Some mentioned that moms do a better job with children when they are fulfilled in other ways. And still others took the occasion to demand better quality care subsidized by the taxpayers. Well, say the critics, we cannot know that day care is the culprit here. It could be a million other things. In other words, the more time away from mom in the early years, the more problems.
Critics are correct that social science can be tricky.
It could be, as The New York Times speculated, that mothers who place their children in child care are more stressed than mothers who don't, and the stress rather than day care itself is the problem. Maybe, though with 65 percent of married mothers with children under six in the workforce, and a presumably larger percentage of unmarried ones, it seems doubtful that all are emotionally fragile. It's also possible that in this era when working women get all the glory, the ones who buck the trend are those most committed to doing right by their kids. If this is true, some of the moms who are currently placing their children in day care might wind up being worse for their children than day care providers. And if that's true, our best course is to figure out how to help more mothers do this job, rather than rail at reality.