Vote totals:
Yes:
50%
No:
50%
Neutral:
0%
DEBATE: SHOULD PARENTS EMPLOY NANNIES / SEND THEIR CHILDREN TO FULL TIME DAY CARE?
SHOULD PARENTS EMPLOY NANNIES / SEND THEIR CHILDREN TO FULL TIME DAY CARE?
It takes a village to raise a child
A child gets great benefit from being around different adults and other children. Day care and nannies provide important opportunities for socialisation, without which children can become isolated and think that the world revolves around them.
SHOULD PARENTS EMPLOY NANNIES / SEND THEIR CHILDREN TO FULL TIME DAY CARE?
Parents often need nannies and day care
In many cases it is essential for a child to be looked after by someone other than the parent. Many families need two incomes, mothers with large families need help and sometimes parents just want a break.
We should work on the basis that what’s right for the parents will, in most cases, be right for the child. So if the mother wants to work a few hours a week to keep her skills up to scratch or simply to be around other adults, then she will most likely go back to caring for her child with renewed enthusiasm.
The other side of this is that it’s good for a child to socialise with his or her own age group. Socialisation naturally starts within the family unit, but then it needs to grow which would make the child stronger in the sense of learning new things.
When I was a child minder, I could see the difference when taking the child either to school or nursery, they were eager to go to see their friends. You would sometimes get a child that wasn’t keen on socialising because they hadn’t been in the company of other children enough and still wanted the parent constantly.
Yes, parents do need a break; they need to be refreshed in them selves so they can give their full attention to the child. Children also need a break so that they can give something different back to the parent when they’ve been picked up from school or nursery, they can show their achievements, and then the parent can appreciate the child’s growing knowledge.
Having children requires making sacrifices. That may mean having less money coming in, or sacrificing a career, or even putting up with baby talk for a few years.
We’re talking about the development of a human being at the most vulnerable and influential point of their lives. Get it wrong now and the child will have problems for years, if not decades, to come.
Parents should understand and be willing to make the necessary sacrifices for their child’s care must come first.
SHOULD PARENTS EMPLOY NANNIES / SEND THEIR CHILDREN TO FULL TIME DAY CARE?
Psychological research shows how being put in day care ruins the child’s bond with their parents.
Children need a reliable figure to provide them with the love, attention and stability which is clearly essential to their development. Ideally this should come from parents. It is probably true that a nanny would be the second best option if she or he is a regular figure in the child’s life.
But it must also be the case that good day care can provide love, attention and stability. Clearly there are good and bad day care centres but in there is no absolute reason why day care should ‘ruin’ a child’s bond with its parents.
Bowlby’s research is also viewed suspiciously in modern times as possibly biased. After World War 2 many men returned from war and wanted to take up their old jobs again. Due to their war effort many women had realised they wanted a life outside the home and so were reluctant to give up their jobs for the returning men creating a problem for the government. Lo and behold Bowlby’s research, funded by the government, appears seeming to prove that without a mother’s constant attention a child will become psychologically damaged, thus creating a ‘reason’ women should return to the home
In Bowlby’s maternal deprivation hypothesis Bowlby believed that ‘an infant and young child should experience a warm, intimate and continuous relationship with his mother.’ (Bowlby, 1953, p13). He also believed that a child who is denied such care because of frequent and / or prolonged separations will become emotionally disturbed if this happens before the age of about 2 1/2 years, and if there is no substitute mother – person available. (Bowlby, 1953, p33).
SHOULD PARENTS EMPLOY NANNIES / SEND THEIR CHILDREN TO FULL TIME DAY CARE?
Children love and depend more on their nannies than they do their parents.
Nannies can provide an enormous amount of love for children in their care. But I don’t think it’s possible to say they love them more than their parents – certainly not in all instances.
Any child will learn to love and depend upon the person caring for them. But children also have an innate connection with, and understanding of the need for a connection with, their parents. Also, a child’s love is not in short supply, therefore it can love its nanny and its parents and still have love left over.
The nanny is the person who spends more time with the child and therefore builds a better bond with the child.
SHOULD PARENTS EMPLOY NANNIES / SEND THEIR CHILDREN TO FULL TIME DAY CARE?
A nanny, or a person working at a day-care, will care less about the child’s well-being than the child’s parent.
I don’t think it’s possible to say one will always care more than the other. Sometimes parents will love their children more, but it’s equally true – if a little sad – to say that sometimes nannies or day care workers will love the child more than the parents.
A nanny, or a person working at a day-care, will care less about the child’s well-being than the child’s parent.
There are many children at a day care, and so the child will not receive the right amount of attention they need.
Speaking from experience, the mother and the carer work together.
All children are treated the same the carer is looked on as a friend, not a parent. When the parent picks up the child, the carer informs the parent of any problems that may have occurred during the day. If there has been a problem at home then the parent informs the carer what to be prepared for. It’s team work.
