When my first child was born I was working as a welder traveling around to power plants. So, my wife stayed home with him. Later on my wife had gotten pregnant again with our second child and I had gotten injured while at work. I had to give up my line of work while my wife had to get a job as well to make ends meet. At first, I didn’t thank too much about researching day-cares before letting my children attend. That lack on knowledge would come back to haunt me and my oldest son.
My family and I traveled around a lot do to the line of work I had gotten into. I had my kids in several day cares before I finally set down some roots in a small town in Texas. My wife was referred to a woman who had opened a day care out of her house. My wife looked her up online, the woman had a nice web page so we thought it would be a good place to take out kids.
My wife took them the first two weeks while I was out-of-town. She had told me that she had an uncomfortable feeling about taking them there, but the kids seemed to like it. My oldest son would wake up in the morning wanting to go and play with the other kids and was bringing little activities home that he had done. Then, I started playing her in advance instead of weekly. That’s when all the problems started.
I started playing her monthly, so the rest of my checks would go to our other bills and we could start putting money back for a rainy day. After I would pay her she would call my wife and tell her that I hadn’t played yet and demand her to pay her again. She would try to make excuses to why she couldn’t give me any documentation on the money I had played her. At the time I couldn’t afford to take my kids somewhere else, and the places I wanted to take the were full.
After her attempts to get more money failed, she started having a bad attitude with my wife. She would not talk to me with disrespect, but she would call my wife and start an argument with her out of the blue. The week before my oldest son started acting strange, he would start crying when we would drop him off or pick him up. That startled me, so I started asking some of the other parents and that when I found out that her husband lost his job, and I found out a few weeks later that her and her husband would leave all the kids in the care of their oldest son, who was only sixteen. A few of the other patient’s were going to move their children and we decided to do the same.
She threatened to take us to court for leaving, it scared the other patients, but I know she had no ground at all to take us to court on. Plus my uncle is a layer and I discussed the issue with him. But, I played along and we all went to court. I help the other parents gather all the information they could get, and with all the statements of the parents along with mine the judge ruled in our favor. He also ordered a full investigation by the child protective service.
After several weeks of the CPS agent interviewing the children including my child, and investigating all aspects of the child care givers life. She had found out the lady would curse at the kids if the had gotten into something and stick them into a little room with cartoons playing all day. She wouldn’t let them play outside just stay in that one little room. She would leave them in the care of her son. She would let her husband give them baths and touch them inappropriately!
Looking back I am so mad at myself for not looking into her more. After the CPS agent filed her report her business was closed down, and all the parents pressed charges. Her husband was sent to jail along with her. He was given twenty years for twelve counts of indecency with a child and she was given six-year and had her license revoked for willingly knowing about her husband.
To all parents, please take the time to look into the care giver of your children. You can never know who is a good person and will take good care of your children. Or, who is a filthy predator just trying to get close to your kids. Find out everything one passably can online, and ask for the numbers of other parents that have children going to the daycare. It would never hurt to ask other parents what they think about the daycare before you send your child there. Asking could prevent your children from going though what mine had to go through. caregiver agencies