Who uses Bright Horizons?

[y4m]

Any great or horrible stories...?

This post is entirely work-related. 

[egishere]

full time or as back up daycare?

[Muddled]

Mar 28, 2016 11:32:28 GMT -5 @marshmallows said:

We do. It's a benefit offered by my company - we got 20 days of backup care a year.

The care itself is fantastic, their reservation system is the worst. You call in/reserve online starting up to 30 days before the date of care. You rank your choices of center and they call each one to check if they have space, in the order you rank them. However, they wait on your choice #1 before calling choice #2, and sometimes choice #1 takes days or weeks to return the call. In the meantime, on days where there are school closures and a lot of people are using the benefit, choices #2-#5 are getting filled up while the central office waits for #1 to call them back. This has sometimes resulted in my DD getting placed in Brooklyn (we live in NJ) because their computer shows that "it's only X miles away." This is a big issue when you travel via mass transit or live in a congested metro area.

We have the 20 days through H's company. I had no idea about the reservation system. Thanks for the info.

[dottyblue]

We used it exclusively for DS1 from 1.5 until shortly before he turned 3 and loved it. We moved away or I would still be using them. I still keep in touch with DS1s teachers.

I can't speak to the drop-in process though.

[pitta12]

Both of my kids have attended Bright Horizons from infant - pre-K and we have had a great experience. It is expensive, for sure, but the quality is far above what I saw at other centers I toured. It is well worth it to me.

[matildasun]

We use their back up care program. Of the last 8 times we tried to reserve a spot we have gotten care 5 times (4 in home 1 center). 3 of the 5 times went great, once the caregiver got sick and had to go home, and M cried so hard that the caregiver called my husband and asked him to come home.

[karinothing]

Both kids attend BH. It is expensive, but I couldn't be happier. I find that the curriculum is really engaging and I feel like DS1 has learned a ton. I also find the classes are smaller than other centers. Like even though the ratios are the same, they have more classrooms so the overall class is smaller. For example, my friend goes to a center where there are 30 kids in a classroom (preschool) so 3 teachers (10 to 1 ratio at that age). My kid has 7. The other two classes have 10 or so.

[stretchad]

We use Bright Horizons and love it. Would definitely send any future children here too. I echo everything that spunbutterfly, said, as we are in Seattle. An example of the food on the menu this week:
Brazilian coconut chicken and Rice
Mansaka (Danish Casserole)
Egyptian Koshery

Whatever the hell this is, I don't know. But I wish I could eat there...

[lolo]

We tried it for 3 weeks when DD was 4.5m old. The transition didn't work well for any of us so I ended up SAH until she was 12m, then went PT from 12m to present.

The caretakers were fine, but I didn't find them overly warm. Babies often had to wait a bit when they were upset, which I understand but was hard to watch when they are so young. They did have a range of activities even in the infant room--painting, music time, outdoor time--which was great.

My friend's son went there for 2 years in the 3-4 year old rooms. She said 'it's fine, nothing spectacular.' That's how I felt about it.

[Jem]

We have the 20 days for back up care through DH's work and we love it. We've never had an issue with the reservation system but that may be because we only go to the on site one at DH's office. They have been wonderful there - infant right on up to elementary age, we have had great experiences.

[y4m]

Thanks to everyone who responded - this is great stuff and super helpful.

[formerlyak]

The corporate center at DH's work was bought out by Bright Horizons about a year into the baby being there. The new management was horrible, they talked the company into reducing hours they would provide care so it no longer worked for all employees, they cut teachers and increased ratios, they changed the curriculum. When I called to ask more about the new curriculum, no one could answer my questions - not even the supposed "infant and toddler curriculum specialist". They turned the center so sterile - no art was allowed to be hung on the walls because it might ruin the paint, no more classroom pot lucks for holidays (which the parents attended so it wasn't a 'what if a kid has an allergy' thing). The new director who was hired by Bright Horizons corporate (they pushed out the one who was there when we started) was horrible at communicating - emails with conflicting information, misspellings, etc. When I'd ask for clarification she would act annoyed. I finally called her out on it and said that if we can't rely on her to send us correct information about things like center closed days and events, how was I supposed to rely on her to care for my child? The regional director was on this particular email. She got very huffy, called her boss and I heard her bad mouthing me to the regional director. I told her she should probably close her door if she was going to be bad mouthing parents in case they come in while she is doing it. Then she started backpedaling and apologizing. I got a very bad impression of Bright Horizons from this experience. We moved our son to a different preschool a week later and LOVE it. It's less expensive, the teachers are more engaging, kid art every where, weekly music class for all kids, age appropriate science (ds' toddler class is currently growing beans in wet paper towels). Could not be happier with our decision to not be at BH anymore.

[kkfeb04]

Our daycare was bought out by Bright Horizons. I don't have much experience but now there are enrollment fees and community members have had their tuition increased (the employee rate stayed the same). They kinda screwed us on vacation days previously it would cost me $10 for a vacation day that I could use any time. Now I must use it all on one week and I pay 1/2 the rate. This was after they said no part time kids get vacation days. Done of the long time teachers have either quit out retired which seems troublesome. They are restructuring the preschool rooms this fall.

I still love the fact I can walk to my desk to her in her room in 3 minutes. My son is at another center and I'm okay with that as they seem to handle special needs better plus some of the kids that he was with were down right mean and nasty but previous director didn't do anything about it because cliques.

[kkfeb04]

Mar 30, 2016 17:22:26 GMT -5 spunbutterfly said:

Mar 30, 2016 11:29:07 GMT -5 kkfeb04 said:

Our daycare was bought out by Bright Horizons. I don't have much experience but now there are enrollment fees and community members have had their tuition increased (the employee rate stayed the same). They kinda screwed us on vacation days previously it would cost me $10 for a vacation day that I could use any time. Now I must use it all on one week and I pay 1/2 the rate. This was after they said no part time kids get vacation days. Done of the long time teachers have either quit out retired which seems troublesome. They are restructuring the preschool rooms this fall.

I still love the fact I can walk to my desk to her in her room in 3 minutes. My son is at another center and I'm okay with that as they seem to handle special needs better plus some of the kids that he was with were down right mean and nasty but previous director didn't do anything about it because cliques.

It sounds like they're working with what the rules were before they got bought out.

No Bright Horizon I've ever been to allows for vacation days for full time or part time.

That's all and fine but for us to be told oh you'll see no changes to finding out the next month that sorry you have no vacation days. My son's daycare, that is private owned, gives 3 weeks a year without any extra pay for part time before/after school care. They are free days to be used even if he's sick, no need for prior approval.