When Jolie Ritzo was looking for day care for her son Cannon in Falmouth, Maine, she checked out as many centers as she could.
She was looking for a place with the right feel.
“Most importantly, the people who are providing the care are loving and kind, nurturing and interested in developing these little beings,” she says.
There was one center in town that had a great reputation, but it was so pricey, Ritzo says, “It would break the bank.”
She enrolled Cannon in a family child care based in a church. It was small and cozy with a sweet name and a nice playground. But after a few months, she started to get a bad feeling about the place.
“Let’s just say she wasn’t cut out for child care,” Ritzo says of the woman who ran the center.
So the hunt was on again. She settled on a place called Little Hands.
Ritzo says it was convenient to get to, had a good reputation and a nice facility. It had good safety measures in place. It cost about $900 a month for four days a week. And it had space for Cannon immediately.
Ritzo is happy with the choice. Cannon just started kindergarten after going to Little Hands for three years, and now his 2-year-old sister is enrolled.
“It gives me peace of mind knowing that when I drop my daughter off for the entire day that someone is going to be loving, sweet and nurturing,” Ritzo says
Like most parents, Ritzo says her children’s day care is high quality. In fact, a new poll from NPR, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health shows that the overwhelming majority of parents who use child care are happy with it. To read more from ALISON KODJAK, click here.