In today’s modern world, daycare is a reality for most children. There are fewer than one in every three children that have a full time stay at home parent. The way our world works these days, both men and women are in the workplace and often need to be in order to keep up with their lives. Mortgages cost more, car payments are higher, and the cost of living has risen to the point when both father and mother are heading out the door in the morning, trying to get to work on time. When baby comes along, daycare becomes a very real necessity.
The family budget needs to expand to include another line item when a baby comes onboard. Typically, families will spend 7.8% of their monthly budgeted income on some form of daycare whether it be full time or part time. With roughly 32.7 million children in some form of childcare, you can see right away that daycare has become a very significant business in America.
When children get to be school aged, they will often graduate from the arrangements they have been in and will attend an after school program at their school, if one is available. Many inner-city schools especially are offering more and more opportunities for child care management solutions. Children are as engaged after school as the are during the regular school day.
The quality of your child’s daycare is not always the same across the board, as you might imagine. Doing your research and finding the best situation for your child will go a long way toward making you feel secure in your decision to enroll. In a 2010 study, it was determined that 40% of the children in daycare were given high-quality care. It was also determined that children who spend their early years in some form of child care were more willing to take risks and were more impulsive than those who did not by the age of 15 years.
Daycare can take many forms. It can be spending part of the day with a grandparent or it can be attending a full day at a child care facility. There is nothing wrong with either of these choices or any of the ones that could come in between. The real issue is whether or not your child would benefit from having a daycare experience or not.
Try one out for a short period of time. Sometimes it takes a child a few days or even a couple of weeks to adjust and understand the new schedule. Have some patience if your child doesn’t take to it immediately. If they simply won’t acclimate to the first type of daycare you try, try another one that has a different approach. Maybe having more children in your child’s company is the answer. Maybe fewer children are the way to go. Keep an eye open and an ear out. At the end of the day, your child will be better off for it.
