Teen Disagrees with Dr. Maier About Day Care

Dear Dr. Bill:

I am 15-years-old and love listening to Weekend Magazine! But I disagree with what you said about day care. When I was little, I went to "The Learning Tree" in New York and I loved every minute of it! They taught about good morals and a lot of other things. They had lots of fun toys to play with, and the teachers would get right down on the floor with us kids.

But after we moved to Texas, the day care I went to wasn't so good. The teachers yelled at us a lot, and instead of creative games to stimulate our young minds, they had videogames. Plus, the food was horrible, and they only let us go to the bathroom at scheduled times. I guess I'm telling you this so you know that not all day cares are bad. Some are really good, and I would still go to "The Learning Tree" if I could!

— Kristina

Dear Kristina:

Thanks so much for writing. I appreciate your willingness to give us a different perspective on day care. I'm glad you had a positive experience at that first day care center in New York.

The research I shared on some of the negative effects of day care doesn't apply to every child. In fact, you seem to be living proof that your years in day care didn't harm you, even though you had a lousy experience at the day care setting in Texas.

However, since you'll probably be having kids of your own some day, you should know that the impact of day care on children is still in dispute. It appears to be related to how young a child is when he first enters day care and how many hours per week he spends in a day care setting. The kids who show negative effects tend to be those who are placed in day care from a very early age, and who spend many hours away from their mom or dad each week.

As I mentioned on that earlier program, many of these kids tend to be more aggressive and defiant when they enter kindergarten. Many of them also show elevated levels of a stress hormone in their bloodstream. This seems to be the case regardless of what kind of day care setting they are placed in.

Of course, here at Focus on the Family, we realize that many parents — particularly single parents — are in situations where their only option appears to be to have someone else care for their child while they are at work. It's simply an economic necessity. In those cases, we recommend that, if possible, the child be cared for by a grandparent or other close relative or friend.

Thanks for writing, Kristina. If you'd like to learn more about the day care issue and read some of the research, I'd suggest you read a letter that Dr. Dobson wrote to Focus on the Family listeners called "A Mother's Touch." You can find that by going to www.focusonthefamily.com and entering "mother's touch" in the search engine.

Copyright © 2008, Focus on the Family.
All rights reserved. International copyright secured.