A leading pediatrician, Dr Simon Rowley, has outlined exactly why children are better off in the care of a parent rather than a daycare centre. He provides this information with evidence, facts, reasonable points and an argument to carefully consider.
If you actually care about children.
Enter Early Childhood Council Chief Executive Sarah Farquhar. Apparently, she doesn't care about truth, she cares more about inconvenience. Perhaps she doesn't like to listen to things she needs to hear? How does she counter the evidence presented?
She throws her toys out of the cot.
"It's going back to the times of women being barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen. That's not healthy for children and it's not healthy for women...making parents feel guilty about their choices is not the way to go."
Adults face up to the truth, children have the luxury of ignoring it. The real issue is we as a society are allowing adults to behave like overgrown children.
Maybe it all starts in daycare?
Farquhar dismisses the evidence, the argument, the entire discussion with "This is a very old-fashioned stereotypical viewpoint that isn't in keeping with today's times"
No, today's times is all about hiding from the responsibilities of parenthood. It's all about caring about ourselves at the expense of our children. Farquhar takes this further by suggesting that "not all parents have children by choice and that when parents can't cope ...daycare can be a haven for children."
Put them in daycare or they die perhaps? A weak justification to the central discussion.
She continues with the theme of motherhood being a task conducted out of guilt: "Centres are still better than hiring a nanny or deciding to stay home with a child out of guilt." Maybe she is talking to a target market, and I hope that isn't her default point of view. Her logic about hiring a Nanny though applies equally to daycare centres: "You can have a nanny, for example, who is totally useless." She already suggested that applies to parents "forced" into parenthood. Why are daycare centres exempt from such criticism?
In turn, Dr Rowley asked the question "why on earth are they having children if they don't want to be with them?". I think the answer is more complex than the pure simplicity of that question, such is life. Perhaps the question we need to train ourselves to answer is "now that we have children, what must we do to do this right?"
Daycare centres may want to shut down this debate, may want to avoid any suggestion of blame or guilt, but I think this is the kind of discussions we must have, if we care about our children and we care about the kind of society we wish to live in.
There is no question it is tough on working parents, and many feel they have little option but to hand their child's upbringing over to a daycare centre.
Maybe it doesn't have to be that way.
Related Link: SST 7 June, A3.
Minor update 10am
If you actually care about children.
Enter Early Childhood Council Chief Executive Sarah Farquhar. Apparently, she doesn't care about truth, she cares more about inconvenience. Perhaps she doesn't like to listen to things she needs to hear? How does she counter the evidence presented?
She throws her toys out of the cot.
"It's going back to the times of women being barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen. That's not healthy for children and it's not healthy for women...making parents feel guilty about their choices is not the way to go."
Adults face up to the truth, children have the luxury of ignoring it. The real issue is we as a society are allowing adults to behave like overgrown children.
Maybe it all starts in daycare?
Farquhar dismisses the evidence, the argument, the entire discussion with "This is a very old-fashioned stereotypical viewpoint that isn't in keeping with today's times"
No, today's times is all about hiding from the responsibilities of parenthood. It's all about caring about ourselves at the expense of our children. Farquhar takes this further by suggesting that "not all parents have children by choice and that when parents can't cope ...daycare can be a haven for children."
Put them in daycare or they die perhaps? A weak justification to the central discussion.
She continues with the theme of motherhood being a task conducted out of guilt: "Centres are still better than hiring a nanny or deciding to stay home with a child out of guilt." Maybe she is talking to a target market, and I hope that isn't her default point of view. Her logic about hiring a Nanny though applies equally to daycare centres: "You can have a nanny, for example, who is totally useless." She already suggested that applies to parents "forced" into parenthood. Why are daycare centres exempt from such criticism?
In turn, Dr Rowley asked the question "why on earth are they having children if they don't want to be with them?". I think the answer is more complex than the pure simplicity of that question, such is life. Perhaps the question we need to train ourselves to answer is "now that we have children, what must we do to do this right?"
Daycare centres may want to shut down this debate, may want to avoid any suggestion of blame or guilt, but I think this is the kind of discussions we must have, if we care about our children and we care about the kind of society we wish to live in.
There is no question it is tough on working parents, and many feel they have little option but to hand their child's upbringing over to a daycare centre.
Maybe it doesn't have to be that way.
Related Link: SST 7 June, A3.
Minor update 10am