Same story here... my wife has been at home raising our 3 girls for 9 years now, and homeschooling them as well. There's definitely been some tough financial times, but my daughters being at home is worth every hardship we've faced. They're complimented everywhere they go for how well-mannered and smart they are. I can honestly say it's the best decision we've ever made.

Z

Why did you have them if you're going to see them 2 hours a day and have someone else raise them? Justify it to yourself any way you'd like but you spend about 1/3 as much time with your child as the daycare lady does. They're more her kids than yours. You can keep congratulating yourselves on finding a provider that mimics you (or what you wish you were), though.

Do you homeschool your children, too?

I worked at a daycare for nearly 5 years. Being in daycare didn't make them behave badly, or have poor manners. That was a reflection of poor parenting, not poor "day-caring".

I think if you do the math, you will find that even if you do put your children in daycare, you will spend more time with them than your daycare providers do..unless of course you put them in weekend daycare, which I don't think too many people do.

That's pretty much what we're doing. Right now our 3 1/2 year old goes two half-days a week to an "early learners" class (pre-preschool). Next year we're going to have her go three half-days in preschool and then it's on to the big time...kindergarten.

I was wondering who kept slapping those K-State stickers on my kid's back as she walked out the door.

My mother was a stay at home mom and I know how much that meant to me growing up knowing she would be there when I got home from school. I love the fact that my wife WANTS to be a stay home mother. One child is now grown and gone with 2 more to go. And yes, my kids get complimented a lot on how they act.

Oh, on the whole immunities type of thing, I agree that exposure strengthens the immune system. The other thing we do nowadays that takes away from that is all the shots we give our kids instead of allowing nature to take care of things. Some of them are certainly a good thing but we take it to far as a society IMO and do it too young. We did not allow our kids any shots until they were a year old and they all have grown up just fine health-wise.

Yeaaaah. Let's just ake 50 years of medical science and advances, and throw it out the door.

I still can't figure out how we all survived without bike helmets.

While I agree that his quote was a stretch, I will never understand some people who pay 90% of the second income to ship their kids off. I firmly believe this is stupid and selfish.

I will agree that socialization of young children is good also. That is where Sunday School and church come in nicely. :)

Obviously because alot of people simply do not have that much to lose up there.

It's nowhere near 90%. If I had a child right now, it would be around %35 of my wifes income to send the child to daycare. That is a much nicer figure than 100%, IMO.

Great, now we are throwing science and logic RIGHT out the window.

Sorry, didn't mean to sidetrack the discussion and don't have time to follow up right now but let's ignore the large increase in autism that has been linked to early immunizations. It is a controversial subject with no clear cut answers but I believe we take it too far as a society.

Oh, and don't get my wife started on this subject. Or the new vaccine to prevent cervical cancer that is being required now here in Texas for all girls in 6th grade. What they don't tell you (in this lovely society driven by fear that we live in) is that the only ones at risk for this problem are those sexually active. If my 6th grader is sexually active there is a much bigger issue, IMO!

That's not necessarily true. When my middle daughter was born, our pediatrician pressured us to immunize her with something that had recently come out. We did so. Then, about a year later, he said that they had to discontinue that type of immunization because it was found to cause irritation in the esophagus, which caused babies to spit up far more than normal (which was indeed the case with our daughter). So yes, I believe that the medical community can and does over-immunize. Some immunizations are imperative yes, but not all.

Z

we were too independent to try to save each other from ourselves.