Attachment

[playfelt]

We never had all these issues back when we had the 6 month maternity leave because by the time children were in the separation phase (9 - 12months) they were already comfortable with the caregiver and accepted her. Really not sure what developmental specialists they talked to when they went to the one year maternity leave or more likely just pulled a number out of a hat. It is truely not the best time for a child.

Parents need to take more responsibility for weaning their child off dependence before starting care and you can clearly see which ones have and which ones still make themselves indispensible to the child - not the kind of child we want into care. Self esteem starts in infancy. We hear so much about what we do hurting a child's self esteem but no one seems to care about that for babies. A child that can not separate from the parent and see themselves as an individual, play and entertain themselves for the intrinsic value it gives is suffering from low self-esteeem and yes it starts in infancy. If not learned then it is something we have to actually teach a toddler and that is where a lot of the crying issues come from. Those that never had the privilege of bringing childrern into you daycare when they were 4-6 months old won't be able to appreciate just how different the transition was for the children. By a year we were having so much fun and concentrating on walking - afterall we had to start potty training by 15 months so they would be done by 18 months. Really dating myself now, lol.