very unhappy daycare experience

We have been expecting (dreading) a couple of rough weeks ahead. Happy Harbor, our daycare, is closed for two weeks for their annual vacation. Unfortunately it coincides with the start of the new school year, one of my busiest times, and Steve has an appeals court brief due September 8th, so we cannot take a vacation to coincide with the closing. So we have been planning to put Sebastian in backup daycare at Bright Horizons in Yonkers, through a really helpful service offered by Columbia (and by Dorsey). So two weeks of adjusting to a new place and new people, and then when he returns to HH, he'll have graduated from the infants room into the toddler room - another adjustment to new people. We're expecting a lot of crying and clinging at dropoff, and tantrums in the evenings.

Yesterday was his first day at the new daycare center and it was extremely disappointing. The place was disorganized and understaffed. We spent a good 45 minutes just hanging out and helping Sebastian adjust in the morning, and another 15 minutes observing the playground activity when we picked him up. The children were pushing and shoving one another, and taking each other's toys, and the adults weren't supervising or guiding them at all. Obviously, toddlers have no manners and don't know how to behave, which is why there needs to be active supervision. To make matters worse, the daycare was unable to give us any information at pickup about Sebastian's day. They couldn't find a daily sheet with written information about his sleeping and eating and mood, and no one was there who knew anything (the two women who were there had apparently just arrived). Total disaster. (Seb also sobbed when we left and again when we picked him up, and was frantic to get up into my arms, but that was at least expected, though so so hard and sad.)

We felt terribly about the place and the experience and decided not to take him back there. Maybe it was just a bad day and our experience wasn't representative. But Seb's not a guinea pig, and we just don't feel comfortable. So he spent today in my office with me, running around with his stroller and doll, looking out the window at buses and trucks, napping on the floor, and watching Elmo on the computer. Tomorrow Steve found him a place at a drop-in daycare near his office, one recommended by colleagues. Thursday and Friday, and next week, we're not sure - he's on the waiting list for the Manhattan daycare center, he may make a return visit to my office, and Steve may stay home one of the days and work on the weekend instead.

Ugh. One small bright spot is that this has really reinforced our sense that Happy Harbor is a good daycare center that does a really good job with its children, teaching them and guiding them and encouraging them. We can't wait for them to reopen!