Pros and Cons of Daycare

It’s been a little over a month and my wife and I are seriously revisiting our decision to put our son in daycare. It’s still a difficult choice, even with a month’s worth of reality under our belts. Do we continue as we have been, with our son in daycare and the two of us pursuing full-time jobs? Alternatively, do we take him out of daycare and try to find new life arrangements that work better?

We’ve talked it over several times in an attempt to answer these questions. Here’s a short list of the pros and cons of daycare that we came up with.
 

Pros of Daycare

Freedom to work. By far the most common reason people consider daycare is the fact that it frees you up to go work and earn a living. In a one-parent household, daycare might not be elective for this very reason.

Good for your child’s development. It can’t be argued that exposure to peers in a learning environment is good for your child’s social and intellectual development. Especially during the formative years, such interactions can have a real positive impact on the rest of their lives.

Reduces the stress of child care. Let’s face it; our nerves can only take so much whining from a two-year-old. Especially for children with certain temperaments, having someone else watch them for a few hours a day can keep those gray hairs in check.
 

Cons of Daycare

Significant cost. Depending on where you live, daycare can be downright expensive. My wife and I, for example, determined that our finances would be better off if she kept our son home and worked part-time on the weekends than if she worked full-time and sent him to daycare. Never underestimate the cost savings of a full-time mommy.

Bad for your family’s health. I wrote a few weeks ago about coping with preschool sickness. Since then, despite our best efforts, our whole family hasn’t seen a day without at least one of us being sick. It’s worth reiterating; chronic illness is an unavoidable consequence of daycare. Even knowing this going in, the reality has been far worse than we expected.

Increases the stress of everything else. Sure, a little more income is always nice. On the other hand, we’re constantly ill and our job performance suffers. I’ve had to leave work early on several occasions to pick my son up from daycare because of a rash, a fever, etc., all of which he could only have contracted there. Thanks to our constant coughing, we rarely get a good night’s sleep. Neither of us has the time or motivation (again, because we’re sick) to clean, so the house is a wreck. Really, the list goes on, but suffice to say that daycare has only increased our stress.
 

Sorry if the list sounds biased. Our opinions of daycare have gone down over the past month. Given the fact that we’re constantly sick and our finances would be better with a few life changes, I don’t think we’ll be sticking with it for much longer.

This is by no means a critique of our daycare center or daycare in general. I recognize that, for some people, daycare can be a solution more than a problem. I don’t blame our daycare for getting my son sick. I don’t even blame them for sending him home when he’s showing signs of potentially serious contagion. For us, though, the situation has become untenable.

In the end, sending your child to daycare or not is a decision to be carefully weighed. If your finances can bear a parent at home, ask yourself how much extra income, minus the cost of daycare, the stay-at-home parent would generate if he or she went to work. Then ask yourself how much you value your health and happiness. You may find that, like us, daycare just isn’t worth the sacrifice.

I can totally see your side to this debate but daycare has worked out very well for us. Our daycare is academically based and Girlie Girl has learned a lot there and has really come out of her shell.

Thank you for sharing this with the Carnival of Family Life.

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