Is this a bad sign?

[Marjee]

This may sound really strange so I apologise in advance but I'm totally clueless about nurseries!

3 days ago I went to look around at a nursery. I was really impressed, they seemed very friendly and the children all looked happy and settled. All the staff at some point had a child on their lap for a cuddle and ds seemed to interact well with the other children. I told the woman that I wanted to put ds in for 3 days a week but there was no manager there so I couldn't fill in any of the paperwork. They said the manager would call me the next day but I didn't hear anything. I rang yesterday and the manager was off again so I made sure they had my number and asked them to get her to call me, she still hasn't. Is that bad management considering I'm a potential paying customer? I really don't know if I'm reading too much into this but I'm having second thoughts about sending ds there now if they can't organise themselves to return my call! Btw I know they definitely have spaces available for the days I requested. Should I look elsewhere?

I wouldn't judge them on this to be honest, it sounds like the manager is unwell/on holiday/somewhere else. You need to show some patience, there is a million reasons why she's been unable to call you back.

wouldn't judge on this either - if your ds goes there, presumably you'd be happier that they are looking after his needs rather than on the phone all the time! also someone probably wrote it on a post-it, post-it fell on the floor/got moved...

I agree. For me what was most important about choosing a nursery for DS was the care and attention he was going to get and my general gut feel about the staff and environment.
I think the lack of follow up from them would frustrate me but give them another week (to take into account the bank holiday).

Do they have email? Email as well as that often gets a quick response. I wouldn't judge on this, the children's happiness and interaction with staff is a better indication of quality of care.

Keep looking.

This may be simple miscommunication, unexpected sick leave, other as yet unexplained drama; in which case it's nothing to worry about and you can continue with the enrollment.

But, it might be a sign of understaffing (financial trouble, even), chronic poor management, or just something you don't feel right about.

How do you know they have a place btw? If the nursery has a lot of vacancies, I'd want to know why (new, local oversupply of places, reputational issues?)

Ask around, and check out as many options as you can. You might find somewhere you like even better.

Wow thanks for speedy replies! Thats what I thought but I'm feeling so guilty about returning to work that I'm stupidly oversensitive about everything! The nursery did seem lovely and I do trust that he'll be well looked after there, I think I'll leave it a few days and call back. Thanks for the perspective xx

I phoned a local nursery to arrange a look around and had to leave voicemail, twice. They called back two weeks later to say they didn't know how to use the answer machine.

No way I was sending my PFB to be looked after by people who could not work an answer machine in 2009.....

I would have a tendency to see it as disorganisation before you'd even started....