Is Full Time Daycare Too MUch?

A stressful situation proves the importance of social skills in preschoolers.

My article, Too Much Daycare?, focused primarily on the contrast between the negative and positive effects that can happen between too much daycare attendance and the social benefits of some childcare attendance, however, another aspect of this was proven true to me recently in less than happy circumstances.

As in all daycare centers, we are required to conduct regular fire drills, but we have not conducted any since several new children began attending our center. Several days ago an electric organ in the church end of the building was being used and some wiring malfunctioned. The person who was playing it smelled something funny and unplugged it, however the instument continued to smolder and when the school secretary smelled it and called the fire department.

We were quickly warned on the walkie-talkie before the fire alarm rang and we had all of our children line up and head outside. Thankfully, the firefighters arrived quickly, and they didn't need to take any further action other than opening the back of the organ and spraying air freshener.

The interesting aspect was in how the various children handled the situation-- the children who had attended at our center for a long time, verses those who were new.

The children who had practiced fire drills at various times were curious, concerned, and excited to see the fire trucks, but not overly stressed. However-- to the child-- the children who had never attended a fire drill with us were nervous, kept asking what was going on, and cried at the sight of the firefighters.

This was something that proved to me the importance of daycare attendance for developing security in the face of what would otherwise a distressing siutation. I was thankfull for those of our children who were more comfortable, because the new children were able to see that they were not afraid and then felt better.