Where I live, Germany, it is very common to spend weeks, sometimes even months, trying to slowly get a child used to going to day care. In my home country, the Netherlands, this wasn’t really a thing when I was younger and, from what I’ve learned from people with young children there, isn’t common even today. That got me thinking.

Are there many differences between countries when it comes to day care and specifically getting your children to go to day care in the first place?

We’re currently getting our second child used to day care. For our first child the entire process took six weeks and represented the Idea trajectory - nobody was ill, she liked going there, she liked eating there and she didn’t make a fuss when it was time to sleep there. Still, this represents a significant investment of time (and therefore money) for any working parent. Sometimes it seems really absurd and impractical. I get the impression that the entire day care system in Germany revolves around the idea that mothers don’t work or, if they do, it’s only ever part time.

How does this look like in other countries? I’ve linked an article (in German, but translation services are available) about the system we’re stuck with here, if anyone wants to dive deeper.