Creme De La Creme

I love this school! My son is 2 and every time I drop him off he smiles and waves bye. Can’t get better than that! He is learning so much and they truly care about him and even if he gets a scratch they call me to tell me. I feel like every time I drop him off it’s like taking him to Disney but with learning! During the summer he loved to play in the water :) thank you so much for taking such good care of my little boy!

I am a long-​time reader of Unilocal reviews, but I’ve never contributed. However after our experience at this facility, I felt compelled to warn other first time parents…
Months before our son was born, we toured Crème, and were sold on the recreational activities, educational programs, and extras offered (on site nurse, barber, etc.). In hindsight, the bells and whistles — plus a tour from a staff member who sold the facility well — blinded us to the quality of care in the infant room. In no particular order, here are the main concerns that any parent of an infant considering Crème should be aware of:
1) Engagement of infant room personnel: Unlike other childcare centers we have since visited, the staff here does not seem to actively engage with the infants (7 month old in our case) — very little talking, singing or active playing. My wife snapped pictures of babies crawling across a tile floor and right under sink pipes — and no one attempting to corral them into a safer area. When we spent a couple hours in the infant room with our son, it became clear that some of the teachers didn’t know the names of children that had been there for some time. As new parents, we are aware that sending a baby to daycare is tough, and you have to accept that they won’t receive constant attention. However, some engagement and knowing the babies names is not a high standard to meet.
2) Communication: This complaint is about one thing and one thing only — the ability to ask questions of and receive thorough answers from the infant room staff. Unfortunately, most of the teachers in the infant room speak limited English, making effective communication difficult. We gave simple instructions to the staff (ex: Please do not use several wipes on our baby if his diaper was only wet — as this is causing diaper rash) and they were not understood. We asked why our son was bottle fed earlier and more often than we asked, and «he’s fussy» was the only answer we could get. Follow-​up questions were not understood. For nearly $ 1,700 month, parents should be able to communicate clearly and have their questions answered by the staff.
3) Security — Crème charges parents an additional fee each month for an armed security guard on premises. That did not bother us. What bothered us was the fact that in our first 2 days at the facility, the guard was nowhere to be found when we visited. In fact on our second day at Crème (before staff would recognize us), my wife walked through the unlocked front door, past an empty receptionist desk into the infant room and picked up our son without once being stopped, asked for id or acknowledged by anyone from Crème. That is alarming — to say the least.
Leaving your child in the care of strangers is difficult and we understand that we, as first-​time parents, may have been a bit sensitive. However, this review is not motivated by that. The care in the infant room at Crème — and the overall facility’s security — is sub-​par. For anyone expecting a child soon, I would strongly encourage you to look at other facilities — that cost less and deliver more.