I allow the child to attend a few times the week before for an hour or so (not half or full days because I find the parents tend to think these are free and yet I still provide meals/snacks and all normal activities to the 'new' child that I do for the others) ugh lol

I only ever allow the mom/dad or both to come for ONE HOUR during regular programming and even that I don't want. Having a 'stranger' in the house totally sets off the other children and does not provide an accurate account of our days. It all depends on the age of the child and its not that I'm hiding anything...I just feel that the child needs to learn from the get go that moms and dads don't come to daycare with them. They drop them off and they return. Now, for the first week I send text messages and phone photos to the parents during the day to show them that their child is playing/eating/sleeping soundly etc to reassure them, but I certainly WOULD NOT be allowing the Mom to come and spend an entire week with us. All that will do is make the child think Mom comes to daycare, how cool! To me, it sounds like its the Mom who needs to transition and she surely won't help her child adjust by hanging out...just my opinion but I think it would confuse the child...