To go along with the discussions of heading back to work or back to school, I thought I would share my own personal experience. I went back to work last February, was off for the summer and have been back to work now for a few weeks.
Some parents choose to stay home with their children and some decide to head back to work and therefore send their little ones to daycare. Everyone has their reasons for their decisions and no one should feel bad about it – whatever works for your family. I, personally, went back to work and was ok with it - actually I was a bit excited about it. Now, this might be because my little guy adjusted to his home daycare very easily and it was never an issue or it may be because I love my job and enjoy going to it every day or it could be due to the fact that I was getting a bit stir crazy and so was my son.
I, myself, have found many advantages “perks” to sending him to daycare and I thought I would share some of them with you!
Perk #1: Adult Conversation – I don’t know about many of you, but I was dying to have some real conversations that didn’t involve words like, “bottle, diaper, nap, mama, yeah, baby, etc.” Although we tried to meet once a week as a mommy group, I really wasn’t getting enough “real” conversation with people my own age. Being back at work meant that I could talk on a different level and about other topics that were not so baby centred.
Perk #2: Baby Learning- My little guy has learned so much since he has been going to daycare and I credit this to the children he plays with everyday. He has learned an abundance of things in the four short months that he has been going: dancing, crawling, walking, sharing, climbing a slide, playing instruments, social skills, etc. – the learning is amazing. Now, there are many things that I have taught him myself at home, but I find children pick things up so quickly when interacting with their peers. Will he also learn other bad habits from these children? Sure, but that’s a part of life isn’t it, learning again the difference between right and wrong or good and bad? This can, in turn, increase the learning that can take place at home.
Perk #3: Getting Your Identity Back – I was ready to be known again more as Erin, not Mama. I wanted my job as a teacher back and my sense of importance someplace other than home. (Being a mom is my most important job, but I wanted to remember that I was someone other than just a mom, that I could be many things – teacher, mother, friend, colleague, etc.) I was also excited to get out of my “mom clothes” and back into my professional “dress up” clothes – this also made me feel better about myself. I know that I could have worn these while off on my leave, but they weren’t made for playing on the floor, feeding a little one or for walking and pushing a stroller. I just wanted to be “me” again – both inside and out.
Perk #4: More Focused Quality Time with Your Little One – We now rush home to pick our little man up after work and spend the 3 – 4 hours totally focussed on him. It is almost like we are fighting for his attention and it is all about him. Weekends too are more precious – we look forward to them and plan fun outings and get-togethers to do as a family. All in all these are our special moments and we don’t waste a minute of them.
My husband and I are both teachers so we do have an ideal situation. We get two weeks off at Christmas, one at March Break, plus July and August off. Perhaps this is why we are ok with sending our little guy to daycare as we do have a great deal of time off with him. Every situation is different, but I thought I would just share a few of my reasons as to why I feel daycare is beneficial for us and our little guy.
Guest Blogger: Erin Ryan
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