pc@hplabsb.UUCP (Patricia Collins) (09/14/83)
I caste my vote for net.children!
For those who believe that childcare (by someone other than
the parents of the child) is a necessary evil:
My six month old son attends a small day care center for five
hours a day. He loves it! He plays outside under a big oak tree and
babbles at the leaves and the birds. He is lovingly cared for by a
talented, competent, knowledgeable staff who attend to his every squeak.
This center follows the Pickler method, which focuses on active
involvement with little ones and an attempt to facilitate their learning
to cope with life's frustrations. The staff verbalize with the children
("Are you sad that the toy fell out of your hand? Let's pick it up again.").
Even at six months, my son is learning how to interact with others. He
is quite aware of the other children and watches the older ones intently.
He is held a lot--not just when he cries for attention.
The center is responsive to parents' preferences, within the
structure of their philosophy of childcare (Pickler). At the end of each
day, I hear all about my son's day.
NOW: While I have read at least 30 books on child development,
I don't know anywhere nearly as much as the childcare specialists do.
They are in a position to recognize development problems or physical
abnormalities which I might only recognize much later.
If I or my spouse were home all day caring for our son, we would
probably not provide the diverse environment a center can provide. We
COULD take our son for daily hikes or buy him the unending string of safe,
stimulating toys he has at the center, but we probably would not provide
as intebs
bsstanwyck@ihuxr.UUCP (09/17/83)
Recently my wife started looking for a job, and we wondered about childcare. It turned out that we (in some ways) got the best of both worlds. My wife is now working as a child-care attendant. She is not only permitted, but even encouraged to take our 11-month old son with her. He has benefitted greatly from the arrangement. In the first week (he was 9-months old) he began to pick up verbal skills at an amazing rate. He learned "bye-bye" in just two days of watching kids get dropped off and picked up. (Moms say goodbye when they leave the kid, then kids say bye-bye to each other when one leaves.) He has also learned to share, to play with other kids, and to express himself to other adults. He has also had to learn that mommy still loves him even if she picks up another child. The result of this is that if a situation arises such that my wife either cases to work or decides to seek (and finds) other work, we will probably continue to put him in day-care for a least a few hours a day 2 to 3 times a week. The social skills he learns there we could not teach him as well at home.