Effects of childcare on development of babies and toddlers.

[Azvanna]

Does anyone know of any scholarly articles on the topic? I read this today in 'Raising Boys'

Daycare is a pretty second-rate place for toddles, it's positively deficient for babies, and some children are really harmed by it in ways that are hard to see on the surface.

He did cite his claims, but I'd like to know more about the family daycare environment vs daycare centres.

[DanieMarie]

Re: Effects of childcare on development of babies and toddlers.

I don't really have any scholarly sources, but I went to daycare my whole childhood and I can't say that it was anything but a positive experience. Same goes for a lot of my friends.

[Azvanna]

Re: Effects of childcare on development of babies and toddlers.

I don't really have any scholarly sources, but I went to daycare my whole childhood and I can't say that it was anything but a positive experience. Same goes for a lot of my friends.

That's reassuring to hear! Currently, I plan to return to work gradually. 2days per week for a month, then 3 days, then return to 9d/fortnight. I think that will give my son and I time to adjust to being apart.

Danie, what age did you start daycare? Was it a centre or at a home? What was the ratio of workers to babies?

[Shahaku]

Re: Effects of childcare on development of babies and toddlers.

I don't like daycare for very young children because it seems like there's always an illness going around. When family couldn't watch her anymore I found a small babysitter who only watched about 5 kids tops at any given time and the of those are older and relatively self sufficient. It's cheaper and with fewer kids sickness doesn't get passed around like mad. And my daughter is getting a decent amount of attention.

[thalassa]

Re: Effects of childcare on development of babies and toddlers.

My overall impression from the studies that I have read over the years is that differences are slight and mostly negligable over time, so it really doesn't matter what you do--how you parent, how your family habits are at home has more of an impact on your children than whether or not they go to daycare or not, and how long they are there. Although, there are some cognative gains and social losses from day care, which seem to be best addressed by waiting to start day care or minimizing day care until the age of 2 or 3 and choosing a high quality pre-school setting.

If you look at studies, its a mixed bag and differences are negligable over time. The problem (and benefit) of studies is that they are a generalization....and lots of studies are too small or focus too much on a particular group, to make good generalizations. There are a couple of exceptions to this:

http://web.stanford.edu/~sloeb/papers/How%20Much%20Too%20Much.pdf

http://www.nichd.nih.gov/publication.../seccyd_06.pdf <--this is one of the largest and longest running studies on the subject

From my own experience as both a parent and a child.... My kids (also myself, which may explain my preference) went to (excellent) home day cares--for me, it was my next door neighbor who watched me from the time I was 10 weeks to 10 years old (at 3, I also went to preschool, and she watched me before and afterwards), for the kids, they went to a licensed home care provider at 6 weeks (the military only gives you 6 weeks medical leave) while I was in the military and to my grandparents afterwards (Sharkbait was almost 1, and Phee was 2 1/2) and both attended preschool part time starting at 3 yo. I don't see any real difference between them and their friends that have SAHM parents that can be explained by day care along...

And TBH, my own observation of SAHM kids vs day care kids (which is obviously anecdotal and not scientific, but my own experience is fairly broad--I've done student teaching in a kindergarden classroom, I've been a summer camp counselor, I've taught swimming lessons for over a decade, I have my own kids and I'm the "cool parent" that has a half dozen kids at her home on any given afternoon, I've worked in a pediatric care setting, and I worked in museum education and public health education in city schools), doesn't support the idea that day care kids are behaviorally "worse" than kids home with parents. In my own experience SAHM kids, including homeschool kids...and wierdly enough, Montressori school kids, are generally less understanding of boundaries and rules and social conventions...but I think that much of that difference has to do with what kind of SAHM experience they have (most SAHM parents I know tend to be either the permissive or authoratarian type).

Personally, what it comes down to, is how you parent, what your habits are at home, and how enriched their environment is, whether or not that environment is a day care or the home. If you have good two-way communication with your child, set and keep flexible boundaries with an understanding of their age and abilities, practice fair and consistent dicipline, encourage independence and creativity, and love the heck out of them (what it known as authoritative parenting), it doesn't matter whether they go to day care or not (unless the day care sucks...but if you are a parent that already does the other stuff, chances are you have high standards for where you send your kids).

[DanieMarie]

Re: Effects of childcare on development of babies and toddlers.

That's reassuring to hear! Currently, I plan to return to work gradually. 2days per week for a month, then 3 days, then return to 9d/fortnight. I think that will give my son and I time to adjust to being apart.

Danie, what age did you start daycare? Was it a centre or at a home? What was the ratio of workers to babies?

Well, I was a kid, so my memory isn't exactly clear. My mom is a teacher (which doesn't mean she was home every day at 3 pm!) and I'm not sure when she was on and off work in my early childhood. In Canada, where I'm from, you get 6 months paid maternity leave, so she definitely didn't work for the first 6 months of my life. I think she was a substitute teacher after that for a few months (my parents were moving around a lot at the time and you have to get hired at each school district). We moved again when I was about a year old, and I think she substituted again. I think I went to neighbours' houses when she got called in. Then my brother was born and she had another 6 months maternity leave. After that, she subbed and eventually got her own class. We went to a neighbour's house. I was around 3, but my brother was still a baby.

We moved again when I was 4 and my mom got put in the sub list in our new town. She found a part-time teaching job pretty quickly and worked part-time until I was around 8. This wasn't a choice - there just weren't any full-time jobs at the time. We went to a home daycare. I"m not sure on ratios. I was a kid. There were other kids, and I think some had babies and some didn't (we changed daycares every few years due to families moving, my brother and my fighting, which drove our babysitters crazy, etc). Oh, I also remember that we went to preschool from about 3 years old onwards. There was always just one woman running her home daycare, who would take in around 4-6 kids plus her own kids (I think).

To be honest, after living in Germany for a decade, the idea of babies younger than 1 year old going to daycare is almost foreign to me. In Germany, we have a year paid leave (which moms and dads can split, if they want...I think the new rules let you have a bit of extra time if you split it). So there's no need to go straight back to work and no one really does it. When parents split leave, usually the mom takes leave first and then the dad. We'll probably do it that way, because we don't have any family or friends in town who are home during the day (like most people here...I don't know a single stay-at-home mom in Berlin. It's a popular choice in the rest of Germany, but NOT in Berlin).

[Azvanna]

Re: Effects of childcare on development of babies and toddlers.

I don't like daycare for very young children because it seems like there's always an illness going around. When family couldn't watch her anymore I found a small babysitter who only watched about 5 kids tops at any given time and the of those are older and relatively self sufficient. It's cheaper and with fewer kids sickness doesn't get passed around like mad. And my daughter is getting a decent amount of attention.

That's great I'm really glad your daughter is getting enough attention. I have just one daycare mum suitable for my son and she seems like a really great person, but she has 4 children under 18 months to look after during school hours and then another 3 school-aged children after school to also watch. I just don't know how she is going to do it all. Especially dealing with the 4 children under 18 months for most of the day. She has an assistant who is her sister-in-law, but the assistant is not available all the time. I have my reservations.

My overall impression from the studies that I have read over the years is that differences are slight and mostly negligable over time, so it really doesn't matter what you do--how you parent, how your family habits are at home has more of an impact on your children than whether or not they go to daycare or not, and how long they are there. Although, there are some cognative gains and social losses from day care, which seem to be best addressed by waiting to start day care or minimizing day care until the age of 2 or 3 and choosing a high quality pre-school setting..

Thanks for that post. Just wondering with daycare with babies, do you think they could develop a confusion over where their 'home' is? My son will be in daycare for most of his waking hours if I choose to send him there and work my full-time job. Does the family home lose its influence/centrality (can't think of the right word here)?

...I don't know a single stay-at-home mom in Berlin. It's a popular choice in the rest of Germany, but NOT in Berlin).

Danie, thanks for doing your best to recall your experience for me! Myself, my mother was a single parent and looked after me herself until I was 2 years old when she got part-time work. I was then looked after by my Aunt's family until Kindy. My Aunt's family had and still do have a huge amount of influence over me. I love them very much

Speculate for me, Danie, why you think it's not a popular choice to stay at home in Berlin although it is everywhere else in the country?

I think in the past, Australia's LNP Howard government has offered good tax breaks to stay-at-home mums, but with the new LNP Abbot government in place, I am not sure how much and what is changing.

My husband and I both think that some care might be good for our son so that he has some structured play time and can learn from other babies a similar age to him about crawling etc. He will really have some good experiences there, I think. But I am worried that he will get left to wait too long and consistently for his basic needs like sleep and food to be met because he is competing with 3-4 other needy babies for the attention of 1-2 adults. What are some signs to watch out for that may indicate he is not coping in care?

[Rae'ya]

Re: Effects of childcare on development of babies and toddlers.

I have no scholarly or research points to add... but my niece (1 1/2) and nephew (4) have gone to a daycare centre at least once a week since they were about 6months old. They now go 2-3 times a week each, and stay at their fathers Fri-Mon for 2-3 weekends. They are both very happy, well adjusted kids. My nephew is the most loving, polite and caring little thing. Honestly, my sister has more trouble with behavioural glitches (pushing boundaries, readjusting to the rules at home, my niece trying the manipulation tack more etc) when they come home from their father's than she does stemming from an external daycare. I've picked them up from daycare and they both seem to love it and be well engaged. My nephew is always excited to go and always has stories to tell about what happened at daycare.

So it hasn't negatively impacted the development of my niece and nephew at all.

[DanieMarie]

Re: Effects of childcare on development of babies and toddlers.

Speculate for me, Danie, why you think it's not a popular choice to stay at home in Berlin although it is everywhere else in the country?

I think it is probably the same situation in other big cities, but I haven't lived anywhere else. A lot of Germany is still very conservative and traditional, so some parts have been slow to take on things like feminism. I guess I shouldn't really say "the rest of the country" either. Most women in former East Germany go back to work. This is a historic thing - East Germany was actually more progressive when it came to equality between men and women and supported working moms. The state encouraged women to work and had a whole support system in place for them (state-funded daycare, child benefits, etc). So, most East German women went back to work after they had children. Women my age who were born in former East Germany all had working moms, so the idea isn't that strange to them. Some people (both men and women) I know from former West Germany find the idea of daycare appalling, because they never experienced it and can't imagine not having a parent at home. My boyfriend is from the former East, so luckily there isn't much of a values clash between us in that regard.

As is the case in most countries, rural areas and smaller cities tend to be more traditional and bigger cities tend to be more progressive. Berlin is the most socially liberal and progressive city in the country, so much so that some people say it's like a different country here - and I'd agree with that. I sometimes think Berlin has more in common with Stockholm than rural Bavaria. This doesn't just affect women's attitudes...it also affects how they are seen in the workplace. Women are still at a disadvantage in the workplace in Germany - they face more hiring discrimination, they are paid less, and they are less likely to get promoted at work. Women legally have to have a job when they get back from maternity leave, but often they feel kind of "pushed out." A lot of women decide it's just not worth it. Things are changing, though. Couples can split parental leave now...men can even take the whole leave, which is great for single dads (single parents of either gender also get an extra two months on their leave). A lot of men aren't taking advantage of that, but the government just made some changes to try to encourage them to do so. If both men and women can take parental leave and men take on a more active role at home, then hopefully some of the discrimination that working moms face will go away. Anyway, all of this happens in Berlin as well, but women generally do face less discrimination at work and more men here take their parental leave. I think other big cities are also more "ahead" when it comes to that stuff.

Things are changing, though. Younger people all over the country are more positive to the idea of women working and policy is trying to get women to go back to work. Even most of the conservatives in government want to get mothers back to work...there are a lot of labour gaps coming up in Germany and getting women to go back to work after having kids is a cheap, easy way to close those gaps (they don't have to fund language training or skills training, etc..parental benefits are a lot cheaper than those kinds of programs).