Mrs. Seabee,

While I will agree, a child is much better off with their parent, not all daycare providers warehouse kids. Fortunately, my wife was able to stay home with our girls until they started high school. So, how do I know anything about daycare? Because my mother owned a daycare for 22 years and my youngest daughter owns it now. My mother and now my daughter have always been licensed for no more than 12 kids. There are always 3 caregivers there, which is a ratio of 1:4 if all kids show up, and some days they don't. The kindergarten teachers in the various schools these children eventually attend have always said they can tell the kids that stayed at "Granny's Kids" by the way they act and the head start on learning they have on the other kids in kindergarten as well as their social skills. It was always that way when Mother ran the daycare and has continued since my daughter took over. As far as employees, there is one lady working there that has been there for nine years and another that just returned that worked there 12 years the first time. She returned to replace a lady that was there 6-7 years before having to quit due to health problems. They have a structured pre-school program that is very effective. It is a caring, loving environment and I have seen my daughter in tears more than once when some of her little ones "graduated" to kindergarten. In my opinion, some of these kids learn more, get more structure, and loving discipline at "Granny's Kids" than they do at home. Not saying this is how it should be, just the way it is, IMO.

I will repeat, I agree children are better off with family than daycare in a perfect situation, but there aren't many perfect situations. And I will also agree that lots of parents that say both "have" to work, might not if they changed their lifestyles. There is no way I would send one of my kids to some daycares operating today. They truly are more like a "warehouse for kids", not caregivers. But, to paint all daycares with the same broad brush is wrong as some actually do a really good job.

Joey