@TJk86
"It’s nothing to do with what you remember. There is a great body of research showing that it’s best for a parent, ideally the mother, to stay home with a child until around age 3. Author Erica Komisar has written some great pieces on this. In summary:
• The first three years are critical for emotional development. Babies rely heavily on one primary caregiver for consistent comfort and regulation of stress.
• Secure attachment forms through constant, predictable presence.
• A parent’s presence helps regulate cortisol (stress hormone). Young children aren’t neurologically equipped to handle long periods away from their primary caregiver.
• This early emotional foundation affects long-term mental health. Early caregiver consistency is linked to resilience, empathy, and reduced anxiety later in life.
Continues, nurturing care from a primary caregiver in the earliest years best supports healthy emotional and neurological development.
Apart from that, I would not leave a young non-verbal baby/child in someone else’s care (apart from trusted family members). There are too many cases of abuse in childcare nowadays."
You may be interested in Elena Bridgers work. She discusses childrearing in hunter gatherer societies (the way the humans have lived for the vast majority of their existence). Actually babies in these societies are looked after by many different care givers at a time and often only spending around 20% of the time with their mothers.
Babies staying at home with only one care giver is actual very "unnatural" compared to the way that humans have lived for most of our existence.
She critiques the anti daycare/nursery research as it often doesn't take into account good quality vs bad quality staff, amount of time spent at nursery and the relationship with the parents at home.
My daughter has a great relationship with her nursery workers and they are the same people on duty everyday. Whereas if they were poor quality staff of course it would be detrimental.