i'm really mad about something

All of my vacation time is allocated to our upcoming vacation. And it's "sweeps" month in television, so DH can't take time off from work either. So when Charlotte's babysitter called out sick yesterday, we didn't really have a back-up plan. So we took her to drop-in child care.

This particular center is licensed by the state, which is unusual. We'd taken Char a few months ago and weren't thrilled (partially because there were some slightly older kids playing kind of rough with a ball and partially because they didn't give her the snack we asked them to, and partially because in just over 2 hours, she had 2 accidents). But we didn't have a lot of choice so we took her again.

Well, it happened again. Not the accidents, but they didn't give her the snack. At all. In five hours! Nor did they give her milk or water. When I got there to pick her up, she was literally begging for food and the employee was telling her she would give her food if Charlotte would go potty. Charlotte said she didn't need to go potty (Why would she? She hadn't eaten or drunk anything in almost 6 hours altogether!) but said, "I no need to potty. I want to eat. Food, please?" That's when I approached and got her checked out and left.

I've really been so upset about this for 24 hours that I'm a little numb writing it out again. But the poor kid sounded so plaintive in the car when she had chugged her sippy cup of milk and said, "Oh, no! Milk's all gone!" And then when she drank a kefir drink, she said in a most pitiful voice, "Yogurt's all gone." And "Pouch is all gone" (puree pouch). She also ate a handful of kale chips and half a huge apricot. And then when we got home she ate most of her planned dinner, too! She was obviously SO hungry! She also drank another small cup of milk and 2 small cups of water.

Thankfully it was only 5 hours and not a whole day. And thankfully I came prepared with snacks when I picked her up (I went grocery shopping at Whole Foods on my lunch hour). I wrote a nastygram to the owner, and she did call me at lunch today (I was in line and let it go to voice mail); her message indicated that she is very angry that happened and that is against their training and policies, etc. Hopefully some good will come of this at least. Sigh. Poor kiddo!