10 Reasons to Love Daycare
- Schedule: If daycare providers are masters of anything, it is the uncanny ability to get every child on a consistent schedule. Both of my children entered in-home daycares as infants (4- and 3-months-old respectively) and were eating, sleeping, and pooping in predictable patterns after only a week or so. I’m pretty sure it would have taken me longer.
- Sleep: Maybe I should have listed this one first because nothing will bring you to your knees quicker than prolonged sleep deprivation. I have found that daycare—and the magical schedule it provides—equals well-rested daytime babies who tend to sleep better at night. At home, I’m lucky if I can get an hour nap out of Ethan no matter what I do. At daycare, he sleeps for 3 hours every afternoon and I’m told that he asks to go to sleep! (I, on the other hand, have to carry him kicking and screaming to his crib.) It makes me wonder what they are putting in his lunch.
- Eating: As a friend told me recently, never underestimate the power of peer pressure. My kids eat a more balanced and healthier diet at daycare simply because everyone else is doing it. So, on the very worst nights when I’m lucky to get them to eat animal crackers for dinner, I can delude myself into believing they had a giant lunch of green, leafy vegetables. And they probably did.
On March 23, 2011
