Day Care
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- March
- 27
Last night on the news, I heard a brief report about kids in day care—something that’s important to many working moms. The report said that kids in day care tend to adjust to school well and have better vocabulary skills than kids who haven’t been in day care. The flip side is that kids in day care, also reportedly had more discipline problems than kids who had not been involved in such programs. I’m curious about your experiences. Do you have kids in day care? What have you observed about how it’s helped or hurt them?
This entry was posted
on Tuesday, March 27th, 2007 at 1:15 pm by Mary Lynn Mitcham.
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Boy, I wish that hysteria inducing story would go away.
My kids are/were in daycare, it has been a fine experience. My older children are properly behaved and do well in school.
There is no causation between daycare and those things they cite. A correlation, and, a cause are not the same thing.
Of course, a bad environment anywhere, not just daycare, can affect a child.
My daughter was in daycare for 2 years and she has been home with me for about 5 months. I will say that I have noticed that she has become significantly more clingy and shy now that she is home. Also, when we are around other kids she seems to feel more comfortable playing with mommy than with them. This could be her age, who knows. But I also think I need to start making much more of a concerned effort to get her out and interacting with kids her age because I can see that it’s not as easy to do that now that she is home full time.
On the other hand she is much more rested and (to be completely honest) she is much happier and less stressed out now that she is home. I’m a big believer in letting kids nap during the day if they are tired and that wasn’t happening at daycare. At home she sleeps from 9pm till 8am with a 2 hour nap during the day. Plus I know she’s eating better as well.
I couldn’t agree more with Elizabeth. I’m all for studies and getting as much information as possible as a mother, but stuff like this always seems to be co-opted by those interested in fanning the flames of that tired SAHM-WOHM debate. Good, positive parenting=good, happy kids regardless of whether you stay at home, work out of the home, have a nanny, have an au pair, use daycare, grandma, dad, sister or whatever!
Katie,
I totally agree with you. Parenting styles have to work with your situation and there’s no one right answer for everyone. Still, every parent—working, stay-at-home, whateverâ€â€can make a concerted to be a positive role model and actually enjoy their children. That’s when kids, in my mind anyway, really thrive. Thanks for writing!
Mary Lynn
Discipline begins and ends at home.
For us it’s almost not an option but to place our daughter in day care once our respective maternity/paternity leaves run out. Since there’s no government support for me or my wife or any government support for the companies we work for, we’re heading back to work and our daughter is going to daycare. Oh well.
My daughter is in daycare. I do think that she is more social than non-daycare kids and not as clingy to Mommy (i.e. when I pick her up, she often looks up at me as if to say, Oh, you, and then goes back to playing). I can’t speak to her vocabulary (she’s not talking yet) but I have noticed that she is more aggressive than kids who have SOH mothers. She’s had to be: a boy picked on her when she started, so she got tough. Could this mean I’ll have discipline problems later on? Who knows.
I laughed when I read that story because they obviously didn’t ask ME! My older child never went to daycare and I had more problems with him in 5th/6th grade than I can list here. He also started speaking very early and has always had an AMAZING vocabulary. My younger one has been in all day care since his third birthday and I’ve never had one bit of trouble with his behavior (and he talks all day long… so his vocabulary is also fine). Can’t they find something else to do with all the money they spend on these ridiculous studies?