Cleo, I don't know what happened exactly, I wasn't there, just heard about it. Shan1550 is suddenly very quiet though. We do not have any relatives near by either. I have a dr. appt next week and my husband is taking off early to watch the kids. I do not get the warm fuzzies with Screamin Mimis. The "extensive background checks" that is stated on their website has been blown out of the water for me. My children will not be going there. There are some other things that I wonder about. The website states "Screamin' Mimi' s strives to achieve a low assistant-to-child ratio of 10:1. There is always a minimum of 2 team members on site at all times" They take kids as young as 18 months. According to this, http://ncchildcare.dhhs.state.nc.us/general/home.asp . NC requires a ratio of one adult to 6 kids. A lower ratio earns a center more points. And not just that they are "on site", they have to be taking care of those kids, not doing other duties. They cannot "strive" to acheive it. It has to be met or fines are given. Their website says they are not liscensed but why in the world would you not follow the state guidelines? They were put there for safety. Maybe Money? When my oldest child was in daycare, they followed the state ratios. The owner had a beach house, her husband did not work and they both drove a Mercedes. So you can make good money and follow the guidelines. I can tell you, there were somedays that I went there and I thought the state ratios were too big. Total chaos. And the teacher was familar with all of the kids.I cannot imagine 20 little kids (that they are not familar with), 2 adults "on site" and no structure."At Screamin’ Mimi’s, kids do what they want to do. There is no structure, no curriculum." That was copied from their website. Now all you need to do is throw in another 15 kids for a birthday party. Another thing that puzzles me is, according to this, http://ncchildcare.dhhs.state.nc.us/general/dropincare.asp, Drop-in/short term child care programs operate: While parents participate in activities that are not employment related (running errands or leisure activities) With the parents on the premises or otherwise easily accessible (within 15 minutes) parents that drop off their kids can not be more than 15 minutes away. No where on the website is that stated. I live in Clayton and some evenings I could not get there in 15 minutes from my house, much less from Raleigh. Do they tell parents that when they drop them off? I found this too. CAN THE OPERATOR OF THE BUSINESS ALSO OFFER DROP-IN/SHORT-TERM CHILD CARE FOR THE CHILDREN OF THEIR EMPLOYEES? The law allows an employer to offer drop-in/short-term child care for the children of their part-time employees, if the child does not receive care for more than 2 and a half hours during the same day, the parent is on the premises, and there are no more than 25 children in any one group in any one room. Are the employees bringing their children there while they work? Here is a checklist to with great questions to ask. Which brings up, what are the owners qualifications. On their website I see where they have info on assistants (for whatever it's worth). But what about the owner or director? What is their background. How many years working with kids? Is this just a money maker or truly their calling? http://nrc.uchsc.edu/RESOURCES/ParentsGuide.pdf Here's another, http://aspe.hhs.gov/hsp/ccquality-ind02/ This one recommends the ratio for small kids to be 3 kids to 1 adult. Cleo, it says on the website that they have other locations opening soon. Maybe they want you to stock the new place with games. I may start a business if you will help me start it. How about a used car business. Just drop off your used car, clean and in good working order and as soon as I have a yard full I will be open for business! By the way, the daycare my child was in, never asked us to donate diapers for other kids and they did not charge the rates this place does. There are licensed daycares that offer part time care. Two of my kids have gone to a half day preschool that was not licensed but they followed the state guidelines. It was run by a church and they did ask us to donate. well, I hear the pitter patter of little feet, time to start breakfast. Remind me to talk to the Dr. next week about not sleeping!
Yes, the new facility in Raleigh. WTH? We are doing so well (charging you 22 bucks an hour to watch your own 2 kids at our establishment) that we are expanding - BTW can you folks fund that for us? And thanks for the specifics on childcare rules. Interesting. Here is the email - ______________________________________ Keeping you posted..... We want to WIN! FUN CONTEST from Carolina Parent http://www.carolinaparent.com/Formsphp/FamilyFavorites.php?form_id=19 Be sure to enter Screamin' Mimi's Kid's Place as favorite drop in center!! NEW PARTNERING BUSINESS! We are proud to annouce our newest partnership with Botanicals Spa here in Clayton on Highway 70. Botanicals offers a wide range of salon, spa and medi-spa services including Botox, Massages, Spray Tans and more! Better yet, for every $100 you spend with either Screamin' Mimi's or Botanicals, you will receive a $25 coupon toward services at the other business!! Wow, reward yourself some time at the spa by rewarding yourself with some alone time from Screamin' Mimi's!! Call Screamin' Mimi's 359-2912 or Botanicals 553-1293 for further information. Certain restrictions do apply and your $100+ is counted for any single purchase. Previous or smaller purchases cannot be added up to equal a single purchase of a greater amount. Donations still needed!!!! We are still in need of the following items for our Clayton location: Game Cube, Playstation 2 or Vsmile games Boys or girls pants (sizes 2T-5T) Diapers or Pull Ups We are also seeking some additional items for our Raleigh location: Same items as listed above and/or Little People Duplo Legos Cars (hotwheel size or larger) Thank you!! Greetings! will be closed Sunday, March 23rd For those families celebrating the holiday, Happy Easter!!! Triangle Town Commons Location Things are moving right along for our Raleigh location. Although we anticipate a slight delay in opening day, we still plan on opening the week of April 1st. We will keep you posted on our actually opening day in the coming days and weeks. Join Mothers Unlimited and save!! Mothers Unlimited families are currently saving an additional 10% off our package plan sales offered to all other families of 30% off! That is a total of 40% off package plans just for being a member of Mothers Unlimited www.MothersUnlimited.com __________________________ The only "return" I see is if you frequent the Botanicals place next door for a massage, Botox, spray tan, etc. Then you get a coupon for SM and vice versa. But who could afford that after paying SM's?? And as usual, the blurb for MU at the bottom of the email. I see nothing about getting credit for donated items. Oh, and if anybody would like to donate PS2 games, and diapers/pullups to me - FEEL FREE!!! And do you all know how freaking expensive Little People toys can be? And sought after, as well. Look at Ebay. There is a whole Little People cult. I can't believe they are asking for toys to be donated for their new facility.
I have not been back to this board in some time, but I am uncertain as to what you are talking about as to someone getting hurt. Children can bump into one another or run and fall in any childcare setting. Parents should be given incident reports for any reports of such.
I am not too sure about Mimi's--I know a LOT of people love it, but when we went by there one day, there were three teenagers in the front foyer, two of whom were eating fast food, the third scrambled quickly to hide an "Adam and Eve" plastic card of some sort....there were a LOT of kids there, and not a whole lot of supervision going on...I felt like the kids were "warehoused"....not a lot of staff interaction with the kids, an no "warm fuzzy" feeling...needless to say, we did not leave our kids there, and don't think we would...but that was just our experience...as I said, a lot of people love it, and if they are providing a needed service, that's great....this was just my observation....
Since this thread has been reopened, I'll had my $0.02. I love Screamin Mimi's. I originally thought that I would hate it, as it's very unstructured and I was worried that there wouldn't be enough supervision. But I have to say that we love it. My kids love going there, and my 6 year old will even ask if mommy and daddy can go out to dinner so that she can go there. For what it's worth, I'm considered the overprotective mom in my family/neighborhood. I don't let my 6 year old play even in the screened porch by herself and I like to baby my baby (2 year old). And I don't bat an eye about dropping them off for a few hours at Screamin Mimis. I honestly believe that the teenagers/young adults that work there really like the children. We don't go that often, yet almost all of them know my kids' names and seem to really enjoy playing with the kids. I've seen them playing with them in the bounce house and all over. I've also witnessed them keeping a very close eye on group play where there are young and older kids, making sure that everyone gets a turn and the little ones don't get pushed around. We love to use them for a date night, or just so that I can get errands done. I no longer have to drag my kids around the grocery store. And I can even drop one off while I do something fun and age appropriate with the other one, without anyone feeling left out or being stuck at home.
I definitely think it depends on the kids, and even which location you're taking them to. My youngest (3) loves going there, but the other 2 do not like it at all, and have actually cried when we've told them they're going. No, nothing terrible has happened to them there, it's just not the kind of atmosphere they like. I've posted before about the cold food they made them eat for lunch, like a cold lunchable pizza that they weren't allowed to reheat. And at certain times of the day, they make the kids go in the movie room while they sanitize the rest of the play area. Of course, this is good because they're cleaning, but kids don't understand that. And how many kids can you cram into one small room to watch a movie, and will they all behave and let the others watch the movie? And do boys really want to watch the Barbie movie? So these, and other reasons, are why my kids don't really like it. And a lot of the "cool" toys and videos are broken a lot, things like that. But like I said, the younger one likes it, and we still use it sometimes, and will again this Sunday, but the one in Raleigh, they like that one better than Clayton for some reason. We got there a lot when going into Raleigh for dinner or shopping. It's also a great alternative when you don't want to take a little one into Walmart grocery shopping in Clayton! I get my shopping done in 1/2 the time!
http://www.wral.com/5onyourside/story/3016012/ I am a member on another local message board and there is a shan1550. Shan1550 writes on there that she has heard great things about screamin mimis and her child may go to the preschool but she never says she works there. There seems to be a lot of deceit and then backtracking when someone questions them.
Hmmm, and then the freudian slip a few pages back. "Hope you come and see US". Why was this old thread brought back up again? ETA - thanks for the link. I would never use drop in care for my girls, but this is good to know. Parents beware!
Hi, I am at a little bit of a disadvantage as I don't come on here much. However, I feel the need to clear up a few things. I will admit that I am probably an overly sensitive person. My feelings are easily hurt, and message boards where anyone can say anything about you, and you never really know who said it, probably are not the best places for me, but here goes: The message board that is referred to in the post above asks that people not go around posting to promote businesses unless a question is asked. I think this one does as well, and I have tried to keep with that but did try (maybe not well) to answer some questions that arose. I never backtracked or deceived. I never said I did not work there, and I have heard many parents thanking us for our services. Also, I felt it was strongly implied that I did work at Screamin' Mimi's in my post that Cleo quoted. The "come see us" was a sincere comment and not a slip. I'd still love for you to come see us! Most of my experience is working at the Raleigh center, but I recently have began to divide time between both centers. I am also a mother of 3 great children, so I feel my opinion as a mother is still valid regardless of where I work. I was a customer at Screamin' Mimi's long before I started working there because it was recommended to me by a number of great mothers. My kids enjoyed it and always wanted to go there to play when I had shopping to do. My son has some slight special needs and has a hard time sociallizing with other children, so finding a place he felt comfortable interacting with other kids meant the world to me. This is the main reason I wanted to work for Screamin' Mimi's. I was a stay-at-home mom when I started working with them. About a week ago, I was shocked to find an untrue, personal attack. The post had been a bout a year old, so I probably should have just flagged it and moved on, but I got my feelings hurt and responded, and that answers Cleo's question about how this thread got going again. My children and I have to live in this town too, so I did flag the post and got it removed. Now on to some of the other things. I will address them as best I can. I do not own the center. I only work there. 1)The question about the ratio: The poster posted guidelines for a daycare center where the kids would be there 8 hours or more per day with most likely the max of the same aged children. Screamin' Mimi's is not a daycare center and is not intended for the children to be there that long. Children are not allowed to be there no more than 20 hours per week for drop-in care. These guidelines are simply for something different; just like the guidelines for home daycare are different than the ones for daycare centers. We see a lot of preschool aged children, but we rarely get many children that are under two-years-old at a time. If we do start getting a lot, we call in more employees to work. We also start waiting lists when needed (I have certainly been chewed out on that one! I just calmly explain it is necessary for the safety of the children.). Since we are not a daycare center, we do not know how many children will show up, we staff based on trends and schedule one or two call-in people. 2) The quote from our website: "At Screamin’ Mimi’s, kids do what they want to do. There is no structure, no curriculum". This refers to the drop-in program and not the new preschool program we are opening. Since we have kids dropping in at all different times, we try to be super flexible with schedule. We do offer set snack times but if a child comes in and is hungry, we still get them a snack. We also don't force a set schedule of activities. However, management does encourage the activity assistants to play with the kids and to offer art projects and organized games. Just like with any place of business, some of the employees are great about doing this while some we are still working with to overcome shyness and reluctance to do so. We regularly have staff meetings for trainning in this area. 3) About being accessible within 15 minutes: I know the owner has talked with the office that that regulates this. Since I had not and wanted to answer correctly, I called them this morning and was told the 15 minute rule was for places like gyms and spas, meaning the parents were not suppose to leave the place. I specifically, asked if the rules were different for straight drop-off center where is I wanted to drop-off my kids and go out for a movie and was told yes. 4) As to the asking for donations: we do sometimes get parents that forget to bring diapers or changes of clothing. We also get a lot of wear and tear on some of our games and toys. We never want a parent to be embarrased because they forgot to leave a diaper bag, so we like to have extras. Some parents have stuff their children have out grown and are happy to drop it off. We don't always advertise that we give hours for these things, because we have to make sure it is clean, in good repair and so on, but the owner is very fair about trading and bartering. (If anyone has a train table they no longer use, we could really use one at the Raleigh center and would be glad to trade some hours for one in good repair! :lol 5) The WRAL article: This one was a big learning experience for us, and we did learn from it and make changes. Regardless of the fact that more than 80% of our employees at the time of the article did have hands-on training, we did have some that only had the online certification. To be fair, drop-in centers are not required to be First Aid or CPR certified, but the owner always required it. She thought she was doing a good thing by insisting on more than what is required. Before the article came out, it was up to the employee to get the certification and we did not insist it came from any particular source, but NOW we do require hands-on training. The owner went as far as to send an employee to school to become a certified CPR and First Aid Instructor, so we now have an in-house person to make sure everyone gets trained. We also allow employees to get certified from other hands-on trainning sources such as the American Red Cross. Since we often get full time daycare workers applying to get some part-time weekend or evening work, many of them already have it. I am very sorry for the long post, but thank you for listening. i also appologize for the tons of typos that I am sure I have since I don't have time to proofread. I have to go pick my little one up from preschool now, but thanks again!
At least it was just your feelings that got hurt! Can I flag threads if I get my feelings hurt? How about if they give me a headache? Cause I would really flag some of the political ones.:lol: If you took it personal, did they hit the nail on the head? Ummm.. So according to your phone call, you don't have to follow daycare laws and you don't have to follow drop-in laws. I guess you can do whatever you want. I know you won't mind posting the person's name you spoke with, it would help this parent feel better. I have some more questions but I have to get to lunch. I will be waiting to hear back from you.
