When you’re a parent it’s a difficult decision to know whether to send your child to daycare or not. We have provided many of the pros and cons of sending your child to daycare for your consideration.
In our opinion, nothing replaces the day-to-day interaction that you can provide with your child. We also believe that some interaction with other children either through occasional daycare, part-time, or through play-groups and other educational learning programs are invaluable. We also recognize that Mom or Dad also needs to have a break and occasional daycare can provide that for them. What we don’t believe in is a baby or toddler being in someone else’s care for eight hours or more a day everyday! That’s not fair to your child. So with all that in mind, please consider the pros and cons listed below. And may you make the right decision for your children and yourself.
UPSIDE of Daycare:
DOWNSIDES of Daycare:
When you work, at the end of your day, you just won’t have the energy, patience or the time to spend with your child in the manner you should or would like to. Your job becomes the first priority and the child the second. They get what’s left over if there is anything left to get. How do you like it when you are second fiddle to someone you care about and love? Parents say, “Oh, they don’t mind. He likes the babysitter a lot. He’d rather I went to work.” That may be true, but chances are he’s never experienced having you at home full-time to know what that is like. There can’t be a comparison! Children so love unconditionally, they will put up with even the worst of circumstances and still love their parents. Because children only want to be loved, cared for and valued themselves.
Ask yourself this question: “If you chose to continue working when you have a choice not to, why did you have the children if you didn’t want to raise them yourself? I know some people truly don’t have a choice. But many choose to continue working even though they could make do on one salary or move to an area where they could manage financially. Our society has become so accustomed to having two incomes; we no longer think we have a choice not to work. Imagine this, in one year; if you spent five dollars less per day you will save $1825. That’s one less cup of special coffee per day. If you spend ten dollars less per day, you will save $3650 per year. How much do you spend per day on lunches in your family? A large delivered pizza can easily run close to $20. One fast food meal for a family of four could easily be close to $25 or more. Where could you save money? The question is, are you willing to for the sake of your kids?
Add up all the possible costs of day care and compare to the costs and benefits of working. The most important cost of all to consider is that special time spent with your children. What is the cost to them? In a recent interview of Jane Fonda with 60 Minutes’, Lesley Stahl, Fonda said, “I was not a good mother. And then, you end up paying for it later." According to 60 Minutes, Jane created a school program to persuade teenage girls not to get pregnant, and to teach girls who are pregnant how to be better mothers. She created this program because of the mistakes she’s made in her own life, and because of the mistakes her parents made raising her. "If you don’t have a parent or an adult, a teacher or a mentor … really see you, really love you, 'Yes, there are things you do I don’t like, but you’re fantastic, you’re good enough. I love you.' If that never happens to a child, the child assumes it’s her fault and tries to compensate for it," says Fonda.
Don’t make the mistakes you have experienced or you have seen others experience just because you don’t look far enough ahead. Look at the bigger picture, look ahead ten years or so and imagine what life will be like with your children later on. I say this, “If you don’t have time for your children when they’re young, they won’t have time for you when you’re old.”
Copyright 2005 Eln Albert
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