“Feel free to agree or disagree with each other as long as you do it respectfully.” Saying that putting your child in day care is child abuse is far from being respectful.

My youngest two children both started daycare at 6 weeks because I needed to return to work. I trusted the teachers completely and even now, after being a stay at home mom for two years, I still keep in touch with them. They are family to us. And while I did have to return to work earlier than I would have liked, I was able to arrange my day so that I was able to go to their daycare (they were two blocks away), every three hours to nurse them.

With my first fhild I stayed home for six months and did the whole “mommy thing.” Even breast fed him until he was two years old. With my second child, I knew what I did not want or need … a long maternity leave. I returned to the office in seven weeks and pumped my breast, etc. I breast fed her until she was four years old.

Every person is an individual and needs to do what is best for them. The important thing is to stay sane, enjoy your baby and keep your life moving in the direction you choose not society.

We need to learn to stop being so critical of the life choices of others and just “live our lives.” Life is too short and unpredictable to sweat the small stuff folks…..

Hats off to ya Jill!

Peace out

What has me so upset about Jill’s comment is that she is “recommending” that parents return to work when children are so little. It’s undermining the whole issue. And that’s certainly not respecting other views. If she had just said, “it worked for me” and left it at that. But she also has to understand that her work and care situation is quite different from the options the vast majority of parents have.

The US places little value on parenthood, and values its children even less. Blaming parents (“child abuse” ? really?) for returning to work when they are given few options totally misses the mark.

Whether daycare is what’s best for a six, eleven, twelve week old infant is not the point. The overwhelming majority of households require two incomes and most parents don’t have the luxury of choice. Better parental leave programs would go a long way in helping to ameliorate this situation – which, as I stated in my initial post, is why I waited to return to Canada from the US before starting a family.

In a perfect world, maternity/paternity leave would be extended but, for many, that’s not the case. Saying that leaving a child of six weeks in daycare is child abuse is absurd. The majority of individuals who do this have no choice. I’m a single mother and when my oldest was born, I returned to work part time when he was four weeks old. I had no other option because I am his sole provider. When my second was born, I was better off financially and held a good job so I was able to take a 12 week leave.

I’m sorry but working mothers have a hard enough time transitioning back into their jobs after having a baby without being called child abusers.