JenJam - love to meet up again and try cinema if you like. Will check what's on.
Re: Daycare. I think much depends on the child and the family.
The ratio of chilcare workers is 1:3 in nursery baby rooms. Well, the ratio is 1:2 at home for the twins anyway! and for those of you with toddlers I suspect.
With regards to the research on behavioural problems later in life, I suspect that these have a socio-economic grading and are not evenly distributed amongst children that spent time in nursery, i.e. kids from poorer homes will have worse outcomes, suggesting that behavioural outcomes have more to do with family income than how much time kids spend at nursery.
This advantage starts very young and continues all through life, and even at the point of death with better life expectancy for those from financially comfortable homes.
See reading skills - 'A five-year-old whose parents earn more than £67,500 has reading skills six months more advanced than one whose parents are jobless, a Government-funded study revealed. The gap occurs irrespective of natural ability, parents' education or how often mothers and fathers read to their child'.
k1.ioe.ac.uk/schools/ecpe/eppe/index.htm
(Observer, 6 February 2005)
And the same study that has created all the anxiety by suggests that nursery can create aggressive behaviour - Effective Provision of Pre-school Education (EPPE) project, also suggests the effect of increased anti-social behaviour appeared to DECREASE in three-year-olds who continued attending high-quality daycare settings.
The same study also found children with high levels of group care before the age of three showed BETTER cognitive attainment and highlighted the positive impact preschool learning had on children. (Children Now, 27 July 2004).
And increased social skills/popularity which continued into secondary school www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/femail/article.html?in_article_id=5143&in_page_id=1879
Other researchers have found that daycare is just as good as being at home. 'Children cared for by childminders or nursery assistants fare as well as those brought up at home by their mothers, according to researchers from Bristol University. By the age of three, they found, toddlers are as active and happy in either setting.
However, these findings contradict a series of studies which suggest children whose mothers go out to work are more likely to struggle at school. The findings were dismissed by some academics who questioned its methods.
The Bristol researchers studied the development of children up to the age of three years and two months as part of the Children of the 90s study of 14,000 youngsters'.(Daily Mail, 13 May 2003).
So, there is just as much research for as against nursery settings..........................