I would strongly not recommend Apple Orchard Family Childcare. Our experience with Julie, the head…read moreteacher and owner, was deeply upsetting and unprofessional from start to finish. She is combative, argumentative, and an extremely poor communicator. Most alarming, she referred to three-year-old children as "bullies," which shows a shocking lack of understanding of child development and basic compassion.
Julie terminated our childcare the day before a death in our family, leaving us scrambling to find new care one week before a funeral. There was no empathy, no flexibility, and no humanity shown during one of the hardest moments of our lives. We were simply left hanging.
One of the stated reasons Julie gave for terminating our child was an alleged "lack of communication" on our end, claiming she felt she was "failing us" because of it. This claim is completely inaccurate. We communicated regularly and frequently through the app, often responding within minutes to her comments or messages. Ironically, when we did respond with questions or follow-ups, Julie would often never reply at all. To be blamed for poor communication when we were consistently engaged--and she was not--was both frustrating and unfair.
We also requested our damage fee be returned, as our son had only been at the preschool for five days in 2026 before Julie terminated us--and this was after the damage fee had already been paid. Julie chose to refund only $10 of that fee. What makes this even more troubling is that in the nearly five months our son attended this preschool, we were never once told that he had caused any damage to toys or property. Yet in one of her TikTok videos, Julie publicly stated that our son caused the majority of the damage, claiming she chose not to tell us because my mother-in-law had passed away and she "didn't want to throw more salt on the wounds." Withholding concerns from parents for months, then later publicly blaming a three-year-old online, while still refusing to fairly refund the fee, is completely unacceptable.
Instead of taking accountability, Julie chose to publicly post on her TikTok channel about our family being terminated, while refusing to acknowledge her own role or behavior in the situation. That level of public airing, without context or responsibility, felt inappropriate and unprofessional--especially for someone entrusted with young children.
It became very clear to us that the real reason for our termination was logistical and financial: once we informed her that our son would not be attending during the summer (because my wife is a school teacher and we keep our children home during that time), we were suddenly expendable. We strongly believe we were terminated simply so she could fill the spot with a full-time summer child.
To further demonstrate the lack of accountability, Julie deleted comments that I and other family members left on her TikTok videos--comments responding to negative statements she made about our family and our son. Rather than addressing concerns or having an adult conversation, she chose to silence criticism. This behavior only reinforces her unwillingness to take responsibility or stand behind her own public statements.
If you are looking for a childcare provider who is compassionate, communicative, accountable, and child-centered--this is not the place. Our experience was hurtful, stressful, and entirely avoidable. I think it's time to retire Julie.
