The Day-Care Controversy

It is a pleasant place. The playrooms are painted in cheerful colors and adorned with posters and samples of toddler art. Toys and games are neatly stacked on shelves. And the place rings with the sound of children.

“We care for about 130 children,” says Bernice Spence, the motherly woman who runs this day-care center. And just where do these children come from? “For the most part, they are the children of working parents who live nearby. Our staff? A number are certified teachers.”

A WELL-MANAGED day-care center that is staffed by caring and competent personnel does leave a fine impression. Parents feel secure when their children are cared for in such a place. Nevertheless, day-care centers are the focus of raging controversies. The reason? For one thing, quality centers are not always the norm. Some are poorly maintained, poorly managed, poorly staffed, and pack children in like luggage.

Publicly funded day care in New York City is generally of good quality. But it will cost the city $201 million in 1987​—over $4,800 per child! In lands such as Sweden, where governments have allocated generous day-care budgets, a high quality of care likewise prevails. But in the Third World, and even in some U.S. communities, public day-care funds are inadequate. The result? Children may receive inferior care.

Child Care for Sale

This is true even of for-profit day-care centers. Granted, many fine ones exist. Some centers, though, trim costs by assigning fewer caretakers to more children. Or they cut corners by hiring at rates hovering above minimum wage​—which turns away the best-trained professionals.

True, many day-care workers put up with poor pay because they simply love children. But what can happen when such commitment is lacking? Samuel and his wife found out. Together they ran a day-care center in Lagos, Nigeria​—until they felt obliged to shut it down. Samuel recalls: “Whenever my wife had to go shopping or be away for other reasons, on returning she would find that the helpers had not been caring for the children.”​—See page 6.

In the United States, profit-making centers must survive the scrutiny of licensing agencies. But reports Newsweek: “Most licensing requirements are lax, and state agencies don’t have the money or the manpower to regulate the day-care industry.”

Day-Care Homes

Similar to day-care centers are day-care homes, private homes where small groups of children are cared for. Less expensive than centers, they are immensely popular, looking after roughly three quarters of U.S. children cared for outside the home. The day-care mother is usually a parent herself.

For the child, a day-care home can offer a homelike environment, a caring woman to look after him, and the company of a small group of children. But often little is done to monitor such facilities. The Toronto Globe and Mail thus reports that the quality of day-care homes in Canada ranges from “excellent to abysmal.” Ten percent of the homes were unsafe for children.

Day Care​—How Does It Affect Children?

Because day care covers such a wide spectrum of quality, researchers have had a difficult time determining how day care really affects children. True, some day-care advocates speak quite optimistically. Says Alison Clarke-Stewart in her book Daycare: “The good news from all these studies​—in Canada, England, Sweden, Czechoslovakia, the United States—​is that care in a decent daycare facility has no apparent detrimental effects on children’s intellectual development.” Some studies even indicate that children from low-income families benefit from the intellectual stimulation of day care!

However, researchers Belsky and Steinberg caution: “To an overwhelming degree, research on day care has been conducted in university-based or university-connected centers with high staff-child ratios and well-designed programs. . . . Yet, most of the day care available to the nation’s parents is certainly not of this type and may not be of this quality.” How, then, do children in more typical day-care settings fare? Concluded Belsky and Steinberg: “We know shockingly little about the impact of day care on children.”​—The journal Child Development, Volume 49, pages 929-30.

Even less is known about the effect of day-care homes​—which do the bulk of the care giving. It appears, though, that a day-care mother may do little to stimulate a child’s intellectual and emotional growth; her concern may be little more than to feed and keep him out of mischief until mother returns. Day-care-home children are thus often found plopped in front of a TV set.

Little is also known about how day care affects the emotional bond between mother and child or to what extent children become overly attached to their care givers. Tests demonstrate, however, that given a choice between mother and day-care worker, most children still prefer mother.

The Problems of Peer Contact

One benefit of day care is that the children learn to get along better with peers. There is another side to this, however. Says a Biblical adage: “Bad associations spoil useful habits.” (1 Corinthians 15:33) Research from the United States and Europe shows that day-care children tend to be ‘more aggressive, less cooperative with adults, more self-assertive, less conforming, and less impressed by punishment than home-reared children.’

Alison Clarke-Stewart claims that such behavior really “reflects greater maturity and social competence rather than being something to worry about.” But this may be of little comfort to parents who see a formerly mild child unleash profanity, especially if those parents are endeavoring to instill Bible principles in their child.​—Ephesians 4:29.

Health Risks

Day care also involves health risks. The CDC (U.S. Centers for Disease Control) speaks of “a growing need for controlling infectious diseases that frequently affect children in day care.” The so-called day-care diseases include hepatitis A, shigellosis (a serious intestinal disorder), and Hemophilus influenzae type B (a bacterial infection). Diarrhea and fever are common symptoms. Disease is often the result of clustering small children who tend to put everything in their mouths and who are untrained in proper toilet habits.

A good center, though, takes health precautions seriously. “We teach the children to wash their hands after using their toilet,” explained day-care consultant Delores Alexander. “And we don’t accept sick children knowingly.” Added Willoughby House director Bernice Spence: “If a child becomes sick during the day, we often call the parent and tell her to take him home.” Regular medical exams of staff and children are also important precautionary measures.

Nevertheless, researcher Clarke-Stewart admits: “Children in daycare centers get more flu, rashes, colds, and coughs than children at home . . . A child’s runny nose may be a price mothers are willing to pay to have their children in a daycare center while they work.” But in view of the foregoing, it seems that day care could entail risks of greater consequence than a runny nose. What does all of this mean, then, for mothers who feel they have to work?

[Box on page 6]

Day Care and Sexual Abuse

Much publicity has recently been given to child-abuse scandals involving day-care workers. Are day-care centers havens for pedophiles and child pornographers?

Such a question evokes strong emotions from some day-care workers. “I really get angry at that,” said Bernice Spence, a day-care-center administrator. “I just hate to see day care get a bad name. Most of the people I know in day care are dedicated people​—they care about children.”

Responsible administrators, however, have taken firm steps. Awake! spoke to Doby Flowers, deputy administrator for the Agency for Child Development in New York City. Over 40,000 children are enrolled in day-care programs under her supervision. Said Miss Flowers: “We screen our day-care staffs thoroughly. We check to see if they have criminal or child-abuse records. And since 1984, all day-care workers must be fingerprinted.”

Do child abusers tend to gravitate toward day-care work? Replied Miss Flowers: “You have pedophiles in religious orders, the legal order, in education. The profile of the pedophile crosses all income, occupational, racial, and ethnic lines.” Nevertheless, as Dr. Roland Summit, a psychiatrist specializing in treating sexually abused children, puts it: “The risk of exploitation for a child increases directly as the child is removed further from the care of its biological mother.”

What, then, should parents with children in day care do? “Listen to your child!” says Doby Flowers. “Sit down and talk with your child. Watch for changes in behavior or signs of distress, such as bed-wetting or a sudden reluctance to go to day care.” Parental vigilance and education of a child are the best weapons against child abuse.​—See Awake! of January 22, 1985, “Child Molesting​—You Can Protect Your Child.”

[Picture on page 5]

How does day care affect the bond between mother and child?