As a stay-at-home parent, spending tons of time with your children is truly a blessing. However, just because you’re a stay-at-home parent doesn’t mean you can’t send your child to daycare. In fact, you’d likely be surprised to learn that many of the kids currently enrolled at Cornerstone Academy have stay-at-home parents!
That’s because enrolling your child in daycare (even if it’s just part-time) comes with many benefits, such as the development of socialization and independence skills. It also gives you, the parent, some time back in your day! Read on to learn more about why you should enroll your child in daycare as a stay-at-home parent.
5 Reasons Why Your Child Should Go to Daycare Instead of Staying Home
1. Socialization With Other Children
Even if your child loves your company, it’s important to give them time with their peers! These interactions are essential to early development, and research shows that children with strong social skills are more likely to thrive as adults.
Daycare will have your kids practicing things like:
- Sharing and taking turns: Daycares have a limited number of toys, which encourages kids to learn to wait, trade, and negotiate with each other.
- Conflict resolution: Disagreements between children are bound to happen—luckily, with practice, they’ll learn to navigate these conflicts and apologize.
- Self-regulation: At daycare, they’ll be exposed to a wide range of emotions that they’ll need to learn to manage, such as calming down after their parents leave at drop-off.
- Making friends: Some of the first friendships happen at daycare! These relationships are crucial to developing lifelong social skills.
- Following rules: Taking directions from teachers, such as cleaning up or quieting down when told, will teach them the importance of following instructions and paying attention.
2. Prevents Separation Anxiety
It’s common for young children to feel anxious when being separated from their parents. For the first few years of their life, all they know is the company of their caregivers, and they naturally think of them as a source of safety and comfort. However, not giving your child opportunities to grow away from you can worsen the problem, leading to distress, nightmares, or a reluctance to leave your side.
It may feel hard to send an anxious child to daycare, but over time they’ll become more comfortable in your absence (especially once they understand you’ll always come back to get them) and learn to trust another grown-up. This will do wonders for their independence and confidence as they age.
3. Opportunities for Unique Activities
While it’s highly likely your home is full of fun activities to do with your kids and help them learn, there are admittedly some limitations to what you can do. Sending your child to daycare gives them the opportunity to experience new things they would not have been able to do at home.
Daycares take the kids on field trips, bring in special guests like firefighters and magicians, and even host holiday concerts or Thanksgiving meals. And the best part is, because the daycare is handling all the fun, the staff is in charge of dealing with the resulting messes—not you!
4. Gives You a Break
Being a stay-at-home parent is truly a full-time job, and just like any other job, sometimes you just need a break. (And that’s okay!) Trying to take on too much, or failing to give yourself a breather, can result in parental burnout. (In fact, about 30% of parents suffer from some form of burnout.)
Signs of parental burnout include:
- Exhaustion (that sleep doesn’t fix)
- Emotional distance or withdrawal
- Irritability or a short temper
- Physical symptoms (such as headaches, stomach issues, or muscle tension)
While some of these are an inevitable part of being a parent to young kids, you should still prioritize your well-being—not just your kid’s. Doing so will allow you to be happier, more present, and a better parent when your child is home. Take the extra time back in your day to catch up on chores, run errands, or (most importantly) do a little relaxing!
5. Gets Them Familiarized With School Routines
As children get closer to school age (we know, they grow up so fast!), getting them familiarized with a routine can make the eventual transition to school a lot easier on you both. Daycare will expose them to things like the structure of a classroom, following directions from a teacher, and not having a parent nearby. That way, on the first day of school, they won’t be caught completely off guard.
How to Decide if Daycare Is Right for You
Deciding whether to keep your child at home or enroll them in daycare isn’t easy! After all, every family’s lifestyle, budget, and childcare needs are different. Before deciding, consider asking yourself these questions:
- Can I afford daycare?
- Is my child’s temperament better suited for daycare or staying at home?
- Would I want to enroll my child in part-time or full-time daycare?
- If I choose to keep my child at home, can I provide them with the same educational opportunities as daycare? What about social opportunities?
- Does daycare drop-off and pick-up work with my family’s schedule?
- Are there daycares near my home or spouse’s work that are well-suited for my child? If not, how far will we need to go?
Considering Daycare? Enroll Your Child at Cornerstone Academy!
If you’re a stay-at-home parent interested in having your child join us part-time, contact us today! We offer programs for infants, toddlers, preschool-aged children, and school-aged children, and we also have a FREE 4K program. Our curriculum specializes in social and language development through art, movement, imagination, and (most importantly) playtime!
