Re: Dealing w/ DayCare
Certainly there are many day-care facilities that arent up to par and accidents and tragedies can happen there...as they can at home. Yet, even the article linked above cites these...(the lesser quality facilites) as having negative impact on children. But high quality facilities have positive impact on children in many many ways as implied in the article.
High quality care is so very important - both at home and away from home. Giving a child quality care at home and away will almost guarantee a model child no matter what age the "away" starts from.
Some of us have the desire/need to be with our littles. Some cannot or prefer to expose their children to outside experiences from young ages...nothing wrong with either approach as long as the focus is on quality yeah?
I'm considered to be kind of an oddball in my community. We live in a really prosperous area with super-high quality public schools. Most kids here have live-in nannies from birth. They start all kinds of activities and pre-schools from age 18 months. Many kids (we're talking 5 years old!) do not arrive home until 5pm or even later because of the piano lessons, horseback riding, lacrosse, soccer, tennis, golf etc etc. I've met only two mothers sofar who stay home with their littles and make family the focus. I stuck to my way, they stick to theirs and I try not to judge as I hope they dont judge me. Everyone has their own ideas, values and things of importance. But something I have to say is that our town does produce lots of successful people, these who have had very little "mommy-time". It all boils down to the quality of care I think, whether its home or away.