Jamie’s Family Day Care

I went here when my son needed a daycare (at the time, he was about 9 months) and i first went to check it out with my husband since we lived very close and was intimidated by wait time for PoA. Maria was personable enough but upon walking in the small apt/​daycare, i was appalled to see dirty dishes (this was on a weekend too so no reason why they shouldn’t have been cleaned already), dingy carpets, dim lighting and just overall unsatisfactory environment. We left with a bad taste but to be sure i went back with my mom (who worked as an asst teacher in a daycare in the city for over 15 years) who ended up HATING the place. She even said to me, «i refuse to let my grandson go here»! Luckily, PoA ended up having an opening and my son has been there since (he’s 2 now).

I’m embarrassed to admit how long we sent our son to this daycare, but it felt like truly we had no choice. There’s a serious lack of options for infants in Forest Hills, unless you can get into the Almighty PreSchool of America (we were on the wait list for 10 months with no luck).
Anyway, this daycare is very convenient to our home and we always knew that our son was well taken care of and safe. And that’s the bottom line which is why he stayed for the 6 months or so until he turned 2 and could go to a toddler school.
There were other problems, though. It started with the first meeting during which our very active little 1.5 year old was running around the small studio apartment exploring. She was clearly thinking of what price to charge and gave us the rate of $ 275/​week. Fine. No problem. And then a few weeks later, she calls me in to say he’s being so active and needs so much attention and now she needs to charge $ 295/​week. OK, fine. For his safety, fine. But it was clear that we were paying more than the other parents. And the hours were supposedly 8 – 6 but she asked us to come at 5:45pm. If we arrived after 6pm we had to pay $ 20 extra.
Bottom line is that we felt very much taken advantage of by Maria and we also felt that while our son was safe, that she really didn’t like him all that much. She said that she’s never had a child so active in all her years. Really? He’s pretty much a normal little boy, no ADD or ADHD issues or anything.
This was such a frustrating experience and if you have to send your child here, it’ll be fine and I understand that the options truly SUCK. But if you can find a way to go elsewhere do so.