Reviews of Childcare center at All Star Fitness

[mplumer]

Hello,

I wanted to know if anyone used the childcare center at All Star Fitness and if you would recommend it during a workout?

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[flowerpetal]

Childcare centers at places like All Star are almost invariably unlicensed. They could choose licensing but that is a rare ocurrence.

They do not need to meet the same standards as a licensed center. So they can set their own adult to child ratio; choose not to conduct WA State Patrol background checks; mainatain their own standards of cleanliness.

You see where I’m going with this. Its good to ask how many adults there are for children and does it vary with ages. Do they do background checks? Do they have a bin to drop toys in that are mouthed by children? Is there a fire exit and other emergency plans in place? Do caregivers wash their hands after diapering? After nose-blowing? Getting information/opinions from other parents is valuable. Asking questions of the caregiver(s) can yield a larger picture.

I like the concept of these drop in care centers. Its the reality that I am not so sure about.

Good luck!

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[Irukandji]

What flowerpetal said, plus having used them, I found them to be the most warm and loving bunch of women we’ve had the pleasure of leaving our kid with. Sadly, that was the BEST part of AllStar and I’ve since dropped membership. I can tell you that the childcare area is lots cleaner than the locker room ever was.

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[MLivingston]

I too dropped my membership because of the filthy locker room. Our 2 1/2 year old stayed there once and only once – too many kids, not enough supervision.

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[kirida]

We haven’t been there for a while, but when we did drop off our toddler, he LOVED it. There were tons of toys and an enormous space for him to roam. The employees who worked there were always very attentive and kind and I had no worries about leaving him in their care. The childcare facilities are truly one of the membership perks.

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[carterbiosea]

I’ve been happy with the level of attention and the cleanliness of the childcare center, but what freaks me out is their security. More specifically, the complete lack thereof. I’m actually going to talk with their management about it, with some suggestions for a wristband system or some equivalent.

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[hammy]

I placed my oldest daughter in the childcare center starting at 3 months (summer 2008) until about 10 months. I really appreciated the caring staff at the center. They were really kind and compassionate and gave my daughter a lot of attention. I usually took her during the drop in time (afternoons) and the center was fairly empty. I did see them turn walk-ins away if they did not have the proper staff to child ratio. I had to stop taking my daughter because my work schedule changed which was a bummer because by the time I went back she had some separation anxiety. The staff remembered my daughter even though I had not been in for several months. I recommend you go in and talk to the staff and sit and observe to make sure you feel comfortable. I can’t wait until my younger daughter is old enough to go so I can take both of them.

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[flowerpetal]

It is good to read that there have been so many positive experiences there. It truly must be a perk.

WRT to separation anxiety. It is a normal part of development and you might be more worried if your child didn’t exhibit this behavior. It takes a level of cognitive development for children to experience separation anxiety. Even if you were taking your daughter regularly, she might have easily displayed the same separation problems that you experienced.

“Babies are my business” if I might borrow an old slogan.

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[sam-c]

http://www.allstarfitness.com/ws_childcare.htm

here is a link that lists their policies, including some of the important points (ratios) listed in post 2. Also, they do not do diaper changes, you have to take care of that stuff beforehand. plus, they don’t allow food. so those 2 things help with the germ issue.

as far as exiting, building codes take care of that issue, the building was built within the last 10 years and is (I think- according to the permit status) spinklered.

that said, we’ve only used it once and were happy with it, though we had some of the same security concerns as carterbiosa. seems like the security should be more stringent considering it’s a drop in place where they probably don’t recognize a lot of the people or build relations ships with users since they don’t use it regularly like you would a day care.

you should take a tour of it too, to see what it’s like

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[meg]

We have used the daycare at Allstar since our daughter was 3 months old & she is now almost 2. The staff is always friendly and our daughter seems to really enjoy being there. I have had only good experiences with the daycare.

I have had similar thoughts re: the security and wondering if there was another way it could be done.

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[Author]

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