Childcare Center Loses Son, Says Mom Doesn’t Have To Pay That Day

If a childcare center loses your son, what’s the first thing you want? If you answered “a discount” then you might want to consider enrolling your child with the Helping Hands Network.

An Australian mother is furious after staff of the Helping Hands childcare center lost her 5-year-old son and only offered her a $7 discount in a futile attempt to apologize.

The mother asked to remain anonymous when speaking to The Gold Coast Bulletin, and admitted that her son was missing for at least one hour after he wandered away from the after-school care group between activities.

It’s not like her son just wandered into the next park, either. The mom says that her boy managed to cross nine roads in his journey, two of which were ramps to the Gold Coast’s busy Pacific Motorway, and was ultimately found about two kilometers away from the school.

He was picked up by another mother.

The police then called the young boy’s mother, who said that Helping Hands staff didn’t even know that her son was missing in the first place.

Police brought her son back to her, and she decided to confront Helping Hands herself. The regional manager of the childcare center called her to apologize, and said that she wouldn’t be billed the $7 for childcare for the afternoon her son went missing.

What a relief, right?

It was probably just the worst case of foot-in-mouth on the manager’s part, but the operations manager did say that a few employees were punished and an internal review was to take place.

”The regulatory authority has also conducted its own investigation and Helping Hands is working with them on finalizing this,” she said. ”We understand the very real concern of the parents involved and are working hard to ensure this incident is not repeated.”

[Image via: Sanit Fuangnakhon, Shutterstock]