Kidutopia

My son attended KidUtopia for over 2 years and I had many issues with the owner, Maude, during his time there. The other staff at this facility are AMAZING people and truly care about the children. From the very beginning, Maude was extremely rude, judgmental, and disrespectful to myself, other parents, and her own staff. This concerned me but I still felt comfortable that she was keeping my son safe. I had several instances where he got a diaper rash while under her care- I understand that sometimes they are unavoidable but when I asked that she keep a close eye on the rash, she got defensive and told me that the rash was because of what I was feeding him fruits, vegetables, chicken, yogurt. I am an RN and I know that is not how diaper rashes happen. There were also several instances where my son was fed hardly anything the entire day. She gives out a report sheet of what the child ate and how many diaper changes they had and several times my son was fed a couple blueberries and a piece of cheese when he had been there for over 8 hours! When he got home he would eat like he had been starved, when I asked Maude about it she told me he refused to eat. I know my son and I know he doesn't "refuse to eat" for 6+ hours straight. When she would feel him, she only fed him the snacks in his lunch bag instead of the nutritious meals that I provided, so I had to stop packing snacks all together. I witnessed several times when Maude had her boyfriend at KidUtopia while there were children there, including my son. Over the past several weeks, Maude has gotten worse to the point where I am now concerned about my sons safety and the safety of the other children at this facility. There have been SEVERAL times where I have personally witnessed her sleeping while she has children under her care. I also witnessed her take my son from KidUtopia into the apartments next door without my permission. The following morning my 2 year old son woke up and told me out of the blue, "Maude hit me". I asked him to show me, and he smacked himself. I had my son's dad address this with Maude and when he did, Maude got very defensive and told him that my son was no longer welcome at her facility because he was lying about her and she couldn't trust him anymore. Needless to say, my son will not ever be going back there. I will say that this facility is very accommodating to unconventional work schedules and I am sure that it works well for traveling parents. I would never recommend this facility to anyone and would urge all parents to use extreme caution when leaving your children with Maude.

Maude and all her staff at Kidutopia has been a life saver for me as a single mother looking for a safe and affordable child care for my baby girl. I’ve been using their services for 1,5 years now. I specifically like how clean and well organized the space where kids spend a lot of time is. Moreover, all the staff members are attentive and qualified, my daughter is happy when I leave her there. Maude always responds promptly and politely. She has a set of reasonable rules parents and children have to follow, and I’m happy she does- it means she takes her job seriously. Rules include bringing al things necessary for your child like food, diapers, crib sheet, clothes etc. , phone usage, payment. Also, the fact that it’s a drop in is a huge plus because I don’t work 9-5. I couldn’t recommend this place enough!

I regret letting my kids go here. I just needed someone to watch my 1 & 4 year old for a few hours until my husband could pick them up. The others besides the owner are good but Maude is a nightmare. Anytime I came in she had something to complain about & acted as if we were an inconvenience. I eventually came to understand that they were keeping my son in a portable crib the entire time, not allowing him to play or be with his sister. My kids usually warm up to people very quickly. My 4 yr old daughter especially loves new ppl but even she was afraid & upset about going. She said something about they told her that sge couldn't go potty there & had to wait until daddy picked her up. I didn't know if it was somehow a made up story. But by the end she asked me to please not make her go to the mean old lady. I could only imagine if Maude was that aggressive & negative with me I could only imagine how she was with my kids. The final straw was our last visit. My kids were upset about going & I was only able to console them by letting them have their lovies. As soon as we walked in Maude said this is a problem & yanked my daughters stuffed animal out of her hands & put it away. They started crying & I tried to console them as best as I could. Then she was holding my 1 yr old & he pooped. She sighed & said "aghhh... He's pooping! Ill get it in a minute!"... Really why is that a big deal? I'm paying u to take care of my kids. I was so angry that day bc of a lot of things she did but I couldn't stay & risk losing my job by being late. I called my husband & told him to pick them up asap. I was in tears i felt so guilty & angry. That's when we were done

I am posting this review everywhere I can because I truly believe that Kidutopia poses a threat to kids. Please do not use this day care... I started putting my colicky 13-week old in daycare a few days a week and thought that this option would work as it was close to us and offered affordable part-time rates. The workers were great and if we could have ensured that he would be with the employees when we dropped him off, I would have stuck around. Maude, the owner, is also often there, however. And she is truly a terrible caregiver. She seemed to hate us and to hate our baby. Once she texted me a photo of my diapered baby screaming in his pack-and-play to shame me for not packing a backup set of clothes I did pack extra clothes--but she never apologized. Even if I hadn't, she abdicated care for him and let him suffer. She punished him, let him wail, and sent me pictures of him in pain to shame me. She insists that her way is the only way. My baby was underfed when she thought that he had eaten enough, not allowed to do things that she deemed him developmentally unfit for, and caged him in a pack-and-play when he was capable of walking and moving in safe spaces. Other times, I assume that he was crying and, when she got sick of it, she would overfeed him to make him sleep. He would vomit up the food and she would call us to pick him up because he was "sick" which severely disrupted our day and also mandated that he be kept home for the next 48 hours. I'm pretty sure she hates kids. I feel that she is dangerous and abusive. I really and strongly recommend that you find another option unless you can guarantee that your kid will be cared for by someone else on staff all of whom are just wonderful