When I was 14, I assisted at a daycare during summer break.
The first thing I learned was that the children did not want to be there. I had never gone to daycare myself, so I was surprised. It looks like it would be fun when you’re older. Lots of toys and activities.
But little children don’t like it. They may put up with it, might even have a little fun sometimes, but none of them preferred daycare over being home. Not a single one.
They all wanted their mothers. They would stare at the door. We would try to distract them. Some would cry all day long. Some were constantly angry.
I should add that this was a luxe newly built daycare in a small Nordic town where everyone knew each other way back. Not a bunch of random strangers.
The nannies knew the families, but the children still didn’t wanna be there. That was irrelevant. The parents needed the daycare. Nobody asked the children what they wanted. But we could all see it.
After working in a daycare, I could never enroll my children in one.