PSY286 Essay: Childcare's Advantages and Disadvantages in Early Years

This essay delves into the multifaceted effects of long day care on young children, specifically infants and preschoolers. It explores the advantages, such as opportunities for peer interaction, smoother transitions to pre-primary school, exposure to diverse activities, and learning to interact with adults beyond the immediate family. Conversely, the essay critically examines the disadvantages, including the high costs associated with childcare, potential for children to miss parental care, the risk of children adopting negative behaviors from peers, and the increased likelihood of contracting illnesses. The essay draws upon various research sources to provide a balanced perspective on the topic, ultimately aiming to inform parents and policymakers about the complexities of childcare decisions and their impact on children's cognitive, psychological, and social development. The conclusion emphasizes the importance of considering these factors when making choices about childcare arrangements, and suggests that while childcare can offer benefits, it is essential to consider the potential drawbacks and find solutions that meet the needs of both children and parents.

Running head: CHILDCARE
Childcare
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Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of placing young children (i.e., infants – pre-
school age) in long day care.
Introduction
Young children below the school going age are always stubborn. They are difficult to
control when they are around the home or the workplace. Mothers to these group of children
have difficulty in engaging in other activities such as the daily chores when their children are
around in reference to Chawla, (2015). The children always cry a lot, and they need to be carried
wherever their mothers are within the house. However, with the coming of baby care services in
various centers, mothers have been relieved from their stressful duty of looking after the child
each time. They can drop the child to baby care centers in the morning and pick them in the
evening according to Haberman, (2017). In the course of the day from morning to evening, the
parents can engage in other activities instead of sitting down looking after the child.
Consequently, these baby care centers have a tremendous effect on the life of the child both
positive and negative. For instance, these institutions contribute much to the early education of
the child. On the other side, when children are in these schools, they are like a family in
reference to Flais, (2018). It is effortless for the child to adopt strange behavior that will leave
the parents with great shock. In this task, it is going to elaborate on the positive and negative
effects of leaving the child at the baby care for a long day.
Advantages of placing your children in long day care.
The role of looking after the children have proved stressful to many children, especially
to the single parents. Many parents combine the house life with another duty of looking after

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their business or employment. These parents take their children to long day care. From the
research, the following are the advantage of leaving your child in long day care: -
a. The child has the quality time to share with peers.
In many occasions, the better part of the day children spend in daycare is for playing. However,
these environments are safe for the child to intermingle with his or her peers. Consider a
situation whereby the child wants to play at home according to Lee, Benson, Klein & Franke,
(2015). The mother must be around to watch him or her not to break the valuable things in the
house such as family television. Consequently, when the child wants to play with his or her peers
beyond the family setting, the parent must arrange and it must be on limited time. In baby care,
some teachers provide a safe environment for the children to intermingle according to Barth,
(2017). During the interaction, the children can disagree on one or two issue. From here, the
child will learn how to solve the problem. For example, they are taught to report anyone who
wants to fight them or take their property by force.
b. It offers a smoother transition of the child to pre-primary school.
From the research, the children who get enrolled in baby have a high mastery of academic work
when they join pre-primary programs compared to children who do not enter the institutions. It is
evident that when these children join the baby care program, they do not only play but also do
the academic work. They are taught how to read and write. From that perspective, these children
know when they join nursery schools in reference to McKinney, James, Murray, Nelson &
Ashwill, (2017). However, if it was that the child was spending at home all that time, no parent
can have that more time to start teaching his or her child at that young age. Therefore, spending

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the long day in daycare assist in brainstorming the child on what he or she expects in future
according to Romero, Preston & Giles, (2016).
c. Children get all types of activities.
All the daycare institution has various schedule for their work. However, it is evident that these
schedules incorporate all the activities that the child may need. For example, apart from playing
with the child, the child enjoys other things like storytelling among other activities according to
Pecora, Whittaker, Barth, Maluccio, DePanfilis & Plotnick, (2017). Basing your decision on that
matter, the child will develop in not only terms of academic life but also the social life. These
activities make the child and the parent happy. When the child is back in the house, the parent
can get severe stories from the child that becomes motivating.
d. Long spend in baby care gives the child the opportunity to learn how to interact with other
adults.
Many children only recognize their parents as adults. Any other person that comes to their house
they do not give respect an adult. However, the continued spending in the daycares will give the
child an opportunity to learn that, every adult need respect like his or her parents at home. The
children who do not have the chance to spend on childcare may have the challenge to interact
with other adults.
Disadvantages of placing your children in long day care.
Everything that has advantages has the disadvantages. Considering the long day care
service, there are some challenges that the parents cannot ignore. Basing on research, the
following are some of the disadvantages of placing infants to long day care: -

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a. It is costly.
The cost of the acting ranges from commitments to money that the parents pay. For example, the
parent has to wake up early in the morning to prepare the child ready for the long baby care day.
It requires a consistent commitment that everyone may not have in life. Besides that, the parent
has to scramble on the means of transport to reach the place if upon their residential area is far
from home in reference to Smith, (2017). In addition to that, the parent must pay a tremendous
amount of money to get the quality services for his or her child. For instance, the child will need
a clean place to stay, clean water and relaxed environment with skilled teachers. All these
services are costly considering that the child is starting the school life which is a long journey.
Therefore, long stay in baby care requires the parent to have a constant income.
b. Even though the services in the daycare replaces those of the parent, staying long, there will
make the child miss his or her parent too much. There is always parental love that nobody can
replace no matter what they do to the child. When the child is at home, the parent still treats him
or her with respect and care even during the correction; the parent will correct in love. However,
human beings always have emotions according to Kääriälä & Hiilamo, (2017). For instance, the
children come from various backgrounds which may influence their behavior. When correcting
such action, the teacher may get emotional and cane the child who may not be fair.
c. Staying in the daycare for long may give room for the child to adopt strange behavior.
In the daycare, children come from various background. However, the behaviors that the children
adopt depend on where he or she comes from in the society. Some of these children have weird
behaviors. Consequently, during the interaction, they influence other children to adopt the
practice that they have which is not moral. When the child comes home, the parents may start

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seeing a different behavior which he or she did not teach the child. It now becomes challenging
to remove such traits because the child still goes back to the daycare and spend a long time in
those places.
d. Constant sickness
Sickness is a prevalence consequence of staying long in daycare according to Sampson, (2017).
Several children go to the daycare with strange diseases including the airborne diseases. Through
the breathing process, other children contract the airborne disease. Besides that, some daycare
places are too dirty to survive. The child may come back home with dysentery or cholera. The
sad thing with such sickness is that they do not heal permanently according to Eekelaar, (2017).
If today the parent treats the child with malaria tomorrow it is cholera. Therefore, there will be
constant sickness in the house because the child is staying in daycare. If the parent is not careful,
the child can pass the airborne diseases to other members of the house.
In conclusion, day care is essential to parents because they relieve the parents from the
usual responsibilities the child needs. However, there are severe disadvantages of spending a
long time in the daycare. As illustrated above the limitations include cost, disease, strange
behaviors among other factors. It would have been crucial for the parents to revert to other
means like having one who can care for the child at home. Home will have a high level of
hygiene as compared to a public daycare. However, if it is challenging for the parent to get one
to look after the child, it may be essential to go for quality daycare which maintains good
hygiene and have skilled teachers.

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References
Barth, R. P. (2017). Adoption and disruption: Rates, risks, and responses. Routledge.
Chawla, L. (2015). Benefits of nature contact for children. Journal of Planning Literature, 30(4),
433-452.
Eekelaar, J. (2017). The interests of the child and the child’s wishes: The role of dynamic self-
determinism. In Children's Rights (pp. 129-148). Routledge.
Flais, S. V. (2018). Caring for your school-age child: Ages 5 to 12. Bantam.
Haberman, M. (2017). What Star Teachers Don’t Do. In Star Teachers of Children in
Poverty (pp. 29-40). Routledge.
Kääriälä, A., & Hiilamo, H. (2017). Children in out-of-home care as young adults: A systematic
review of outcomes in the Nordic countries. Children and Youth services review, 79, 107-
114.
Lee, S. Y., Benson, S. M., Klein, S. M., & Franke, T. M. (2015). Accessing quality early care
and education for children in child welfare: Stakeholders' perspectives on barriers and
opportunities for interagency collaboration. Children and Youth Services Review, 55,
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McKinney, E. S., James, S. R., Murray, S. S., Nelson, K., & Ashwill, J. (2017). Maternal-Child
Nursing-E-Book. Elsevier Health Sciences.
Pecora, P., Whittaker, J., Barth, R., Maluccio, A. N., DePanfilis, D., & Plotnick, R. D.
(2017). The child welfare challenge: Policy, practice, and research. Routledge.

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Romero, M., Preston, V., & Giles, W. (2016). Unravelling Privilege: Workers’ Children and the
Hidden Costs of Paid Child Care. In When Care Work Goes Global (pp. 137-148).
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Sampson, R. J. (2017). Family management and child development: Insights from social
disorganization theory. In Facts, frameworks, and forecasts (pp. 63-94). Routledge.
Smith, E. P. (2017). Bring back the orphanages? What policymakers of today can learn from the
past. In A History of Child Welfare (pp. 107-134). Routledge.