| Re: Should I send a two year old to daycare?
My daughter went to nursery for 5 days a week from the age of two. I agree that this may seem too much too early for some parents but both myself and my wife had to work both to pay the bills and to find a role in life beyond the cot and the playroom. I had spent a year at home as a Haussmann and whilst I loved the close relationship I had with my daughter (and she is the most important person in my life both then and now) I just could not go on living what was a very isolated life as a parent at home. My wife had spent our daughters first year at home with her and had felt just the same. There were few groups I could belong to as a male primary carer and whilst I did find some female friends it was clear that I was not as close to them as they were with each other. I would shop each day just to get a conversation with the shop assistants who would flock around me as a single man with a baby.
There were some days when my daughter did not want me to leave her there and that was difficult. But these were few and far between and I was reassured by the nursery that a few minutes after I left my daughter was happily playing with the other children. I and my wife had researched the local nurseries and we felt we had found the one that was right for us and our child. She continued there for the next 3 years and then progressed with several of the nursery children to a local primary school. For the rest of her Primary school years she went to school and afterschool club and holiday club in the school holidays.
She is now old enough to go to school and come home by herself and I work flexible hours (as I always have) to ensure that I can be at home when she is ill or adjust my hours to fit around her life.
As an only child she has excellent social skills, is confident with adults and children, and is top of her class at school and popular with all the children and adults that she knows. She has a close and loving relationship with her parents but also has a separate and independent life of her own and thrives with that as a part of her life.
Provided that the child care is of a high standard I can only recommend giving a child the benefits and advantages that going to regular daily care provides. It has been of huge value to my daughter and I am sure it would also be of such value to most other children.  |