Childcare : what the science says

This article sprouted out of a rather rash promise. I recently posted about massive scientific errors in a self-professed ‘data driven parenting guide’. This was the very first comment:

Great, so if you were to write a science based, research backed rebuttal to this chapter alone, it would recommend what exactly? No daycare? Daycare in particular family instances at particular ages?

I ask knowing full well I likely won’t be able to meet the ideal, but I personally would prefer to know what that ideal is to attempt to get closer to it.

While I know the research here, I’ve always been reluctant to write about it: everything’s so politicised and parents (understandably) get very upset if they don’t think they’re doing the best by their children. So I promised to DM the commenter. And then this happened…

People get very upset when they feel that science disagrees with their personal choices, whether that’s on climate change, vaccination, GMOs or childcare. You probably have strong views on childcare. If so, please stop reading. You’re not going to get anything out of this, and I hate making people unhappy.

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