My daughter started with Clare in January and I haven’t been satisfied with the service we received. I’ll always give credit where it’s due and I can definitely say that whilst I am not pleased with the circumstances, Clare definitely would stand out for how flexible she is considering both myself and my girlfriend are shift workers.

I was extremely excited for my daughter to start with Clare, after our initial meet with her, she seemed the perfect fit claiming to have plenty of experience in helping with behavioural change as at the time we were already aware that we did have a clingy baby. Clare was at hand to give advice which as first time parents was massively appreciated. The main thing that stood out was in regards to difficulty in getting her to self sooth and sleep independently where Clare was very clear that “we’ll have that sorted”. Whilst we did not expect someone to raise our child, it was an extremely positive message which she had given us.

At first, all seemed great, Clare would report whether she had been good or difficult each day and we were under the impression that all was well. A few weeks ago, Clare sent my girlfriend a text asking if she could have a phone call. We were in the car at the time with the call on hands free so I could also hear the conversation as we were both on a day off. Clare expressed her concerns about my daughter not settling and asked for advice which is absolutely fine as of course we know our daughter best. However, as first time parents, hearing “I’ve looked after plenty of babies, but non like her” is pretty difficult and did make us feel like the worst parents going. I knew at this point that Clare was starting the process of ending her care with my daughter.

Following on from this, Clare had another conversation with my girlfriend where they agreed to give it 3 weeks of trying new things before deciding whether Clare was the right option for us. Clare also said at this point that if we do decide to cut ties, she would support us until we found alternative childcare.

Fast forward onto day 3 of this 3 weeks of probation, Clare sent a TEXT to inform my girlfriend that she would be giving our daughter up effective immediately leaving us with no child care and in an extremely difficult position. Bare in mind, my girlfriend works in the emergency services and receiving this text mid shift threw her focus off and left her panicking which could have horrendous consequences.

In the last few days of care with Clare, she had spoken negatively about my daughter in front of another parent and also gave her cows milk (for the first time) without consulting with us first.

I was going to leave this situation which I will be from now but I feel like parents should have another opinion other than the picture that Clare paints.