by David Ireland

Created on: June 27, 2008

The real answer is Yes and No. There is no question that some parents are good at child rearing and others are not. The issue that must be recognised is one of compromise. In the society of today it is very difficult to accept that there is an option for many socio-economic groups when it comes to being a stay at home, full-time, child rearer. Unfortunately, the issue of what is best for the individual child remains unresolved because the economic concerns must be given greater weight.

The argument must remain general because there will always be exceptions to the rule. Generally speaking then, children will not be disadvantaged if the child rearing functions are partially catered for by professionally operated child care facilities, competent relatives and friends, or paid individuals who provide one on one child care within their homes or at the child's home. Some parents readily use a mixture of these providers.

If children are reared at home by stay at home parents there appear to be more risks. The parent/s will not usually be trained in child rearing, they might resent having to put a career on standby, they might become bored with things, not nice but it happens! Children might become too reliant on the relationship with the stay at home parent, to the detriment of developing other social and learning skills. The home environment can rarely provide the opportunities for social interaction, educational stimulation, challenge and other critical learning incentives than those that can be experienced in professional child care facilities.

Suprisingly, the home environment is statistically less safe than institutional environments, as is individual transport when compared with mass transport. Even early exposure to colds and flu' can be beneficial to a child in its formative years.

If you talk with most stay at home child rearers, they will tell you that it is only an occasional thing for interaction between parent and child to be more than organisational and instructional. Parent's ability to both recognise and create learning opportunities will be limited by their experience. Often the best mentor for a child is going to be someone that is not related to them.

Maybe parent's spend a little too much time recalling what it was like in their day. As a member of a large family, things were different, society was different, finances were different, neighborhoods were different. Today, we have different issues and different opportunities. Yes, things change and so should our attitudes to child rearing.

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