The skill deficit our children are most likely to suffer, therefore, is a socialisation one.

We are currently ensuring that we are in a financial position to swing things either way before we try for children, but we intend to put them into small amounts of daycare from a very young age – particularly if they don’t like it – because we believe it is important to give them all the experience and head start they can get in this cruicial area of life skills.

We also believe that having small breaks in a relationship with anyone – let alone the full-time demands of a small child – helps you both to recharge and come back with enthusiasm and appreciation for the time you can spend with the other person.

To me, keeping a child home from daycare is similar to the proposition of home schooling them. Great for some kids and parents, but worryingly isolating for others – and it disturbs me that so many of the comments here don’t even seem to consider the question of whether daycare could be what’s best for the child.

You might enjoy this blog about quality time

http://www.robertreich.org/reich/issues_bio_3.asp

which rang true for me.

Michael

Some kids will thrive in a more socially active environment such as a daycare or preschool. Some kids will do better one-on-one with the parent. There is no one-size-fits-all prescription here. There are pros and cons for each side, and parents have to look at how their children learn and grow, not self-righteously impose some ideal parenting scheme on them.

I thought I was killing my now-3-year old when I first started taking her to daycare when she was 10 months. But now she’s a great, well-adjusted, intelligent kid who absolutely adores her preschool and gets along extremely well with other people. In her case, I was sure staying home with her was the only right answer — but I was wrong.