Saturday, April 08, 2006

Daycare decisions

PARENTING GURU SAYS DAY CARE BAD FOR BABIES
Australian parenting guru Steven Biddulph has done an about-face on day care and decided it is bad for babies. Biddulph, a psychologist with 30 years' experience and 4 million books sold, has spent five years examining the results of international studies on the subject.


This issue continues to be highly controversial. I am not convinced one way or the other because children are all different and standards of care vary, be it that of the daycare or that of the parent. But debate is good. We need information.

My problem is that the debate drives social policy. If the politicians can be persuaded daycare is bad for babies then they decide all mothers should be paid to stay home. The collective pays based on government edict. One person is forced to pay for another's decisions, over which he has no control.

What should happen is the individual(s) makes their own decision about what is best for their family and takes full responsibility for enacting that choice. That's freedom.

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