The Center for Urban Parenting

This place is sad. They had 13 kids (all ages, newborns to age four) together in one room. They had a very small pitch black room with three cribs where they closed the door and left the newborns to cry. There were fluffy blankets in the cribs with newborns. The other, main room, was chaos. There were only two providers for 13 children and the kids were constantly screaming and crying. There wasn’t a specific provider assigned to specific children. There were no real activities available besides the TV and the children were bored. One little boy was sent to the corner and told that «bad kids stand in the corner with their face on the ground.» One provider said that he could «identify whose kid belonged to who based on the smells of the mother and the child.»
The other provider said that «sometimes he (other provider) takes all the boys to use the bathroom together with him and shuts the door.»
Overhearing a discussion about how to prevent biting, one provider said, «bite them back.»
There were babies sleeping in swings and sitting on the floor narrowly avoiding being stepped on by the older children.
The two providers referred to themselves as «Daddy» and «Mama» and the children were instructed to «come give love and kisses to Daddy.»
There was a girl who ended up completely naked in front of everyone and stayed that way for some time.

Our children have been coming here for almost a year now, and have made deep connections with both the providers and other children. The providers take great care in ensuring that parenting approach and philosophies mesh, which has led to an incredible environment full of well bonded happy kids and parents. Turnover is almost nil which was really important to us, after coming from an in-​home daycare with a revolving door of «teachers.»
Our youngest came here as a newborn and the infant care we received has been FANTASTIC. The information and observations we were getting during that time made it very evident that the providers were ridiculously knowledgeable, observant, and thoughtful about our baby’s well-​being (why is this so hard to find?!).
As for our older child, the new location is even *better* than the old and affords outdoor play both in the enclosed yard and nearby park, completely eliminating the only hesitation we had about initially bringing our children here.
We love the co-​op!