Lied about age?

[playfelt]

I am confused by the arbitrary rule of no babies under a year. Do you have some sort of guideline developmentally or is it just a blanket rule based on the calendar? When you interviewed the family I'm sure you got a sense of the child and asked questions as to whether the child was going to be a good fit for your daycare. I got the sense that it would be ok if the child was 12 months old but developmentally delayed but not ok if the child was 10 months and at the same developmental level.

You need to consider what it is you need the children to be doing when they start care and then interview accordingly - they must be able to stand, starting to cruise, feeding self table foods, not on a bottle, not needing a morning nap - whatever criteria you need and then if a parent with a 9 month old interviews that has already started walking and using a spoon comes you can accept them as they meet your developmental rules.

What you are describing is a child that is about 6 months old and I'm sure you would be able to tell the difference. My guess is that there are developmental issues that the parents are not yet ready to admit to and/or they have a doctor who has taken a wait and see approach or worse they haven't been having medical appointments for the child which can happen if they use a clinic for immunizations and there are few between 6 months and 12 months.

On the birthday issue not all families go all out for birthdays and especially if they don't have a lot of money or a lot of family in the area. They may have very few real friends. The child will be due for the MMR vaccine at 12 months so what about using that as your lead in. A child needs to have eaten eggs before they can get that or at least used to have to be exposed so ask if you can add egg to the diet, ask when child is scheduled for that appointment, etc. just to get the family talking. Do you have vaccination records for the child or could they be a family that doesn't vaccinate and only goes to the doctor when sick. A lot of issues going on here and whether they lied or not may be only a minor issue where the child is concerned.