I don't think that just because a person puts their child in day care it makes them a bad parent, or that someone else is "raising their child". I didn't read the other posts in the thread, so I may be way off in what I say, but, what else is new, huh???

I would think it would be better for a child to be in daycare then left home alone. I have a neighbor who lets her son, 2nd grade, walk home from the bus (passing by the home of a child molester-one that SHE-the mom- made a point of going door to door on Valentine's Day distributing flyers about, to try and get us all up in arms about) by himself, and stay at home, again by himself, until the parents get home, around dinner time. So, that is 3 hours, at least, unsupervised.

Some people DO need a break from their kids, and don't work and still take their kids to day care. When my kids were younger, we called it Pre-School......2 or 3 days a week. They had a BLAST.....painting, coloring, interacting with other kids, etc.

I do think, ideally, children should have one parent that stays home with them, either thru altered work schedules or just doesn't work at all. Many people, Moms and Dads, give up their jobs to stay at home with their children. Some people, have no choice but to work. Some even have to leave for weeks at a time. Think of our military men and women. They don't work a 9-5 job. The single ones or the dual military career couples, MUST have someone else raise their child(ren) if they both get deployed at the same time, or overlapping times. Sometimes, spouses don't live together geographically, for whatever reason.

I had a friend (notice I said HAD) who would ask me how I could let me DD play with this other girl on our street. Her Mother is so nosey, and the girl runs the streets unsupervised, on and on and on. Of course this woman and her children walked on water, don't ya know <<<EYE ROLL>>>. I told her, I let my DD play with her because she's a nice girl, and maybe, just maybe, DD or my family will be a positive influence on her, and some day she will look back and say "hey, they really helped me become the person I am today". Many times we fed her dinner, lunch, took her places, etc. The Mom would say "oh, can I let her play at your house, I just need to run an errand up the street....." four hours later, she was still there. This was a SAHM, yet, everyone else seemed to spend more time with her DD than her. Some day care would have benefited her.

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