Spit-up On My Shoulder

An article in today’s New York Times is titled: Poor Behavior Is Linked to Time in Day Care. Just what you want to hear as you’re dealing with the Monday morning rush to get everybody out the door, right?

Don’t panic yet. Here is the second paragraph of the article:

“The effect was slight, and well within the normal range for healthy children, the researchers found. And as expected, parents’ guidance and their genes had by far the strongest influence on how children behaved.” That’s mostly comforting, but are parents now suppose to feel guilty about their genes? The genes comment is never explained in the article.

And later in the piece: “On the positive side, they[the researchers] also found that time spent in high-quality day care centers was correlated with higher vocabulary scores through elementary school.”

So shouldn’t the title of the piece been: Time in Day Care has a Slight Effect on Bad Behavior but also Correlates with Higher Vocabulary Scores?

Also, be sure to read further into the article as you’ll see some researchers question the study’s results. For example, there was no control group.

Instead of focusing on a slight negative effect, shouldn’t we talking about how to insure that families who need it have access to high-quality care? And also how we can better support those who choose to work in the home?

I’m so disappointed to see the fans being flamed, again!, on the debate between staying home with your children or working outside of the home. This is 2007! Mothers and fathers should be trusted to know what’s best for their families.

Deciding which work option you will take may be one of the hardest decisions you make as a parent. Once you make your choice, I hope you will feel confident about it.

If your choice ends up not working well for your family, that’s okay. You can always re-evaluate and choose a different option. Like anything in parenting, it’s normal (and expected!) to make some mistakes along the way. I’ve made tons.