NY - Toddlers left at NY daycare center turn up alone in shopping mall

A two-year-old and a three-year-old were found alone at a Long Island, New York shopping mall, Wednesday afternoon. Police had no idea who they were or why they were left at Westfield South Shore Mall.

Suffolk County police now report the toddlers (named as Tyler and Abigail, who are not related) had been safely left at Elite Christian Daycare in Brooklyn by their parents, but daycare aide Nicole Noble, 34, of Brooklyn, took them out to the mall - and then just left them there.

She has been arrested and charged with two counts of abandonment and two counts of child endangerment.

http://wn.ktvu.com/story/27545843/daycare-worker-accused-of-leaving-toddlers-at-mall

Good grief! I'm so glad they were ok.

Never leave your kid with a non-blood relation. Daycares hire people who are functionally illiterate and have no interest in interacting with your child. They got their GED, they got their phone, don't bug me. (I'm not talking directors, degree holding child professionals.) It is not even the owner or manager's fault. We want top dollar day care, like Julie Andrews in The Sound of Music, but we want to pay as little as possible. Ditto for the elderly relatives at the other end of the life spectrum. That is why a stay-at-home mom is vital to the family over long periods of time. People have so belittled the importance of caring for our families, young girls would rather shove a newborn into the trashcan than get "stuck" with a baby. Caring for your loved ones comes from knowing and loving them, not from a perfectly made bed or state-regulated bath days and diaper changes.

Please try to use common sense when replying to these emotionally charged cases ! I know a few daycare employees , and they are anything but " functionally illiterate." These woman really do care about children , which is why they are willing to work for so little money . Not all professions have employees who all fall under the umbrella statements many like to put them under .

That is an absolutely ignorant statement on multiple levels. For starters, daycare workers are not the "functionally illiterate" second class citizens you have implied, and for a healthy second, it is no one's business but the mother's whether she stays at home or not. A woman who wants to have a kid without taking five years off from her career is not committing a crime.

There are different schools of thought, to using daycares. They are only as good as the employees that run them --- usually one can get a sense of the level of care just by taking a tour of the premises.
Is it clean ? Are there video cams everywhere ? What is the rating of the business ? Is the ratio of caregiver to child withing legal limits ?

There are good and bad ones ; sometimes the news focuses on the negative ones without showing the daycares that have good records.
My opinion.

I have had wonderful experiences with my child mother-day-out-program.