DO NOT USE FOR CHILD CARE!
My son's regular nanny was not available one day and I utilized the backup child care benefit that was offered through my employer. A care taker was sent to my home to take care of my son for the day. She was a younger girl, I'd say late 20's. I'm fairly laid back with my son. He's an easy going guy BUT he is a toddler (19 months old) and does need supervision. I gave her four simple rules to follow: He can have a few animal crackers (like 5 but no more) for an afternoon snack, no climbing on certain furniture that I pointed out, and he can color with his crayons and markers at his coloring table but those things are not to be taken out of his room, and no TV. Well, I get done with work only to walk in on the "care taker" sitting on the couch doing homework, my son standing on the TV stand with Sex and the City on the TV. She was to have him in his coat and shoes by 4:50pm as my son's father picks him up for visitation at 5pm and he was still in his pajamas! So I run and get him ready to go to his dad's, she's packing up her gear and walks out as I bring my son out to his dad. I get back upstairs and notice the Costco tub of animal crackers that I just bought a couple days prior was half empty. I'm sure she ate some of those crackers but she also fed my son a lot more than 5 as he would not eat dinner that night and was throwing up at his dad's. Then, I go into the living room and notice that there is marker scribbles on the wall. Argh. The markers came out of the room. Okay, I wash the wall and the marker comes off. Not a huge deal. Then, I pick up a pillow on my couch to sit down and I find 1 1/2 cushion of my couch scribbled on with 3 different colors of marker. Not just a couple scribbles, but a lot. Oh my God. I'm pissed. 1. I'm pissed because my couch has marker all over it. 2. I'm pissed off beyond belief that my son had enough time to color this much on my couch and actually change colors 3 times without her supervision (or maybe she was just a total idiot and watched him do it.) WHERE WAS SHE while my son colored on my couch and wall??? NOT WATCHING MY CHILD as she is being paid to do, that's where she was. I was livid. Absolutely fuming. My son could have really hurt himself while she wasn't paying attention to him. NOT. COOL.
So, I call the agency and explained what happened and expressed my frustration. I sent pictures of the damage. The agency apparently contacted the care taker and she simply stated that my son didn't play with markers while she was there and denied everything else that happened. The agency was through talking to me.
They clearly do not care about the level of experience or the background of the people they hire. I will NEVER EVER use their services again and I have let people in my mommy groups know about the situation so they know not to use this agency. read more