Daycare can teach vital social and life skills to young children, from how to open and close doors, to clean up their spot at the table, to make new friends, to learn to pay attention and remain politely sitting during a lesson or story.
However, is it really simply paying people to parent your children?
It is true that some children spend more of their time-- at least time awake-- with their daycare providers than with a parent or other primary caregiver. In my days of instructing daycare I have seen children who were regularly dropped off at 6:30 in the morning and picked up at 6pm when we closed, only to be greeted by a terse, "Get your stuff, let's go. You've got soccer tonight." The event may vary at the end of the night, the child may have a babysitter that evening because of a meeting of the parents, but whatever the situation is, it is nevertheless unhealthy. Children need time where they feel that they can share what they did during the day and simply time to relax and unwind. Numerous studies have also linked the rise in busy-ness to the rise in childhood obesity-- with no time to cook meals between work and events children are eating fast food or what can come from a vending machine.
On the other hand, many parents place their children in daycare for before preschool for a few hours a week simply to help them with the skills that they will need for a successful preschool and kindergarten experience. Many children thrive in the social setting and enter school well above their peers socially and academically.
So in the end, who can make the choice of how much daycare could be beneficial or detrimental to a child-- the only answer is that YOU are the only one who can make that choice as a parent. You must be watchful and aware and gauge your child as an individual.
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