I really feel that all of this is pointless. There was one woman in my area who was a "provider fr 20 years" I hate when they put that in their ads. Like who cares? what does that even mean??? other than your too old to be chasing five kids all day? anyway she was registered and all that stuff and was abusing kids.
ALSO..there was another case of a woman who was also with an agency and one of the children ended up drowning and dying because she had 22 kids in her home.
Parents let me make something very clear to you all---- Being licensed with an agency does not mean anything. I was with an agency for one year before I had enough and went out on my own privately. It was such false sense of security for parents. The "surprise visits" that were supposed to happen were NEVER a surprise. She would always call me to say she was coming on this day at this time. All the other providers in my area would sit around and laugh because the agency's they were with would also do the same. Call ahead of time.
Some times they would never even show and I remember 2 months went by without a visit from my agency at all!
Police records are great but are totally useless if the person hasn't been caught! And really do you know how hard it is to actually prove abuse?
The best thing is to go by references and even then you can't be sure. My neighbour two doors down gives out all her friends numbers and they pretend they brought their kids there. Some of them don't even have kids!!!
It makes it very frustrating because I work very hard and I have an absolute blast with my kids.
We went to a museum last week and there four other daycare providers there...(i'm sure they have been doing it for "20 years" ) I was absolutely disturbed at how they spent the whole time being sarcastic with the kids, making snide remarks, telling them to STOP RUNNING! STOP YELLING! STOP TOUCHING THAT! COME OVER HERE! WHAT ARE YOU DOOOOIIIIINNNNNG!
We were in a childrens museum for gods sakes! Well i let my kids run around, I let them touch what they wanted I let them yell and have fun and I went down the tunnels and slides with them and made sure to laugh REAL loud. I took pictures and videos and sent them to their parents (i always do) who were of course very happy about that. All the while getting dirty looks from the miserable daycare ladies who may have been licensed.
Come to think of it I should have taken pictures and videos of how rotten the pther daycares were and how miserable the kids looked.