[Great68]

Yeah we've had pretty crazy daycare experience with my son. He's been through a few. It's been on of the biggest stressors, bar none, it fucking sucked.

My kid's first daycare when he was a licensed home daycare just down the road from my wife's work. We thought this worked out pretty good, he seemed happy there and things were going well. He was in this daycare for about 9 months when out of the blue the operator said she was terminating his care with one month notice. (We think it was to make space for a sibling pair which would have given her an extra care spot on her license).

So that left us scrambling to find something. For next 3 months he bounced around a couple different temporary daycare spots as they were available, as well as having each grandma come over for a couple weeks to look after him.

We finally found a spot with an LNR daycare, which had 2 of her own kids plus one other in a home basement suite. Not an ideal choice but we were pretty desperate at that point. The caregiver actually separated with her husband during my son's stay there, she never told us outright but we started noticing that he wasn't around in the mornings/afternoons anymore. I can only hope they kept any that crap away and separate while she was caring for my kid.

Anyways we pulled him after 8 months when my wife found a spot with another licensed home daycare out close to her work again. This place and the lady running it turned out to be fantastic. Structured, lots of activities (lots of outdoors time), my kid was so happy there (he asks about that place and if he can ever go back). Unfortunately he was only there for 2 months before COVID hit and she closed down.

Not the end of the world as we both started working from home for the next few months and could have him at home with us. When we started hearing other daycares re-opening and/or other kids starting to go back we kept asking if she was going to re-open but she never did.

As luck would have it, we got a call from a daycare where we were on the waiting list since the time we were scrambling after the first daycare. It's a non-profit, community run, 16 kid daycare that's only a few blocks from my house. It's been great, he's been happy, and it turns out that many of those kids live in the neighbourhood as well and will be in the same school catchment when he goes to kindergarten.