GROWING PAINS LEARNING CENTER

We have our two children enrolled at Growing Pains and we love them! The teachers are amazing and we wouldn't want to leave our kids with anyone else. Thank you Katy and Tiffany, you truly provide excellent child care.

Best daycare. My daughter has been going here since she was 9 months old. She's almost 3 and loves going here.

I was not entirely satisfied with their service. While I knew my baby was safe there, I have had better experiences with child care centers. From the first phone conversation, it was obvious the director was competitive with other centers. She spoke about hearing "bad reviews" of any other place that was mentioned and how many children came to her center after parents having an awful experience elsewhere. For this reason, I was leery to tell them about switching to a different center when we finally decided to make the change. One of three infant caregivers was great. She was sweet and showed genuine concern and affection for the babies in her care. The other two I could take or leave. One day I dropped my son off and asked, "Do you want me to put him in a seat, or on the floor?" and she replied, "Doesn't matter. He makes us hold him most of the time anyway." My child was a breast fed baby at home, so I really relied on their tracking of his bottles during the day but they tracked his intake poorly. The day I ended our care with them, they were still reporting that he ate only 2 ounces every 3 - 4 hours but could not account for the other ounces I left with them in the morning and why they were gone at the end of the day. I'd ask and they'd say, "Oh, he kind of finished it later." Just one day later at his new child care center, I found he was actually eating 4 ounces every 2 hours! BIG difference. The infant room had plenty of space, considering the children don't move around much but I thought the space provided for the more mobile children, around ages 2 to 3, were quite small. In my comings and goings, I also found interactions with the toddlers to be less than I expected from a childcare worker. I think a parent gains the right to talk to their own toddler in an exasperated tone with a little edge to it but I often overheard things like, "Are you TRYing to get in trouble?" and "Go sit over there. You OBVIOUSLY can't have manners today, so you can sit next to (kid's name) instead. I'm done I'm just done." I mean, it's not abusive or awful or anything, and kids should be held accountable and I KNOW kids can be frustrating but I expect more from a professional center. Something more like, "Can we try that again with good manners?" or "It seems we are struggling with listening skills today. Can someone show (kid's name) how to be a good listener?" That being said, they accommodated me on very short notice when I had no child care for a couple of months. They were very reasonably priced, the center was always clean and my child was safe. That was very much appreciated.

My five year old daughter has been at Growing Pains since she was a baby. She is as 'at home' there as she is at our house, or Gramma's place. It's a great learning and social environment, with a very low staff turnover and very accomodating schedules. Small class sizes mean great individual attention is given to each child, from baby to school age. We had to relocate out of town for several months, but the first thing I did when we came back to Tacoma was get her back at GP so she felt like we were truly home again, and a few weeks later, its as if she never left.

A wonderful place. Great early-learning, awesome field trips for the bigger kids, and a very homey feel, without the stigma of an 'in-home' daycare. The staff is friendly and consistent - we've only seen a couple of new faces in the three years our child has come here.