Thursday, November 13, 2008

Day Care

At no great offense to anyone who puts their child in preschool, I just don't get the fascination with it.

To me, it does seem like it's glorified day care. I can understand sending a child a couple days a week for a half day so they can have interactions with kids other than their own siblings. I guess I don't understand because I was just in daycare from the time I was 6 weeks old until I went to kindergarten. And once I went to kindergarten, I did before school and after school care at the same place - that babysitter took care of anywhere between 5 and 10 kids at various age ranges (I went from an infant to a 2nd grader with this lady), so there was always social interaction whenever I was there. Plus, when we weren't outside playing (on the most awesome swing set ever!!), we were inside playing games or watching PBS (Mr Rogers, Reading Rainbow, Sesame Street, Fraggle Rock).

My parents were both working, so they had to send me somewhere, but they didn't seem overly concerned with getting me this huge "head start" with preschool where I'd learn to paint and write my name. They did that with me at home in the evenings, or I did it at the babysitter's house.

Now, I really do understand the SAHMs who want that bit of time to themselves, so they send the 3 and 4 year olds off to preschool 2 or 3 times a week for a half-day, but it's still just glorified daycare.

I'm not trying to say preschool is bad or unnecessary. Perhaps I'm just ignorant on the subject as I don't even have kids yet. So, can one of you (or all of you) explain why you do or don't send your kids to preschool? I'm honestly interested, I'm not trying to be an ass. I'm just curious if it really is beneficial or not.

1 comment:

loren said...

I send the girls to preschool because I need some time to myself! LOL

A small (very small) reason is that they need to interact with children other than their sisters.

But mainly, it's for the free time.