How young is too young?daycare?

iVillage Member
Registered: 10-07-2003
How young is too young?daycare?
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Tue, 12-02-2003 - 1:00am
If you have a career and you had a baby what age would you think is apropriate to send your child to daycare/dayhome after they were born?

I have a friend that is a dayhome provider, she has 10mnth old twins and she was provinding care for a 2yr old. Mom of the 2yr old just had a baby and she was back to work when baby was 4days old, in my friends care. It is only half days now, but she is soon going to be full time, the baby is almost 5wks. Thoughts?

Be who you are and say what you feel because those  who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind.

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iVillage Member
Registered: 07-02-2003
Fri, 12-12-2003 - 3:05pm
Eileen, I don't know what problems your dd has, but she sounds very similar to a little foster child I was fortunate to have for four years. She had CP and was also FAS. She was profoundly handicapped and also in a wheelchair. She brought so much to our lives. She passed away when she was 8 years old, just about the time that the adoption was *almost* through. My younger children weren't born yet, but my oldest was around 13 or 14 when Lisa came into our lives. It was difficult not to forget about the older child's needs, since Lisa had such special needs. It was really hard learning to live without her, even though we had her for such a short time. My heart goes out to you. Caring for and loving a handicapped child is truly bittersweet.
iVillage Member
Registered: 10-18-2003
Fri, 12-12-2003 - 3:10pm
Can you tell I'm feeling spunky today? Hmmm, is it the snow? The anticipation of my party tonight? The anticipation of my date Monday? Or the kiss at lunch yesterday .... Hmmmmmm

Choose your friends by their character and your socks by their color.  Choosing your socks by their character makes no sense and choosing your friends by their color is unthinkable.

iVillage Member
Registered: 10-18-2003
Fri, 12-12-2003 - 3:11pm
'Twould be a hard statement to make considering her ds isn't even 3 yet! roflmao

Choose your friends by their character and your socks by their color.  Choosing your socks by their character makes no sense and choosing your friends by their color is unthinkable.

iVillage Member
Registered: 08-29-2002
Fri, 12-12-2003 - 3:16pm
I absolutely agree with you. This whole thing started because I compared my daughter going to dc (which functions as a preschool where I live) at the age of 4 for 31 hours per week to momofhk's daughter going to kindergarten at age 4 for 32 hours a week. Momofhk huffily insisted that there is a huge difference between dc and her daughter's kindergarten because the people in dc are only caregivers while the teachers at school are only teachers (and do not function as caregivers). Since the teachers at dd's dc are trained preschool (up to age 6, so essentially trained for the kindergarten years as well) teachers, I honestly could not see the difference. I am also betting that any good k-3 teacher functions as a caregiver as well as a teacher. I am quite sure that as kids get older, more responsibility is put on the kids and less caregiving goes on. By highschool, that caregiving is certainly at a minimum or disappears all together. I certainly would not expected a high school teacher to be a caregiver in the way that I would expect, say, a kindergarten teacher to be, though I do expect that all teachers, even in the upper classes, take bullying issues seriously and actively care enough about their students to enquire if something is wrong. I know that my high school teachers took enough interest in the kids to do that. But I find labelling a preschool teacher as purely a "caregiver" and a kindergarten teacher as purely a "teacher" to be completely ridiculous. 5 year olds are most certainly NOT ready to be left to their own devices and absolutely need plenty of guidance and "caregiving", regardless of whether they are in preschool or school.


Laura

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iVillage Member
Registered: 03-25-2003
Fri, 12-12-2003 - 3:19pm
Absolutely! I BF DS1 for 6 weeks. During that six weeks I had PPD and was absolutely miserable. He and I had difficulty with BFing and I was getting increasingly more frustrated and depressed. We weened him and he took to forumula very easily. He and I bonded much better after I switched to bottle feeding and my depression and frustration eased. I think our attachment became better because I was less frustrated.
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iVillage Member
Registered: 03-25-2003
Fri, 12-12-2003 - 3:25pm
Neither DH nor I were breast fed. Nor were any of our siblings. None of us needed braces. It's funny because people have asked me how long I wore braces, and when I tell them I never wore braces they're surprised. My teeth are perfectly straight and I have all 32 teeth. I have very shallow fillings that DH thinks probably were not even necessary (he didn't do them).

My DS1 was breastfed for six weeks. He'll need braces because his teeth are too big and his mouth is too small. DS2 was FF and will most likely not need braces. My niece was BF for 3 months and needed full braces because she sucked her thumb. It made her bottom teeth go in and her top teeth protrude.

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Fri, 12-12-2003 - 3:25pm
Fine, its directed at you then.

If Mom has to pop in twice a day to be comfy with the care, that about defines the quality of care. As not too darn good. No, the minds of wohms is not only on their children while at work. But consider. While you figured your daughter could do a good enough job of looking after a baby in her "spare" time while persuing full time university studies - my employer would be very worried about the level of attention I could give to my job, were I to try and fit it in between fulltime university studies. I'd be seriously discouraged from trying that one on.

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iVillage Member
Registered: 03-25-2003
Fri, 12-12-2003 - 3:27pm
:-)
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iVillage Member
Registered: 03-25-2003
Fri, 12-12-2003 - 3:29pm
Oooooooh! Have fun at your party! And have fun on your date! And I'm glad you enjoyed your smooch! Ahhh, young love. It's just so disgustingly sweet. ;-) I'm happy for you!
iVillage Member
Registered: 06-27-1998
Fri, 12-12-2003 - 3:34pm

That's just plain sad.

PumpkinAngel

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