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.
Usually the institutions will try to have the different kids with their parents at different timetables of the day and start on different days.
Usually after a few days the parents will be sent out and gradually lower their time spent in the institution.
Also you normally have different professionals take care of different new kids so you don’t have to take care of all the parents and new kids every day.
Yes, it means you will have a few days and maybe weeks at the start of the kindergarten year where you got some parents there whatching your every move, but you get used to that very fast, especially if you have the feeling you know what you are doing (basically meaning experience).
You are not logged in. However you can subscribe from another Fediverse account, for example Lemmy or Mastodon. To do this, paste the following into the search field of your instance: !parenting@lemmy.world
Usually the institutions will try to have the different kids with their parents at different timetables of the day and start on different days. Usually after a few days the parents will be sent out and gradually lower their time spent in the institution.
Also you normally have different professionals take care of different new kids so you don’t have to take care of all the parents and new kids every day.
Yes, it means you will have a few days and maybe weeks at the start of the kindergarten year where you got some parents there whatching your every move, but you get used to that very fast, especially if you have the feeling you know what you are doing (basically meaning experience).
Huh, so it’s a whole thing in Germany.
Sane.
My thoughts on this will differ a lot depending on how old the kids are, and a few other factors.