Tuesday, January 13, 2009

A daycare quandry

Yesterday M missed daycare because of the "eye", and we missed out on seeing one of her teachers for the last time. It would seem that the lead teacher in her room quit last Friday with no notice.

Which would lead me to believe she was fired. Except that she was back yesterday to say goodbye to the kids. Which you know, we missed of course.

So now I am a bit stuck about what to do. You see, I have her email address. She sent us pictures of M playing last fall. Something I gave her my email address so she could do, so it isn't like I got it off Facebook or anything.

Do I email her? Do I ask what happened? Do I offer a reference? (we totally loved her) Do I leave it alone?

I wouldn't mind knowing if they canned her, seeing as I care if there were issues with either her or with the daycare. However, everything I have heard would lead me to believe she actually quit. You would think in cases of a firing you would want your parents to know that if there was an issue with was swiftly dealt with, right? Not have them whispering about what happened. Or if there was an issue with how they treat their staff, you would want to know.

This is the first inkling of anything amiss at this daycare, but it has left me slightly uneasy. Something that hit especially hard today. For the first time since she wouldn't latch as a newborn and got jaundice, I felt like a parenting failure. Thanks of course to having to yell at M multiple times this morning to keep her from hurling herself down stairs, running into traffic, squirming out of my arms and on to pavement, trying to put pink eye drops in her eyes, etc.

So, email? No?

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

You could send a noncommital email NOT asking about it - just saying you're sorry you missed saying goodbye to her because M and you have always like her and wish her well with her future endeavors. Maybe include a photo of M in the email.

Then if she wants to keep communication open, ask for a ref, MAYBE even tell you what happened (which she might if she's off to something more exciting, new opportunity,etc.), you've opened that door by sending the first email, but it's not too pushy or intrusive-seeming, so if she doesn't want to respond back, at least she knows you've appreciated what she's done for/with M.

There's my two cents!

Fiona Picklebottom said...

I think Jill has a good idea.

Something similar happened with my kids' swim instructor; she just disappeared one day and no one would be straight about what happened.

Marketing Mama said...

I agree... yes, email!

Anonymous said...

I, too, agree with Jill. If you want, you could also say, "I was sad to hear you quit-- M and I both loved you." good luck! sorry about pink eye! i dread the day it darkens our doorstep.

Rebecca said...

So what died you do, Amelia?