How do you feel about putting your child in daycare?

I think that creep who wrote that should be reported. He had no right to judge you. Day cares serve a need in the community. They also promote education and social skills for young children and day care workers are university trained. I know many children who learned more from a day care than they ever would from their parents. I think the choice is best made by the parent considering what works for her, home care, or day care.

Dont blame yourself at all for having your son in daycare. You are doing it so you can support your family and provide better for them. Accidents happen, whether they are at home or not. Dont let other people get to you and ruin how you feel beause of their snide comments. You dont need to explain to anyone why you work or not, thats your business and they dont need to know it. All they need to know is your a hard working mom that is supporting her household too. Personally, myself I wouldnt put my kids in daycare at all because I always wanted to stay home with them at least until preschool age. The reason that I fel this way is, my mother was always home with us and I really liked that...knowing she was always there. I also dont trust anyone else with my kids besdies their dad and grandparents. There arent too many good daycares here that dont cost over $200 a week...and for that..you might as well stay home because your working to pay for daycare.

of course it is better if we can stay at home with our child and educate and take care of him/her by ourselves... the quality of education will be different when the parents teach their child by themselves compare to daycare... i know it is very difficult and i and my hubby both have to work hard too to make ends meet... but we will try our best and find a solution to live on one income when we have a child in the future as my hubby also doesn't like to put his child in daycare... that's what i thought...

I know that you feel bad and that you want to be at home with your child. However if you have to work to keep things going that is totally acceptable. You have to have health insurance now a days and you have to feed your child. Do not let the quilt overwhelm you and just remember that the person who responded and said it was your fault is not in your shoes.

well at first i am nervous...my son is also nervous..we are both nervous.. but as i see my son likes going to day care, the nervous in me begins to disappear..and my son really enjoys going to school..i hope that stays until he finishes school

I don't want to make you feel worse, that isn't my intention. I do think it is best that if a parent is able they stay at home with their child or children. For obvious reasons this is not always possible. Having two children of my own who are now teenagers I can talk from both sides. When I did decide to stay home and look after them it certainly cut alot of "luxury and material" items out of our budget, such as an extra car, this would mean less gas, no registration, no repairs, no warrant etc that we didnt need to fork out for all the time. We also found very cheap or free things things to do such as going to lake park buying day old bread for $1. fed ducks or birds, went on public transport and made that a day out you could buy all day passes for families for around $5-$10. Please, Please do not feel guilty or bad for leaving your son at daycare, it HAS to be done sometimes, and as I said earlier I have had to as well, just one of those things that can't be helped. I helped a friend out for a year and half with her todler while she went through a rough patch.

I was very fortunate to be able to stay home with my children fir the most part until the youngest started first grade. Then my ex husband was supposed to be home with them. So I never had to deal with daycare. I do know that all the things that happen to your son could have happened even if you had him home with you. You could have been doing dishes or something else. You can’t keep an eye on them all the time. My cousin’s 3 year old jumped off a 12 inch foot stool and landed just right and broke his fore arm. Not to trvalize what happened to your son these are the normal part of growing up. Oh yes the person that made the comments Doesn't know any thing about children yet. He or she is only 18.

no it wasnt your fault . Now adays alot of moms HAVE to work to make a go of things like Ins. Need to eat too. BUt sometimes there is just no way of getting around day care. I didnt read that one where son had a bad day but that goes in normal schools to and maybe more frequint. JUst make sure you have picked a good one as it perpares him for kindergarten and there he might have alot of bad days and you know it wont be your fault for school in mandatory!

I am very thankful that I don't have to work so I can stay home with my kids, but I understand that some people can't afford to let one spouse stay home and raise the kids. I don't think it makes you a bad parent for putting your son in daycare at all!! Some mom's aren't cut out to stay home all day with their kids, others are. We are all different and in different economicas situations. I think it is better for you to work and have your son in daycare rather than not being able to feed your family or be living off the system. I applaude you for helping take care of your family!! I know it would be very hard to leave your kids at day care but you are doing what you have to do. Don't let some meanie hurt your feelings!! My son has been bitten and hit by other kids while at playdates and stuff so it isn't like it can't happen anywhere else!!

First of all, all kids get hurt many times in their lives. Nick will get hurt at home sometimes too. It is not your fault that he got hurt in daycare. It probably isn't the day care providers fault either. Kids are accident prone. When other kids are around, they tend to push, fight over toys and even bite sometimes. You have no choice than to work to maintain your lifestyle and keep your insurance. I am lucky that my husband has insurance. My son was in daycare and came home saying the F bomb. At that point, I chose to quit my job, but still needed to earn $$. I figured if people who are swearing around my child can run a day care, so can I. I am a certified early childhood educator. I opened my own in home daycare. From that point on, I would never again send my kids to daycare, but I had figured out a way to be able to stay home and make the same amount of $$. If my husband didn't have the benefits, it would be different here also. I can tell you from the eyes of a day care provider, kids do get hurt. It only takes a split second and we can be right there when it happens but don't have the time to react. You are obviously a very caring mother and you have no need to feel guilty.

I think that it's your choice, and only you can know if it is best for you or not. I would personally do anything I could to avoid having to put my kids in day care. I think that the time children spend with their parents is so important, and it would be hard for me to find someone I trusted enough to leave my children with. Plus, most daycares (not all) have way too many children with not enough staff. It would make me way too nervous!

This is a hot topic for me. I stayed home for two years with our first child, had the second while employed, and then stayed home for another 1 1/2 years. I had to return to working last fall because my husband was laid off. He recently got a new job that is paying well BUT it has no insurance. We could really use both paychecks as we are terribly in debt; however, the strain on our family with both of us having two long commutes is not worth the "get out of debt quick" plan. I resigned last Friday and will be home full time again in a few weeks. I had a terrible time in deciding to put my girls in day care, again. After the first week, with a little help from her big sister, the baby started to have fun. It's a church child care facility which makes me feel better. There are positives to child care as it can help build your childs social skills and help them get prepared for school... what I don't like are the moms who get in the debate. I'm not trying to upset anyone with that remark but if anyone can explain this to me I would greatly appreciate it. Why is it that when I'm home all the moms who work (either because they want to or because they have to) they get on my case saying i should be out working because we're in debt and I should be working so my girls can take fancy classes and wear trendier clothes and go on vacations and such. They actually say that I do nothing! But when I do go to work to help provide for my family then all I hear are complaints about how I've abandoned my family and I should be home and guilt trips about not being able to go on field trips and bake cookies! Pick a side already!

Personally I don't like to use daycare. But I don't see anything wrong with it at all. I am biased, because I can't have children, I like to raise my adopted daughter and my foster kids myself. We did use daycare for a while, the extra money from my job was nice, the kids learned a lot and had fun. Eventually the stress of me working 50+ hours a week just got to everyone. So I quit my job. Things might have been different if I had a less stressful job too. We are broke now but my 8 year old daughter is overjoyed. We adopted her when she was 3 and she has abandonment issues still. She had started having problems in school and even wetting the bed again when I went back to work. We also found that we got a lot sicker when our kids were in daycare. They came down with something all the time. So then they couldn't go to daycare. Then we would get sick, so more time off work. There are great daycares out there though, and if you follow up with attention and love when you are home, your kids will not suffer at all. If your child has any kind of special need or learning problems, daycares are lifesavers too. They work with the kids and the kids just bloom.

As someone who works in daycare and watches 14 3 year olds everyday, i can tell you that kids will find a way to get hurt no matter who is watching them. Alot of our kids come in on Monday morning with much worse scratches and scrapes then they ever get during the week with us. I don't think you should feel guilty about putting your son in daycare either-a good classroom can provide socialization and education he would not get at home. i watch our kids that are a little farther behind pick things up from the more advanced kids. Usually its stuff that we have explained until we are blue in the face but they just absorb it by example :)

I'm a stay at home mom but if you have to work you have to work. The kids have to go somewhere and if you family can't or won't help watch them then daycare is the place for them. I feel lucky to stay home with our 4 kids. My husband doesn't make a lot of money so we have had to make many sacrifices. Up until a couple weeks ago we only had one car. We still owe on that car because we had to refinance it the year before we paid it off to get money to fix it. We will pay it off next year. We live in an apartment now because we could never afford to buy our own house. In a couple months we are moving back to live with my dad again and help him out (and hopefully save up some money). We don't take vacations or do things that cost money. We get a zoo membership once a year and that is the only place we visit. Everything else we do is free. We don't have a lot of nice things. Most of the furniture we have was stuff my dad gave us when we moved out. The only new thing we have is out couch that we got after living here for a whole year. I don't think there is anything wrong with daycare if you have to or want to work. I could never go back to work now. We have 3 kids that would need to be in daycare full time and one in afterschool care. I couldn't afford that even working full time. It would be pointless. The only way I could work was if my husband had a set schedule and I worked the opposite hours, but he schedule changes every single month so that wouldn't work.

Well when I had my children I had to put my children in daycare some times as well I would not work full time at that time so that I could spend some valuable time with my babies as the children grow up too fast but I had to work so that I could help in regards to the money coming in. I would not blame you for putting your son in a day care centre as I understand that under your circumstances and due to your family needed the money then how else do people expect you to do this.

You need to do what ever is right for your family. Dont let what people say here make you think less about the choices you are making for your family. My parents both worke and I never felt like I was missing out on anything. We are living in a society that is making it very hard to get by on one income. Just give your kids love when you are there and they will never know any different.

If i have to put my child in daycare when i have a child, I will choose one that i can believe. In china, we always ask our parents to take care of our children. They love these grandchildren. But it also accoding to that weather our parents is still strong enough to take care a child.

I remember that day. I feel it was the day cares falt your son was hurt in my opinion they where not watching him close enough or the kid who bit him. I worked nights so our children did not have to go to day care for as long, but my husband farmed and he was not bringing in a steady income. We lived off of my paycheck. I brought home all the money and so I felt working nights was the best option for us. I also made 10% more per hour by working nights. Boy was it hard trying to sleep days while the kids where home. I feel some of my health issues now are caused from 10 years of sleep depravation when the kids where little. If you need to work then I feel you are doing the best you can. Not all moms can stay at home and do not let anyone make you feel bad.

I think that as parents we do what we feel is best to provide for our families. I hate how opinionated some people get about it. What's right for you may not be right for me, and vice versa. I have to put my son in daycare as well. He is currently 9 months old, and I've just started job hunting. While I have a years maternity leave I can't count on just finding a job right away in 3 months so I've started now. Even that gets people's opinions going. Saying if I have 3 more months it's wrong to put him in daycare! If my husband or I made enough money the other would stay home guaranteed!