Cuddle Bears Child Care

For one final time... 🥹

Dear Parents and Families,

The staff of Cuddle Bears, past and present, just want to say a love filled "thank you" to every single family who has walked through our doors, entrusted us with your precious Littles, let us welcome you into our family, and let us become a part of yours. It has been our honor and our privilege to serve you!

Especially as the world stands today, it truly does take a village to raise a child, and you made us an important part of that community. The magnitude of that decision and that trust has never gone unrealized, and we hope that we served you well as part of your team and as your child's foundational stepping stone into the world of early childhood education.

Every single child who became part of our community throughout our time has left their mark on our hearts, building our experience, creating memories, bonds, and relationships that live far beyond the walls of Cuddle Bears.

It hasn't always been easy; parenting and the world of early childhood education, especially post Covid, has presented some incredible challenges for us all. We always tried to navigate them together. Early Childhood Education is and never will be 'babysitting,' as it sometimes dismissed or misdefined by the outside world. It's putting heart, mind, patience, love, knowledge, guidance, enthusiasm, creativity, empathy, and often every drop of energy that you have into supporting every need of every child that is lovingly given to your care. When you're truly dedicated, you take it home with you at night, working on strategies, problem-solving, and exciting new activities for the following day. It is a thousand jobs rolled into one.

And all of us here at Cuddle Bears did it with our whole heart.

The world of Early Childhood Education desperately needs people dedicated to the field and to the children themselves, in direct partnership with parents, who see its purpose clearly and have the passion to rise to it. It also needs to receive the recognition from those in power, from the bottom on up, to best support the work that is being done with children long before they walk through the doors of "Big School." If it is in your heart to pursue this passion for teaching young children as a career, please consider it! People like you are so needed for our littlest Littles.

While this will be our final post, this page will remain for "Classic Cuddle Bears," so that you can return and look at some of the great moments in photos that we shared together over the years. ❤

Your admin team and our incredible team of educators wish you a gratitude and love filled "until we meet again" out there in the greater community, and again, to each and every family that has been a part of ours, you will always remain a treasured part of our legacy...we love you!

Thank you, and God Bless!

**For any further interests about Cuddle Bears Child Care, Inc., please reach out to owner Dona and Bill Mahler or son, Shane Mahler, and/or contact their real estate agent for inquiries and interest in the business or the property.**

Dear Cuddle Bears Family,

While this is not the way we wanted our time together to end, we are sorry to say that for the sake of the safety of all on roads that remain pretty sketchy due to icy and cold conditions, we have made the tough decision to remain CLOSED tomorrow, January 24th. 😔 Too many of our secondary roads remain iced over or will refreeze tonight. It just isn’t worth the idea of even one person running into trouble on those roads, coming or going…we love our community too much to take that kind of risk. We hope you are able to stay home another day, safe, warm, and making memories together.

Please watch this space carefully in the days to come as we will designate a date and time for families to come by and collect your child’s personal items if you choose to, and I will close out the era of this Cuddle Bears community with a final post.

As always, we appreciate you. Thank you, families!

Dear Families,

I hope everyone has had a magical, fun, and safe time with their little ones as the snow flakes came down and stayed around for a day of snow filled adventures!

Tomorrow, Thursday January 23rd, Cuddle Bears is going to stay in step with Brunswick County Schools decision and remain CLOSED, for the safety of staff and families and to keep unnecessary traffic on our roads to a minimum for our first responders as conditions continue to be slippy and slidey throughout the county.

As of this update, we are going to hold off on making a decision about Friday, January 24th. Please watch this space tomorrow for our decision, which will be based on road conditions and the ability of enough staff members to be able to safely travel to the center to serve our families.

Please continue to enjoy making precious memories together in the snow for as long as you can, as we know these fickle flakes don’t come our way often!

Stay safe and warm, and check in here tomorrow for our update on Friday!

Attention Families:

Cuddle Bears Child Care WILL be open tomorrow, Tuesday January 21, HOWEVER due to approaching winter weather, we will be CLOSING at 3pm. All children MUST be picked up no later than that to ensure that staff and families can be safely home before winter weather moves in.

Following the decision made by Brunswick County Schools, we will be CLOSED on Wednesday, January 22nd due to the winter storm conditions. Please continue watching this space for updates pertaining to the rest of the week as we see what Mother Nature has in store for us.

Thank you!

Reminder: Cuddle Bears Child Care will be CLOSED on Monday, January 20th, in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

"If you can't fly then run, if you can't run then walk, if you can't walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.” —Martin Luther King Jr.

Attention Parents:

Due to the increasing threat of deteriorating conditions and the current sleet throughout the county, we are asking that all parents pick up their children as soon as possible this afternoon. We would like to get our staff and families home safe as soon as we can. Thank you!

“Christmas Dinner for Lunch” today with the Three-K crew! As always, our Mrs. Helen outdid herself in whipping up an incredible holiday spread for one and all! Everyone from the tall to the small enjoyed it thoroughly. ❤️

Happy Thanksgiving from some very special little Turkeys in Mrs. Hollie’s class! 🦃

All of us at Cuddle Bears, from the small to the tall, are so grateful to Mrs. Helen for cooking up an early Thanksgiving feast for us this week with all of the trimmings! Our kids dove right in and had full and happy bellies. Mrs. Helen puts her heart and soul into her cooking with every meal, but especially one as big as this one. Thank you for always feeding us so well! ❤️

Reminders for the holiday week:

Cuddle Bears is closed Wednesday, November 27th, Thursday, November 28th, and Friday November 29th for the Thanksgiving holiday! Let the family gathering and feasting begin (soon!) We are ever so grateful for our community. ❤️

Second, as our up and down temperatures continue, please make sure your child has appropriate outerwear for the lower temps that often start and end the day. We go outside early and later in the afternoon and before the sun hits its peak, a jacket or coat is often necessary for playground time! Let’s keep our Littles healthy and warm. Layers can always be removed as the day warms up. 🧥

Finally, we ask that all parents continue to be aware of and respect our illness policy. ‘Tis the season, and I personally have spent the last three Thanksgivings too sick from daycare bugs to be part of any festivities, and I’m hoping this is FINALLY my year. 🤪 New respiratory symptoms like coughs and thick congestion are reasons to stay home and check in with the doctor and rule out those big Fall respiratory heavy hitters, and if existing symptoms are truly “allergies,” then allergy medications should have symptoms well under control. If they aren’t, then a day at home or a follow up with your child’s doctor might be in order. We are reminding everyone in our community that keeping each other as well as we can be is all of our responsibility.

Thanks for reading!