This is honestly some of the best advice I have seen lately.

In 1996 there was a 3 year old little boy staying at a daycare in Guthrie. His mom dropped him off for the day and after she’d gone to work, he walked right out the front doors of the daycare and onto the highway. He was hit and killed by a truck. Ten days after his 3rd birthday, he was ripped from his family. I know because his daddy is now my boyfriend. We have a beautiful 6 year old son now, but we can never enroll him in daycare for fear of the same thing happening to him that happened to his big brother.

After everything came out, it was found that the woman who was supposed to be watching the kids was in the back room having sex with her boyfriend. The doors of the daycare weren’t properly secured, and the little boy only had to push the door open to walk outside.

The parent sued the daycare, but the daycare filed bankruptcy and was closed. They received an insurance settlement from the driver of the truck, the person least at fault. They received $100,000 minus $52,000 for the attorney. $48,000 divided by him and his wife meant he received $24,000 in exchange for the life of his only son. His death caused he and his wife to split up.

DHS had papers on their desks for 2 weeks before he died to go shut the daycare down because of the complaints and violations that happened before the murder. It was always be considered murder in my eyes. If he had walked out of his own house and died, the parents would at least be charged with neglect or abuse or even manslaughter or murder. When the parents sued DHS they lost because everyone knows you can’t sue the State and win. If DHS had shut down this place in a timely fashion, this little boy would be turning 16 this year! He was a precious little boy, and it was a senseless death.

They shut the daycare down immediately after the little guy died, but because they were closing it for ‘things that happened prior to the “accident”‘ the parents received no money. As if the money would have helped ease the pain. $1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 couldn’t replace a child; no matter what.

Had my boyfriend and his wife been older and more experienced at the time, they might have checked into daycares more thoroughly at the time. They might have seen all the black marks against the daycare. But had DHS done their jobs and closed the daycare when they should have, this family wouldn’t have been crushed and ripped to pieces.

DHS had the audacity to tell the parents they should have researched the daycares better on their own, and if they had they would have seen all the problems. This might be partially true, but that daycare shouldn’t have been opened in the first place FOR them to research. If these parents had known that daycares can stay open for weeks, months, even YEARS after DHS workers have received orders to close them down, they NEVER would have enrolled him without checking into this daycare more.

I pray that no other mommy or daddy EVER have to go through what these parents did. It isn’t natural.

My best friend worked in a daycare in Guthrie, not the same one as the one Robin posted about obviously, because it is closed. She said it was the worst job she’s ever had. The owner left her with the kids, more than she was legally allowed to watch. The kid to adult ratio was too high I guess you’d say. The owner practically force fed some of the kids. One little boy didn’t like macaroni and cheese. He wouldn’t eat noodles, not spaghetti, not macaroni, no pasta noodles whatsoever. So the owner held his head back and held his mouth open and basically shoved the food down his throat. He gagged and threw up and the owner closed his mouth and made him swallow his own vomit. She didn’t say anything to her at the time, but she didn’t go back to work. The lady should have told the child no dessert, no TV, no snack, or something else if he didn’t clean his plate. She should have never put her hands on him like that.

What is most irritating is that her own kid lived there (it is a home daycare) and she didn’t make her kid sit down and eat with the other kids. He got to run around and eat whatever he wanted and play while the other kids had to do whatever they were told. Her child was a heathen brat. I saw him in action. She would never make her own kid eat vomit, but she sure did it to kids that didn’t belong to her. My friend told the kid’s mom, but we don’t know what happened to the kid because my friend quit after that.

Another thing that we found later was basically illegal, is if a child was being especially difficult, she told my friend to put them in the bathroom and shut the door and leave the lights off. We read somewhere later that you aren’t supposed to keep a child in the dark as punishment. And that is exactly what she did. And the food that she fed them was sometimes old. She’d buy a HUGE can of vegetables or fruit or whatever, and the kids didn’t eat that much. And she’d have a leftover can of fruit or vegetables in the fridge for a month or more sometimes. She said she bought the big cans because it was cheaper than the small cans. She also served them stale bread and stale hot dog buns. Not her own kid though. He got SONIC. The portion sizes she gave the kids were not really enough food either (in my opinion). I doubt it was legal. She’d give them each a teaspoon of fruit and vegetables and half a peanut butter sandwich somedays. A TEASPOON? She had a menu posted and was supposed to notify parents if the menu did or was going to change but she never did. She RARELY served what was actually on the menu. My daughter at 4 would eat a whole peanut butter sandwich and a banana and a cookie or milk or juice at lunch. She was the perfect weight too according to the doctor! My friend said all the kids were starving at snack time. Sometimes for snacks they’d have pretzels and no water. They NEVER got drinks with their snacks.

And she wouldn’t make him take a nap at nap time like the other kids either. He got to stay up and play. He was a full fledged brat too. He was disrespectful to everyone who ever worked for her.

She only emptied the Diaper Genie once a week and it smelled awful. It had several babies poop and pee diapers in it packed into it for a full week. It smelled up the room, and she’d spray Lysol all over to cover the smell.

The kids had their own water bottles with their names labeled, but the whole top shelf of the fridge had their water bottles all sitting there with whatever water was left over. The bottles only got washed once a week and otherwise sat contaminated next to each other in the fridge.

Lunch was at 11:00 and over at 11:30. 11:30 to 11:45 was bathroom time & play time. 11:45 to at least 3:30 and sometimes later was nap time. What kind of kid needs an almost 4 hour nap every day! For half the time she was supposed to be watching these kids, they were asleep! That is ridiculous.

The owner would also get in the kids faces and yell and scream at them. I can see getting on their level to talk to them, but she yelled and scramed like crazy. She was cheap, too. The toilet in the restroom was old and didn’t flush well. The sink in the kitchen was like out of some old burned out house or something, it was so old and nasty. I can see trying to save money, but when you make over $100 a week per kid and pay minimum wage to you employee and HOLD OUT TAXES BUT DON’T SEND A W2 then you can afford a new sink and toilet. I think she should be turned into the IRS for that. She held out way too many taxes and wrote a personal check as a paycheck, but didn’t send a W2 ever to my friend who worked for her.

I wish this daycare wasn’t even opened anymore. She doesn’t treat kids right. I would say the name, but I don’t want to get in trouble for something.

All I can say is PLEASE do your research on HOME DAYCARES in the Guthrie area.