Minnieland Academy at Central Park

I had my daughter here for 2.5 months when I first moved to Fredericksburg from Manassas. The woman who is their local director (Heather) is nice enough when you first meet her, but it’s really because she’s just visualizing you and your child as a huge dollar sign. Boy does that friendly demeanor change when you give them your 2 weeks notice! From hanging up on you to being curt in your presence, it was like dealing with a Jekell & Hyde character! In 2 months, the workers there couldn’t remember my child’s name, gave her clothes away to other kids, and could not consistently tell me what she had been doing all day in their care. But if I was even 1 minute late, you BET they had their stopwatches running! I’m sorry, but if my boss came up to me and said, «So, what have you been doing all day?» and I looked at him blankly and said, «I don’t know. That’s someone else’s responsibility to know what’s been going on all day,» I’d be looking for another job in the blink of an eye. After many of these kinds of encounters and several empty promises to make sure that the AM teachers do a hand-​off with the PM teachers so that I could have an accounting of what my child has been doing all day, I’d had enough. So, I fired Minnieland at Central Park. I found another daycare that is HEAD and SHOULDERS above this operation. Yes, it adds 1 hour to my commute, and yes, it’s more expensive, but when it comes to my child, I would rather quality and pay a premium than save a buck and have to wonder how my child is being treated all day long. The fact that I would go 1 hour out of my way to pay more for a service they claim to provide should say a lot. I live literally 10 minutes from that Minnieland, and I refuse to set foot in there ever again. In interviewing babysitters for my child, I told them about this Minnieland, and they all said, «Oh yeah! That place is ALWAYS advertising in the paper for more help because their workers are so poorly treated by management and poorly paid.» Garbage in, garbage out. Don’t just take my word for it. Check out their safety record on the Virginia Health and Human Services department website. Some of those legitimate state-​run investigations of this place will make you cringe! Don’t go with the lowest bidder or the closest option, fellow parents. There are EXCELLENT daycare providers out there who actually do like kids, and don’t make their money from a business model that emphasizes volume (and these are kids we’re talking about here!) over quality.