Why I referred to the Bäbi-Club as a scandal-ridden kindergarten

I had been searching for a suitable kindergarten for my little one for a while. When I saw him being taken around the block in a collective taxi, I was immediately fascinated by the Bäbi-Club. As my child was not much older than a year at the time, I began to learn more about this club. The administrator of the kindergarten was very friendly and gave me a list of required documents for enrollment, including a medical examination by the doctors he recommended and the purchase of a medical card from the bookstore.

The kindergarten rooms are small, but optically larger due to the white color. When you enter, you can smell the smell of food and plants, which reminds me of my own childhood memories of the municipal kindergarten. xa0

Eventually, I decided to enroll my son in the Bäbi-Club at the age of 1 year and 7 months. We left the kindergarten team on May 14, 2023, after spending two years there.

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MY INPUT:

1. The kindergarten has a video camera, with which you can observe the child in its group. Unfortunately, this is only possible in this one room, and not during walks, in the changing room or in the bathroom.

2. Cleanliness - yes, as I saw from the surveillance cameras, the groups were regularly cleaned during the quiet time. I know that the groups are thoroughly cleaned and the toys disinfected once a week. The toilets and sinks were clean when I visited. Personal plants of the children were on the shelves. UNFORTUNATELY: This does not prevent the children from entering the group directly from the street with dirty shoes. When I walked through the kindergarten hallway in white socks, I came out in black socks....

3. Activities -

Mathematics

Spelling lessons

Reading lessons

Music lessons

Environmental education

Creativity

Nutrition and health

Fitness

Tales

English

All these activities are actually available and I have observed them through the surveillance cameras. English lessons were not always possible, as we searched for a substitute teacher for a long time. In the summer, there was no English lesson. I must say that my son did not care about what was available or not in 2 years and 3 years. Similarly, most of his friends. The caregivers then made a decoration and handed it over proudly as their masterpiece.

But I saw a few children in the smallest group who were learning and found it interesting. 4. Chat with caregiver - individual request, to dress the child, change, lay out bed linen (later) - everything could be requested through the chat and with a probability of 90% it was done.

5. Children's clothing - That's my favorite. Honestly! I came, handed over the child, and when I came back, it was already dressed. Such a service was not offered by THE BEST KINDERGARTEN IN UFA.

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6. Weekly reports - at the end of the week, the caregiver sends either enthusiastic or rather disappointed messages, depending on how the week went. They share what the children learned and what they discovered. There are many photos and sometimes even a small video review with music. The photos often show idyllic and happy scenes, and you can't help but think that everything is perfect in the Bäbi-Club. I had a caregiver who didn't send any reports for almost three months because she had just started in the summer.

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7. Communication with the owner of the Bäbi-Club - when I mentioned that my child had injured his foot when getting off the stairs to the playground, the owner had the construction repaired the next day. (In fact, it was not suitable for small children).

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8. Medical check-up - it was nice that they checked the children's health every day between 9 and 11 am. If something was wrong, they could call me. I would have liked them to check the children's health when they arrived at the kindergarten too.

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9. Pampers bucket in our group, all children successfully learned to put their Pampers in the bucket and got used to it. But that's not my story... but it worked for other children too.

10. Disinfection - the kindergarten has disinfection devices for the air. I was happy to see them, as I thought they could help protect the children from diseases. Unfortunately, it didn't work... all children got sick in the same rhythm.

11. Information about injuries - when my child got injured, I received a message at the end of the day about how it happened and how it was treated, even if it was just a minor scratch.

The reports were sometimes like this:

My son ran on the playground and fell against the barrier and got a bruise next to his eye. - it sounds unbelievable, but I'm glad it didn't hurt him seriously.

MINUSES:

1. Operating hours - from 8:30 am to 6:30 pm. When I mentioned at a parents' meeting that the closing time could be earlier, like in municipal kindergartens, they laughed at me. 'We have a special customer base here', they told me. No one wants to come earlier or later... if you want to come earlier or later, you can use our additional service:

earlier admission for children before 8:30 am - 100 rubles. However, I was never able to find out how late you can come.

additional fee for the child's stay until 7 pm - 250 rubles.

I must say that when I actually had to pick up my child early, the friendly caregiver was outraged at my request, as if it was free for me. (She had warned me earlier that I had to attend a test.) When I arrived punctually the next morning, the caregiver's face was not friendly, as I had demanded a big sacrifice from her.

2. Monthly subscription - 22,000 rubles (without meals) - from April 1, 2022.

With meals, it would cost 7,560 rubles for 21 days plus 22,000 rubles = 29,560 rubles.

Around that time, they had already abolished the compensation for missed days due to illness. Even if there were a series of holidays during the New Year's holidays - your child stays home for 10 days, but you pay for these 10 days (as it was in 2021). And then there were the May holidays. Oh, and don't forget that the kindergarten has half-holidays. Everything is like in municipal kindergartens.

3. Annual fee - 5,000 euros - regardless of whether you want it or not - membership is mandatory! So, if you leave after a month after signing the contract, you have to pay it.

The brand new coupon is a:2021: Karanfen from Asia, the Baby-Club's crayons, a mosaic toy from the Baby-Club. 2022: A white T-shirt from the Baby-Club (the best color for little boys: "Wash Mama, Wash Mama, three times more soap!")

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4. Meals 360 rubles per day = 7,560 rubles for 21 days. It's worth noting that if you don't come to the kindergarten, you have to announce it at least a day in advance to save 360 rubles. When I complained that I couldn't predict whether my child would be sick tomorrow, I was told that I had to warn them at least 30 minutes or an hour in advance. I don't understand why they want to charge me 360 rubles if they're going to bring and prepare the meals anyway.

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The chicken is rare, but five times a day... I don't have the strength to watch the children eating from their plates. And I didn't even look.

My child smelled like unroasted leek when it came out of the kindergarten - how many times have I discussed this with the meal delivery company? Uncountable times. The answer was always the same: "We roast the leek according to technical specifications." This smell was unbearable. My clothes were also affected.

As for clothing... FAT on clothing. I can't say it's like that, but I feel like they're cooking with plant oil here. I can't explain why there were so many damaged clothing items that couldn't be washed out after soaking in Fairy/Vanilla/Cooking water/Hand washing. No, we wore the clothes anyway, it wasn't about that. I could even smell the oil after multiple washes. And honestly, there are no such stains in our community garden, and if there are, they can be easily washed out.

Our child came out of the kindergarten hungry. It ate and couldn't get full. And at that point, I didn't understand that the food in the kindergarten tasted bad, I thought it just liked it better at home. Regarding this: I also heard from the caregiver that they had complaints about the meal delivery company. "Soup made of water. Everything is posted and a lot of onion. A lot of sugar is added to the tea."

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5. The quiet afternoon - my nightmare! The sleep time is from 12:30-13:00 pm, and the children are woken up at 3:30 pm. I really can't understand how they put the children to sleep... by making them sleep from 12:30 pm and waking them up 3 hours later, my child was full of energy until the evening and made me tired with its resistance to sleep.

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6. The caregivers - From the beginning, we had this problem to deal with. In the summer, we took on a young woman who came to help because she had left her two children with her mother. It was clear that she didn't have the strength to work. Then there was a lot of criticism from the parents. I felt sorry for her, I tried to support her. But, oh, how foolish that was. The dirty diaper in the storage room, left behind on the weekends, was just the beginning.

I once noticed that my children were awake during nap time. The time was ideal to observe them. The caregiver had just left. My son was standing on his bed, as seen in the photo below. He was on the top floor and was 1.7 months old at the time. Another boy was trying to push him off. My son was standing asleep, didn't understand anything, and could have easily fallen off the bed...

Example of the bedsAnd then there's the story of how we ended up in the emergency hospital thanks to this caregiver:

At 1.8 am, my son started putting things in his nose. If he was being watched, he didn't try it. The caregiver was informed. In the group, there were 5 children at the time... I asked them to be very attentive and accompany my children. But you know, the woman only worked part-time and was under pressure. The next day, she left the children unattended with a toy made of plastic with small objects... of course! Of course, he put something in his nose. In the other nose on the playground area, a rusty button was placed, which he had found. When I arrived, I heard that my child had a brown mucous membrane. When I got home, I searched with a flashlight for the object in his nose and realized that I couldn't just pull it out. It was necessary to take him to the emergency hospital. If the plastic tube had gotten into his airways?! After this incident, I decided to pick up my child. Fortunately, the caregiver had already left, as the summer semester was over, and the director promised that a very qualified caregiver would replace her, which was indeed the case. Unfortunately, this time was only short-lived.

I often experienced in the kindergarten that the caregivers were frequently changed. I didn't get to know all of them at the same time. Sometimes caregivers from other branches were transferred and they were very upset and indifferent. One of the caregivers once repeated my idea: "In the kindergarten, there is no discipline, in my branch, the children are without repetition on instructions, even the two-year-olds! Here, they are like atoms that run around."

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Once, I was there when a two-year-old girl was taken out onto the street without a diaper. It was -10 degrees and they walked for a quarter of an hour until the mother arrived. The diaper change was not yet learned by the girl at that time.

When we finally had a stable caregiver team, it still didn't feel right. "The kindergarten is like a second home" was the phrase in the last few years. Now I understand that this doesn't apply to the Bäbi-Club, but before it was a period when I felt that way for myself. That's the story of a caregiver who stayed here for a year and was loved by everyone.

7. The kindergarten policy - Betrayal of children with love and kindness, conversations with them, and the perception of their feelings, all these aspects are accompanied by a young caregiver team. Right? I don't think so. Yes, my daughter was kissed by the assistant caregiver and had a close relationship with him, but my child needs rules and structure so that it doesn't fall apart and the ceiling doesn't open. The feeling of boundaries regarding freedom can lead to great consequences and starts to burden the caregivers' psyche.

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I observed how my son played with a toy and asked the caregiver to bring it to him, for the third time she refused, and then my son got upset. Yes, he protested because he had already gotten the toy from the caregiver twice before, why not the third time, he raged. But the problem was that it shouldn't have been the third time.

In the two years at the Bäbi-Club, my child was left on its own. It was obvious. But they 'healed' him in the municipal playground, where all the children are independent and the caregivers are not to be dressed.

8. Doctor's visit - that was both a plus and a minus for me. A cough due to dust, a runny nose, and I received a call to pick up the child.

Once they called me to pick up the child because he had thick mucous membranes. I brought him home, healthy and cheerful, and simply... pulled him out. There were no mucous membranes left. Later, the doctor changed.

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9. Bedding - bring your own bedding, pillows, and bed linen! - 'Do you have a measuring tape?' I asked cautiously. 'Of course!' laughed the responsible person.

Bring your own bedding, pillows, and bed linen! And they will take your bed linen away, wash, iron, and bring it back to you every week. In the municipal playground, they only wash the pajamas... and here it will be bed linen every week)

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10. Loss of belongings - naively, I thought that with only a few children in the group and at the beginning 5-6 children, exchanging belongings would be excluded or very rare. My child came with other people's belongings - well, we exchanged them back.

My biggest annoyance is the constant disappearance of socks, in pairs. How many times I bought them, they disappeared again, without me finding them. In the chat, there were questions if I had seen the socks, but they never reappeared. Sometimes the socks were even only worn once... and they were even brand-name socks.

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11. No compensation - Sometimes even an explanation that you were sick? - that's great. You can go, but the money will be used for the kindergarten's costs.

12. Missing middle group - there is a group for children aged 2-3 years, but then there is a group for older children, aged 4-5 years. My son was placed in this group at the age of 3 with my consent. It didn't end well. I will tell you more about it later.

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13. Open playground area, directly on the street - yes, the playground area is open, not fenced. During walks, other children can join, brought by their mothers to socialize. I haven't seen any escape attempts, but I have seen how they were prevented. When the kindergarten is not playing, the area is accessible to the residents of the neighboring houses. It was on this area that I had a dispute with a mother who allowed her child to relieve itself there. "What's the problem, you're the one who's most affected" - she replied, as she behaved very decently.

14. Misuse of personal data (!!!) - that's exactly the point that surprised me so much that I decided to write a review. A friend of my wife was offered a job at the kindergarten.

Instead of being informed about the job, she started gossiping and collecting personal information. When we met, she shared all this information with me.

comments:

The adaptation phase lasts about 5 days, during which the kindergarten visit is done in small steps to gradually acclimate the child to the new environment. This approach of gradual introduction is applied here. The costs are 250 rubles per hour.

The maximum group size is 13 children. At first, I thought it was too few, as in my old kindergarten in the city, there were 30 children in a group. Actually, only half of the children attend the kindergarten.

You can compensate 50% of the costs for 28 days a year , if you submit a corresponding document, as this is considered planned absenteeism (leave) according to the contract conditions.

There were previously discounts for subscriptions of 3-6-9-12 months, depending on the subscription, discounts of 5-10-15-20% were granted. In 2022, these were abolished.

The costs for a yearly subscription were as follows.

Why did I refer to the Bäbi-Club as scandal-ridden? Have you read the news?As reported by the mother of the affected child, Rima B., the caregiver in the Ufimskaya-Baby-Club group on Djaliil Kiikbaev Street ignored the child's cries for over an hour before approaching him and pulling him into the room, despite his resistance, and then hitting him with force. The caregiver's statements are confirmed by the video camera footage in the kindergarten.

Regarding the caregiver involved in this scandal: she was also at my child's place. His transfer to an older age group was done with my consent, as there was no middle group in the kindergarten at the time.

When I looked around, I discovered that the caregiver had a law degree. She tolerated the children and performed her tasks by cleaning, vacuuming, and handling documents... everything. Yes, if the programming for the lesson times was planned, she took care of the children, watched the pictures, and created a weekly report. I can't say that she neglected the children.

What happens when you transfer a 3-year-old to a group with 4.5-5-year-olds? When I heard from the caregiver every day that she didn't understand that 3-year-olds have a different development than 4.5-5-year-olds, I was confused. Every day, there were complaints that the 3-year-old was playing during lessons, didn't want to sing, and couldn't dress himself.

Especially, she complained that the 3-year-old didn't learn math and didn't do any math problems... when I realized that our views didn't coincide, I decided to transfer my child to a group with children of the same age, as a 3-year-old cannot do math problems in 3 years.

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Since the age group mixing was not suitable for my child and the educator didn't address my child in any way (even if she sent me weekly photo reports, there were no photos of my child), I decided to bring my child back to the smaller group, where our neighbor was also, who was also over 3 years old. After some time, I didn't receive the kindergarten bill, and then the owner of the kindergarten called me and offered to enroll my child in their kindergarten in the other part of the city. She wanted to enroll my child in the group, as my older child was no longer needed in the group and the group was already full.

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I can say that my child didn't speak properly in the kindergarten. Although I sent him there at 1.7 years old, the social environment didn't help to develop his language. When he was 3 years and 2 months old, he started attending a speech therapist in the Baby-Club group to support his language development. We couldn't get him out of diapers and a urine container, although we promised that this would be possible. The many development courses we attended had no effect on his behavior. I think there are children who benefit from such courses and develop their intelligence and education.

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My conclusion: After analyzing everything, I regret that we stayed in the Baby-Club group for too long. The proximity to our home and the fact that the club is located directly in our house made me hesitant to take my child out of the kindergarten. This was a crucial factor in why I endured all the drawbacks.

I must say that the early enrollment of my child in the kindergarten, at 1.7 years old, helped me in a certain way. After a few weeks, my child learned to walk hand in hand, which was previously impossible, as it always turned around like a fish on the grill! It also learned that adults are to be followed, which was not the case before, as it always protested because it wanted what it wanted.

If you put your child in a Baby-Club, you should only do it for 6 months (at most a year) like the intelligent mothers do. The child will be taken to the toilet, learn to speak, and then it's time to say goodbye and go to the municipal kindergarten. There, you won't be bothered because your child is in diapers, and you won't be pressured to worry because your child isn't on the way to the toilet. Also, your child will have learned to speak, so if it's offended, it can complain about its rights. And if you're a nervous mother, it will help you to keep your nerves when you watch the camera that monitors your child for the first 6-12 months.

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I must say that I've already thought about taking my child to one of the municipal kindergartens in the summer, as there are renovation works in our kindergarten and I can't take care of my child myself.

I must admit that after visiting the Baby-Club, I've visited many private kindergartens and I must say that they're not better than the Baby-Club. They have similar small rooms, similar conditions, similar programs, and similar beds and chambers. In some cases, there's even no outdoor area for the children to play. Some kindergartens have problems with parking, you have to wait for hours to find a parking spot, and in some cases, it's even unpleasant when you enter the kindergarten because it smells of urine.... and that's why I decided to put my child in the municipal kindergarten:

Advantages:

Large outdoor areaIndependent children with a certain level of maturity, as one could say, actually have a different attitude. - My son was a delicate flower, despite being considered almost a naughty child in the Baby-Club.Since no one is treated like a favorite. - this has left a mark on my son. In the municipal garden, there is strict discipline. It's not necessary to adapt, but it's also not allowed to rebel against the rules!Childcare - We all buy workbooks with letters, numbers, and math problems. According to the prescribed childcare concept, the children work with these workbooks. In the Baby-Club group, there were no workbooks, as the children there are between 1 and 3 years old.Food. He eats there. My child no longer smells like onions and there are no greasy, stinky stains anymore. And there are no food leftovers when it comes home.I don't have to wash the bedding anymore! - that's a blessing! Even if my child gets dirty during the day, it's not a problem. Also, I don't have to worry about the smell of urine anymore.