I LOVE DAYCARE

[kirito34]

I can’t believe society tried to scare me about daycare. I loooooove daycare. My daughter is only 1 but it feels like she’s already in preschool, they teach them so much! She loves it! She’s a smart, social, silly little gal and so happy. Her teachers are so nice and caring. Anyway, just wanted to get that out there when there’s so many horror stories out there and so many people acting like you’re a bad parent if you put your babies in daycare. Daycare is amazing.

I think this is the typical experience and it was how I felt too. But I guess we got lucky. Some people can be very unlucky with poor providers. The horror stories are real. There have been some horrific high profile criminal cases in the last few years. People are understandably very anxious about choosing a nursery.

I don’t know where you live but in the UK it would be highly unusual for anyone to judge people for putting one year olds into nursery. The government fund free childcare and it is very difficult for a family to live on one income.

Daycare is great. But lots of parents feel sad and uneasy dumping their very small child there for 50 hours a week and literally only seeing them to wake them up and put them to bed.

If I only had to put him there from 8-12, I'd be happy. 8am -6pm fills me with dread.

Our children had wonderful childminders who brought a wealth of experience and wisdom to their lives - and love, too. I think people forget when harking back to the days when more women were SAHMs, that this also entailed young children spending lots of time with the ‘village’ that helped raise them: relatives, neighbours, housewives doing child swaps etc. It wasn’t the norm for them to be with mum 24/7. If a daycare provider gives consistent, loving care from known and familiar key people, it can be wonderful.

I think this nails it. I’ve recently returned to work after mat leave and put my 1 year old in nursery. I was really anxious after all the high profile cases this year and worried sick she would hate it. But I’ve been very pleasantly surprised and she’s come on leaps and bounds, the staff are great and I’m really impressed overall. But I’m also aware I’m lucky and have only had to put her in for x2 6 hour days. If it was 5x a week, 9 hrs a day I’m sure I would feel different.