Mom Without A Vehicle Was Forced To Stand In The Car Line Holding Her Baby To Drop Him Off At Daycare Each Day
They were nearly hit by other parents in their cars.
Maksym Fesenko / Shutterstock A woman cannot help but wonder if she was being petty after she left a poor review of her son’s daycare two years after pulling him out.
While the woman’s friends believe that she should have just let it be, she said her experience at the daycare still keeps her up at night when she thinks about just how cruel she and her son were treated.
The mother said she was forced to stand in the car line each day to drop her son off at daycare despite not driving.
Sharing her mortifying experience on the subreddit, r/Parenting, the mother explained that when she first enrolled her son at daycare, she did not have a car.
“His daycare drop offs and pick ups occurred at the gate on the side of the property, an area that is uncovered from the elements,” she explained. “Parents had to wait in line in their cars as the children were checked in one by one in a drive-through type of setup that wrapped around the building. At the time, parents were not allowed inside.”
Photo: muroPhotographer / Shutterstock
Although the woman did not have a car, daycare staff instructed her to stand in the car line among the other vehicles to drop off her son. She was forced to carry him in his car seat, along with all of her bags and belongings, rain or shine.
“It was so humiliating,” the woman wrote. “Looking back this was VERY unsafe and completely devoid of compassion.”
According to the woman, other parents would drive their cars dangerously close to her and her son and would speed into the gate when they saw her walking in to get there before her.
One morning, after the woman and her son were nearly hit by a vehicle, she decided to drop her son off at the front entrance of the building. “I was told by the daycare director that I could not do that and had to go wait in line with the cars,” the woman wrote. “I tried explaining to her that it was not safe but she told me they simply did not have time to take my child from me at the door.”
Two years later, she still harbors resentment over the entire situation.
She left a negative review of the daycare, detailing her experience.
“I talked about it with some friends and they’re telling me it was petty of me to leave a review two years later, but my son has been in a different daycare and the treatment I’ve received has been completely different,” the woman shared.
“They are very kind and accommodating, so this could not have been a normal daycare treatment?”
Photo: Ksenia Chernaya / Canva Pro
She confessed that she felt guilt regarding the daycare drop-offs, claiming that she was an inexperienced first-time mom whose child’s father had just passed away.
“I didn’t have help and I was just trying to survive day to day. I wish I would have advocated for us harder,” she wrote.
Many people agreed with the woman that the daycare drop-off policy was dangerous and humiliating.
“That's a dumb policy and hopefully it's changed by now. They could have let you in at a different exit or simply said, since you aren't protected from the elements in a car, you jump the line,” one Redditor commented.
“How humiliating and degrading. Completely devoid of any sort of care, compassion, or understanding. I would very much want to know if those were the kind of people running my child's daycare,” another user wrote.
Others believed that the woman’s review was not petty, but could help other parents who may be in similar situations.
“I’d want to know that if I were considering a daycare,” one user wrote.
Photo: SpeedKingz / Shutterstock
Others were baffled by the lack of compassion from other parents who saw the mother standing in the car line.
“If I were a mom in a car in the rain etc. and saw another mom waiting on foot in a line of cars, I would have raised [expletive]… shame on the daycare for treating you that way, and frankly shame on the other parents for not speaking up for you too,” another user noted.
A daycare must ensure the safety of the children that attend from the moment they arrive on the property — that includes pick-up and drop-off times.
No child or mother should be subjected to standing outside in the cold and rainy weather just because they do not have a car.
Even if parents are not allowed inside the daycare center, there should always be an alternative method to safely drop off and pick up their children.
Megan Quinn is a writer at YourTango who covers entertainment and news, self, love, and relationships.