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I worked in daycares, and let me tell you... I wouldn't want my kids left there all day. Why not search for private childcare??? You can find private care in your area if you search on the internet and in the local classified papers in your town!
Kids have to learn to deal with other kids and to learn that the world doesn't revolve around their own precious self. So why not daycare, especially for an only child?
Have you ever worked in a daycare? There are kids that spit, bite, hit, and worse. They have filthy mouths, runny noses. Not all the kids are like that though. I really feel sorry for the kids that have to deal with these other kids that simply don't listen and are just plain nasty. They learn this from their parents. I have witnessed this first hand. I was telling the kids a story when a parent came in and didn't even say excuse me, I am picking up so and so. She said "come on, Nat, you heard enough of this". I couldn't believe my ears. Her child was one of the ones that would hit the teachers, kick, curse and more. Alot of daycares/pre-schools are like dog kennels, truthfully. I am not saying all are like this but alot are.
Definitely not all daycares are like that, and like ki0eh said, they do have to learn to deal with and accept other kids, and it is great for social interaction. Different strokes for different folks
Still, some of the places if have seen are like kennels. Alot of the kids are there all day long from 6am to 6pm. I still believe being in a home environment with a few children is the way to go. Less stress for the kids too.
I used to work in a daycare center as well. I would never want my kids there. You don't teach your impressionable children how to behave by leaving them in a room of up to 20 other kids (depending on the age group - preschooler ratio is 10 kids to 1 adult) who are probably supervised by one, maybe two adults. Many of the kids in the room were good kids. However, there were more than a few who were spoiled rotten and just plain mean.
I caught two five year old boys, on multiple occasions, humping each other and by the way they behaved when caught they knew what they were doing was wrong. Another boy was licking the private parts of the Barbies. Telling the director about this resulted in "Don't worry about it, they are just curious" etc. One little girl constantly hit the other children and used vulgar profane language. Many kids did come to the center sick because the parents could not miss work.
I have a decidedly different opinion on proper socialization of young children. I homeschooled my kids until my oldest was in 4th grade, the middle one was in 1st, and the youngest started Kindergarten. I wish I had kept the kindergartener home until she was in 3rd or 4th grade. All three of my kids are great. The 4th grader fit in well at school after the first couple of weeks of transition. My children are polite (except to one another, LOL) and friendly with other kids. They interact well with children, teens, AND adults.
My husband and I survived on a shoestring on his income (not a high income either....around 24,000 or less on avg. per year for a family of 5.) We purchased a home we could afford ($48,000). Ugly house but we could afford the mortgage payment and have slowly made it nicer. We did without cable TV and had cheap dial up internet. We bought food at Aldi and clothes at Salvation Army and used toys and books at yard sales so that I could stay home with the kids while they were young. We rarely went out except maybe once a month to go to Pizza Hut or something as a special treat. In the first ten years, I think we took 3 vacations; one was a long weekend camping at Niagara Falls, another was a week in St. Louis, staying with my husband's family, and another week camping at Niagara Falls w/ the hubby's family. (We like Niagara Falls! LOL)
Once I started working again after putting the kids in school we added Cable TV for about three years...LOL...we just shut it off last month cause we saw it as a huge waste of money. We have high speed internet though; that's a necessity with my current career.
It's possible to survive on one income if you're willing to make sacrifices. So many of our expenses are not necessities AT ALL. When the children are young is when they need their parents the most - to teach them, to mold them into responsible and respectful human beings, to love them, to nurture them. It's hard on little kids. Every day several kids at the daycare center would cling to their moms and cry, cry, cry...they didn't want to stay, they wanted to be home with their mom. One kid knew when his mom was off work for the day and brought them (he and his baby sister) to daycare anyway; those were AWFUL days as the kid did everything possible to get into trouble, hoping we'd call Mom to come get him....
What I witnessed working at daycare helped me decide my kids would never have to go to such a place. It was a nice daycare center, too - it was well run, but still...it was nothing, nothing, NOTHING like being home with mommy or daddy.
In the daycare where I worked, the infants and toddlers room was very, very, VERY different from the preschool room - like a different planet!
Babies were 1 adult to 4 kids. Toddlers were 1 adult to 6 kids. I loved working in the toddler room and the baby room, but I was only in there as a sub or a fill in during lunches....my main room was the preschool room, and that could be all sunshine and roses OR it could be a war zone, depending on the mix of kids at the time!
I worked in daycares, and let me tell you... I wouldn't want my kids left there all day. Why not search for private childcare??? You can find private care in your area if you search on the internet and in the local classified papers in your town!
searching for it isn't the problem. Paying for it is. How many people do you think can afford to pay for a private nanny? Plus, I think socializing kids is good. leaving them at preschool isn't so traumatic when they are used to it. There are things I don't like about day care but I like that it is like sending them to school instead of hiring a surrogate "mom" to hang out at home with them all day.
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