activities with them.

I’ve had other home daycare experiences. My children came home with arts and crafts they made at daycare, songs they learned, and got to play with high quality toys. I’m pretty sure daycares like this inspired movies like Matilda. You can do better!

I enrolled my daughter in Little Darlings at about 1year of age. Darlene and her staff provided everything I could ever ask for. I could not imagine a better provider. My little one learned Spanish, the art of gardening, respect and so much more. I kept her enrolled through the age of 6. If I could have kept her there longer, I would have. Darlene is amazining!

Little Darlings daycare does not provide safe, reliable, quality care for your child! I had read some negative reviews of Little Darlings before deciding to take my infant son there, but thought all daycares probably had a few bad reviews and I was very attracted to how inexpensive it was. However, you get what you pay for and my son did not receive quality care. In fact, my son was sent home so often with bogus illnesses that I had to arrange for alternate care in order to keep my job.

I encourage parents looking for a daycare to go to the State of Oregon Child Care Complaint Division. Here is the link: http://www.emp.state.or.us/ccd-complaints/
You can check out any state certified daycares to see if they have received any complaints. Unfortunately, the database only includes a valid complaint (which means there has to be solid proof that a violation occurred) and it only includes complaints from 2004 on. You will see that Little Darlings has 4 complaints with numerous valid complaints including one for the use of corporal punishment! That is extremely concerning; I never would have taken my son here if I’d known they had used corporal punishment. These are children 4 years and younger, it is just shocking. How do I know that they didn’t do this to my son? I will never know but am extremely thankful that my son no longer attends this daycare.

The owner of Little Darlings, Darlene Thompson, is extremely difficult to work with; she has a very unbecoming personality including extreme immaturity, dramatization, and she lacks the ability to communicate effectively. My son has food allergies so he cannot drink cow milk nor have certain foods that contain dairy, nuts, or eggs. I had obtained several doctor notes to this effect and spoken to Darlene about these items my son could not have. Instead of following the instructions on the doctor notes or listening to my instructions she proceeded to give my son food that contained ingredients that he was allergic to. She continually told me that “She had been doing this for over 20 years,” and had told my husband that “This is my daycare and I’ll feed him whatever I want to.” She put my child’s life at risk, multiple times!! Darlene refused to follow instructions regarding the care of my son.

Darlene Thompson threatened to kick my son out of daycare at one point because he was crying at nap time. She told me that he had to sleep from 1 to 3 everyday as this was her time and didn’t want to deal with a crying child. My son was only 8 months old. When she found out that he would still wake up crying in the night she told me to remove the monitor from my room, put in ear plugs, and ignore the cries of my son. That is absurd!!!! My pediatrician was beyond horrified when I told her what my daycare provider was instructing me to do. Obviously, I did nothing of the sort. Darlene loves to give unsolicited advice. However, she is not a medical doctor and has no medical training; in fact, she has no educational background at all when it comes to caring for children. She is nothing more than a babysitter. ANYONE can run a daycare in Oregon.

Darlene Thompson is only concerned about making money and not about the safety, health, or wellbeing of the children in her care. I wanted to supply the special milk for my son to drink and she would not allow it. I found out later that the reason she wouldn’t allow me to supply the milk was because she was getting money from the state in order to supply all food and drink.

Darlene Thompson does not understand the State laws for running a daycare. She will tell you some USDA/State laws are as follows:

1. State Law – At 15 months no pacifier is allowed
2. State Law – Potty training must begin at 18 months
3. USDA Law – At one year no more formula, only milk, and bottles no longer allowed

These are all lies. There is no State law concerning pacifiers or potty training and the USDA RECOMMENDS milk and a sippy cup at one year of age. Everyone knows that children all develop differently and cannot be expected to change something because they reach a certain age. Everyone seems to understand this except Darlene Thompson. She will force her parenting beliefs onto your children and it is her way and her way only. She will tell you how to parent your child and will not work with you to help your child transition from one milestone to the next.