Table of Contents
Summary of the topic
A stay at home parent is a mother or a father who stays at home (he/she leaves his work) to take care of his/her child. The parent takes care of the child from the time the child is born until the time the child is ready to go to school. Through research, some experts concluded that there is no substitute when it comes to parenting (Kaysen, 2016). The consistency of a parent and his/her care cannot be replaced with another thing. That said many parents opt to care for their children when they are infants. Many parents and experts have gone ahead and argued that its more beneficial being the primary care giver of your own than letting someone else take care of him/her. However, in the current times, more parents are starting to opt for daycare as a substitute.
We can do it today.
Daycare is a parenting option where a parent drops of his/her child during the day for care, learning, and supervision. Daycares specialize in the care of infants through pre-schooling. Many parents have started opting to take their children to daycare, with a baby as young as 3months being taken; one has to ask if it’s the best option for parenting. Some researchers have argued that daycare offers an enriching experience for a child. An experience he/she would have failed to get if they had gone through stay at home parenting (Kaysen, 2016). As daycare has some advantages, does its advantages outweigh the benefits of stay at home parenting?
Arguments Supporting Stay at Home Parenting
Stay at home parenting is better than daycare parenting as it creates a long-term bond between the parent and the infant. They see the infants through his/her younger stages and a larger part of his/her life. An infant will always create a bond with someone who cares, but the longevity of being there as a parent will foster that relationship. Unlike in daycare, a caregiver gives an infant care, but if he/she gets a better paying job, the relationship ends. Stay at home parenting also allows a parent to experience all of the “first” of a child. If it’s the first crawl, first walk and first words then as a parent, you will be in a better position to experience them. Stay at home parenting is also less costly and stressful than sending your child to daycare. While staying at home, a parent would only be focused on his/her child instead of multi-tasking. Lastly, deep down every parent knows that no matter how good a day care might be, it can never match the love and care a parent can provide to their own child. Workers at daycares are only employees, and they will not offer one on one attention to the child (Lamarque, 2010).
Arguments Supporting Daycare parenting
Daycare parenting has its advantages as it enriches your child with different qualities and it will enable things to get done. A good daycare center can provide a variety of activities, social interactions and an experience a child would be unable to get at home. Daycare offers an opportunity for the parents to go to work and still take care of their child later on. For those parents who multi- task, they can go to work and earn money and still act in partial parenting in the evening. Data gotten from National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) suggest that children taken to daycares possess and intellectual edge that those who go through stay at home parenting (Anonymous, 2016).
Personal Impression
I support stay at home parenting as it has the strongest arguments. Daycare attendants cannot entirely replace the kind of love and care a parent can give to his/her child. That said the child will always feel deprived of some level of attention. The child will not be truly loved or will not be loved enough in the daycare. Also if your child gets sick as a parent, you won’t be able to take him/her to daycare. You won’t go to work you will stay at home and take of him/her. Also, most parents know the idea of handling more than one baby at home can be tough work. Daycare lovers take their children to daycares where the ratio of a daycare giver to children is 1: 5. One day care attendant cannot effectively watch over five infants. How can parents backup daycare knowing very well that their children will not be fully taken care of in the day care?
Furthermore, because a child is a human being and will not just expire in the next 2 – 3months, parents should look at parenting as a long term contract. The kind of care and love and attention given to an infant matters on how the child will develop in the future. From the NICHD we get that a baby who is given inadequate care grows up to be withdrawn from society (Lamarque, 2010). That said I support stay at home parenting. The first two years of a child are crucial, and they should have a regular primary caregivers who care for the baby at least 50 percent of the time.
- Anonymous. (2016, September 16). Staying at home: Pros and Cons. Retrieved from Babycenter: http://www.babycenter.com/0_staying-at-home-pros-and-cons_6025.bc?page=2
- Kaysen, R. (2016). New York Times. Co- Working Spaces Add a Perk for Parents: Child Care, 34- 38.
- Lamarque, K. (2010). Study Shows Consistent Benefit of Early Daycare. Reuters, 12- 15.