For some parents there is simply no other choice. They either place their child in daycare or live on the streets. Still, opponents of outsourced childcare insist that the amount of money parents spend paying for someone else to raise their children basically negates the income they are generating from working outside their home.
My take is that it is an extremely personal decision; one that takes a huge amount of sacrifice regardless of whether you give up your chosen career and stay home with your child or you remain at your job and pay strangers to watch your kid. There’s plenty of guilt to go around. Unless of course you are incredibly rich and you can stay home with your kids without feeling the pinch financially or emotionally.
Be that as it may, daycare critics have long made the argument that sticking a kid in a supervised facility with other children will make them sick, dumb and mean. And now they have a new study to back up their claims.
A recently released report by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development found that children who spend their early years in center-based daycare facilities tend to be more stressed out as teenagers.
I know what you are thinking: all teens are stressed out. Not so, according to researchers.
The study, which included 1,000 children, ages one-month to 15 years, tested the awakening cortisol levels of the kids, which, when normal, are high in the morning and lower as the day goes on. The kids who were sent to daycare and/or had negligent stay-at-home moms displayed lower levels of cortisol and were therefore deemed “stressed.”
Basically, the study concluded that if kids were enrolled in center-based childcare,or they had insensitive stay-at-home mothers, they suffered more stress than kids whose moms addressed their needs and spent quality time with them.
DUH!
I wonder how much this study cost, because I don’t think researchers got their money’s worth.
Isn’t it common knowledge that if a child has a loving, nurturing caretaker, who provides him with direction, attention and proper discipline he will eventually (hopefully) blossom into a mature adult… or at least a rationally thinking teen?
By the way, according to the study, it didn’t matter how much parents paid to farm out their children to center-based daycares, the results were the same. Meaning you could spend hundreds of thousands of dollars for your child to attend a high-quality, multi-certified, foreign-named, super duper clean daycare facility loaded with educational toys and well-dressed workers, and your kid will still suffer as a teen.
What do you make of the new study?
Related Articles:
Poor Economy = Fewer Kids in Daycare: Who’s Watching Your Children?
Stay-at-Home-Mom Says Record Game Show Win “Lessens Guilt”
Unemployed Parents Get Creative to Feed Kids