From: rollo@xylogics.com (Dena Rollo)
Newsgroups: misc.kids
Subject: Re: Daycare -- when to investigate
Date: 12 Oct 1992 10:12:40 -0500
Organization: UTexas Mail-to-News Gateway
NNTP-Posting-Host: cs.utexas.edu


Karen Guthrie wrote:

... Remember that if you
pick center based care you will need a backup plan for when the baby is 
sick (which will be much more often because of the exposure to other 
children especially when they start to crawl at about 6 mo.) because the
center will call and say X is sick come and get him/her.  If I had it to do
all over again I would look for a neighbor I knew and trusted who had kids
in school and liked babies and would take care of mine alone.  Babies are
a lot more work than you might think and the centers usually allow four 
babies to one adult which means that they get fed and changed usually at
some time near when they need it but other than that the women have no time.
I didn't want that for my daughter.


*************************

I wanted to respond to this, because I very
deliberately chose center-based care for Isabel
(8 mos. old - been in daycare since 3 mos.) and
have, for the most part, been very happy with it.

I respect any one who makes the difficult decision
re: which type of daycare to use; as I see it, they
each have pros and cons.

We chose center-based care because I felt it was
physically safer than someone's home, that I knew
the teachers were trained/educated, because I wanted
Isabel to be with other kids her own age, because
taking care of the kids is *all* the teachers do
all day, because the center would still be open even
if one of the teachers got sick, etc. etc.

And it's true that the ratio of babies to teacher is 2/7, but
Isabel gets changed every 2 hours (more if needed!) fed
according to my directions (on demand when she was younger,
more scheduled now) and played with *alot*. She also interacts
with the other babies and, though I know they say kids this
age are not capable of playing together, she and her "friend"
Caitlin, who's 2 weeks younger, spend lots of time checking
each other and each other's toys out, crawling over eachother,
etc. 

She's never had a problem with stranger anxiety, and I attribute
this to the number of people she sees at school. She's had
2 ear infections so far, and her pediatrician says this is
excellent, especially for a kid in center-based care. Her
daycare center is careful about hand and toy washing - and I
do expect her to get sick more often, but so far it's been
manageable.

Also, she gets focused on *a lot* at home, and I think it's
good for her to be somewhere where, though they like/love her,
she is not the sole apple of everyone's eye. Isabel plays be
herself (with a toy or book) for relatively long periods, and
I attribute this to her having to fend for herself occassionally.

(This sounds like she's neglected there, which she most decidedly
is *not* - just not always pounced on the second she makes a face)

The one drawback that I see is turnover- daycare centers tend
to have lots. We've been lucky so far - only one (of four)
teachers has left, but that was pretty traumatic. Isabel will
be moving "up" to the crawler room soon, and will have 2 new
teachers there, but they transition them gradually , so it
should go ok.

Anyway, sorry this got so long - my point is just that
for some people and some kids, center-based care may make
the most sense - for others, not.

Choosing a daycare situation is tough. But it can be a 
positive experience. I'm someone who cried for the first
few weeks after dropping her off - and who now would put
her in daycare at least part-time (she's now there 3 days
a week) whether I "had" to or not, as I think she's
really thriving there, and that some separation is good
for both of us.

So let's not assume that because someone made a daycare
choice different from yours, it's not as good.

-Dena