So many thoughts crowd my mind as I sit here…it’s incredible…I have no baby to see to, no little, enquiring mind to entertain, no little body to pat back to sleep, no cereal to mix…

I sit, instead, and mull over the question of “when is it right to send a baby to daycare? IS it right to send a baby to daycare?”…and of course, I have no easy answers.

Here are 's

thoughts

about it…my own are even more jumbled. The parents decided that Biddles is a very sociable child, and will enjoy the interaction with other children, so they did not look for a nanny to care for her at hom, but chose a daycare option.

But is a child too young to go to daycare when she is just over a year old?

I sent my daughter to a pre-school for 3 hours a day…when she was just on 3 years old. Six months later, she started kindergarten. But…today’s world is different. Also, I cannot presume to say what suited me (I was never a career person) is what is suitable for anyone else.

But when, this morning at the daycare, Biddles had hardly half the cereal, milk and fruit that she usually has for breakfast, I thought of the fact that until my daughter started full-time school, every meal of hers was with me or, very rarely, with a grandparent. I’d like to think that this was great, but I am not sure…was it? Was it better to take care of her until she was a year old…might not have been better to put her into daycare much earlier, so that she could have got used to their routine? The youngest child there is 6 months old, and seems to be doing fine; I sat there for more than 2 hours and saw how happy that child was! Have I added to her transition difficulty by caring for my grand-daughter until now?

The emptiness in the house right now….makes me realize that the pangs of separation, of growing up, are not only for the child, but perhaps more intense for the parents and the caregivers….it’s “tough love” all round, to use a hackneyed phrase.

Well, I must console myself that my job here is done, and done well. With the house feeling so empty, though, I am glad I am going home soon….and I hope that daycare is something that my wonderful little Biddles takes to soon, and enjoys.