by Helen Tay

Created on: March 07, 2009

Every child that has been intentionally brought into this world by their parents is much anticipated by their parents. Needless to say, all parents want to give their children the very best they can provide. It is good if one parent can be stay-at-home parent to be available to attend to any of the child's needs. It makes a lot of difference to a child that a parent is around when the child is growing up and when they are back from school.

Now with society changing with the emergence of women working and infant and child care available, child care is now being provided by people who have been trained to nurture the child. This is good as it offers working mothers the option of having children and at the same time the child is being taken care of. Working mothers need to juggle their time to be available to the child and hence, the definition of quality time spends with a child.

I do believe that even with the trained care given by child care givers and quality time spend by parents cannot surpass the care given by stay-at-home parents. It is the spontaneity of each child to talk to their parents when they are with their parents and this is where all the learning begins. A stay-at-home parent is able to guide and nurture the child through daily events and not being confined to certain time duration. This is the benefit where the stay-at-home parent enjoys. A working mother is able to provide more of structured learning with the extra income available. In comparison, the value of learning from a stay-at-home parent has an intangible effect on the child as the child receives the love and companionship from the parent whilst this is not possible with a working parent.

If it is possible, I would recommend that a parent stay at home during the growing years of the child especially from infant to seven years old and another two to three years longer if that can be arranged. It is during this time, the child is capable of learning so much and having a parent around gives the child the benefit of knowing that there is always someone around to be there for them. This time spent cannot be underestimated as the well being of a child is formed during the early years of the child.

The bonds between the stay-at-home parent and the child are much stronger although this fact is subjective to how much bonding a parent does with the child. This fact is challenged when there is a stay-at-home parent whom hardly spends time with the child in comparison to a working parent who makes every effort to spend time with the child after work.

I stand by the opinion that it is better for children to be raised by stay-at-home parents simply for the reason that the parent is available for the child when the child needs someone to love and care for.

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