Searching for a New Daycare Center

My wife accepted a job offer this week and so we have to find a new care center for my son. If he were to remain at his current daycare center, it'd take my wife or me over an hour to drop him off and get to work and vice versa. This blows since we absolutely love his current daycare center as well as the people there. So we spent some time last week and today looking at new centers near our future work locations (I'm starting a new job August 13 and my wife will likely start hers on September 5, and, oddly enough, we'll be working within 2 miles of each other...her building is currently across the street from mine.). The place we saw today is not a place I'd put my son. Granted, it's a five-star center, as rated by the State of NC, but what we saw when we visited the toddler room was total chaos. I saw the children running around uncontrolled, some clothed, some not, I saw one boy hit another boy with a plastic container and the second boy retaliated by hitting him in the head with a percussion triangle. One kid was in the corner crying. The teacher barely said anything, took the triangle away, and sent the boy to the other instructor, who was changing another child's diaper. Also, the teachers hardly said anything when we visited, didn't greet us, and seemed to be in emergency management the entire time. We left the room to continue the tour, spoke with the center director for about 20 minutes, and when she asked me if I had any questions, I asked to see the toddler room again thinking that perhaps we just caught them at a bad time. Nope. Same chaos, totally unstructured! I'd sooner leave my son at home alone all day than take him to that place. He'd learn just about as much! (BTW, I wouldn't leave my son at home alone).

Oh, I hate to say this, but it did enter my mind - one of the care givers was obese. I'd guess that she was in her early 50s and about 300 lbs. Some days when I watch my son by myself, he tires me out, and I'm a healthy young guy that only has to watch one boy. I can't imagine that she isn't exhausted by lunch time from their activities, chasing the kids, playing with them, changing them, picking them up, etc. That has to take a toll on a person day after day, which, I would assume, eventually affects their work ethic. Oh yeah, their teacher to child ratio is 9:1. The state mandates a 10:1 ratio, so they're under that. But imagine being 300 lbs and having to watch nine toddlers. Sounds like some special sort of hell.

There were two places we would put him, but they don't currently have any openings. I'm hoping that we find some place soon and don't have to spend two hours everyday traveling to his current daycare center because we don't have any reasonable alternatives. Also, anywhere we're looking is at least $100 more a month than his current location, and the one I really want him in is over $200 more a month than that. I don't mind that so much since our household income is increasing significantly with our new jobs and I want what's best for my boy, but still, that sucks.