Clearly if a mother is so unhappy to be at home full time with her child and her sanity is at stake....well even a nursery staffed with more than a handful of disinterested care workers would arguably be better for that family, in my opinion.
There are many situations where it is just not possible for one parent to stay at home to care for the child. But there is a sliding scale of desirable options after what I consider to be the best option for a developing child, one to one care with an invested carer. Of course my opinion has been influenced by such research, as well as my instinct and observations of nurseries in the past. Here is what I have read in three different sets of research......
it suggests that children under 3 who are put in a nursery setting are seen to display more aggresive behaviour to their peers, be assessed as less socially capable by their teachers years later when they start school, and various other less desirable traits, in terms of their ability to relate to others.
I was very surpised to learn this when you hear people waxing on about the merits of the social side of nursery.
However this was concluded to be caused by the lower level of attention kids in nurseries get from a single carer.
Now I am convinced enough by that research/my experiences to make the choices that I think are best for my child, and I happen to like/not find it boring/etc being around him full time so I guess that makes it easier to make the sacrifices that go with the sahm lifestyle.I have many friends who have had to go back to work, some willingly and others unwillingly and people both do what they must do and what they actually want to do. But I do think there is a lot of pretending that 'all things are equal' because some people do feel conflicted.......so the 'truth' or 'facts' as you like to call them is ignored.
Of course research does not represent TRUTH, but research is how we learn about much in the world.
The fact is this is the first time in history that the family has been so thoroughly fragmented somehow by the busy lifestyles that we live. We have no idea what the repercussions of this will be a generation from now but I saw a lot of issues with the young people I worked with and in all honesty I think that children deserve the best start we can give them. We all must work out what constitutes that best start and do what we can to provide it.
We have different views on it. Maybe you have read different research and as another poster pointed out you were lucky enough not to have to put your child in wrap around care.
Violet I find your tone nearer to the 'nastiness' you critique in your fellow posters on here, simply because people are not agreeing with you.