I have been caring for children in some way for almost 30 years and I have to say that children seem to reaching developmental milestones later than they did even 10 years ago. I am not sure of the cause. My daughter will be eighteen in July and she was on cereal at 3 1/2 months and was on a cup by 9 or 10 months. She was walking at 11 months etc. I now hear that doctors do not recommend cereal or solids until 6 months at the earliest. I so believe that the longer maternity leave has made the transition to daycare harder on both the child and the parent. Parents need to prepare their child for daycare in every way that they can, this includes self soothing, napping on their own. a reasonable amount of self feeding ( most 12 months olds should be able to pick up small pieces of food). As for the provider asking for payment, I believe she was justified as her contract stated such. I do ask for full fees regardless of attendance but in the case of an extended absence (more than 5 consecutive days) I do reduce the fees by half. Parents need to understand that in order to provide an enriched environment for their child we need to be paid for the service we provide, I am sure that if they worked an extra day they would expect to be paid accordingly. Just because we work from home does not make our profession less valuable.