Day Care Deception: What the Child Care Establishment Isn't Telling Us

Rating:
Summary: A book guaranteed to trigger postpartum depression
Review: A parent (that usually means "mother") who has a child in a commercial day-care center will probably want to shoot herself after reading this book. Robertson makes a densely argued case against any kind of early-childhood care other than maternal and in-home. "Day Care Deception" will reinforce the choices of the comfortably-off reader (that's me!) who has not had to put her kids in day care. However, some of us at-home mothers worry about the rest of America's kids in addition to our own. There isn't enough quality child care, and it's pointless for Robertson or anyone else to try to hustle American mothers away from paid employment. Most cannot afford that luxury.

Corporate America hasn't done much in a concrete way to accommodate parenthood, and the author doesn't think much of what options parents do have. He appears positively scandalized to reveal that day-care centers are, gasp, a business, and one that has to turn a profit in order to stay viable just as any other business does. Can a day-care center provide loving care to children and make money at the same time? You'd never know it from reading this book.

"In the face of the strange but powerful alliance of feminism and the Business Roundtable, who can be relied upon to defend the interests of children and families?" orates Robertson, near the end of this slim volume. The answer is, parents are on their own. He remains opposed to the "day care establishment that would foist the destructive regime of universal day care on every family, all in the name of concern over children's well-being and development."

I would welcome the existence of a regime Robertson calls "destructive," as long as it's "universal." This would make a welcome alternative to the inadequate patchwork non-system currently prevailing in the United States. Low-income mothers have the fewest choices regarding child care, and Robertson doesn't bother to ask them if they would prefer a clean, safe, universally available day-care environment for their children.

Instead, he trots out an eighty-year-old quote by noted child-care authority [sic] G.K. Chesterton, who is said to have said, "If people cannot mind their own business, it cannot possibly be more economical to pay them to mind each other's business, and still less to mind each other's babies."

Gosh, that's really helpful advice. And talk about witty! Maybe Dr. Laura (she's quoted in this book, too) could embroider that as a sampler.

Rating:
Summary: A book guaranteed to trigger postpartum depression
Review: A parent (that usually means "mother") who has a child in a commercial day-care center will probably want to shoot herself after reading this book. Robertson makes a densely argued case against any kind of early-childhood care other than maternal and in-home. "Day Care Deception" will reinforce the choices of the comfortably-off reader (that's me!) who has not had to put her kids in day care. However, some of us at-home mothers worry about the rest of America's kids in addition to our own. There isn't enough quality child care, and it's pointless for Robertson or anyone else to try to hustle American mothers away from paid employment. Most cannot afford that luxury.

Corporate America hasn't done much in a concrete way to accommodate parenthood, and the author doesn't think much of what options parents do have. He appears positively scandalized to reveal that day-care centers are, gasp, a business, and one that has to turn a profit in order to stay viable just as any other business does. Can a day-care center provide loving care to children and make money at the same time? You'd never know it from reading this book.

"In the face of the strange but powerful alliance of feminism and the Business Roundtable, who can be relied upon to defend the interests of children and families?" orates Robertson, near the end of this slim volume. The answer is, parents are on their own. He remains opposed to the "day care establishment that would foist the destructive regime of universal day care on every family, all in the name of concern over children's well-being and development."

I would welcome the existence of a regime Robertson calls "destructive," as long as it's "universal." This would make a welcome alternative to the inadequate patchwork non-system currently prevailing in the United States. Low-income mothers have the fewest choices regarding child care, and Robertson doesn't bother to ask them if they would prefer a clean, safe, universally available day-care environment for their children.

Instead, he trots out an eighty-year-old quote by noted child-care authority [sic] G.K. Chesterton, who is said to have said, "If people cannot mind their own business, it cannot possibly be more economical to pay them to mind each other's business, and still less to mind each other's babies."

Gosh, that's really helpful advice. And talk about witty! Maybe Dr. Laura (she's quoted in this book, too) could embroider that as a sampler.

Rating:
Summary: A book guaranteed to trigger postpartum depression
Review: A parent (that usually means "mother") who has a child in a commercial day-care center will probably want to shoot herself after reading this book. Robertson makes a densely argued case against any kind of early-childhood care other than maternal and in-home. "Day Care Deception" will reinforce the choices of the comfortably-off reader (that's me!) who has not had to put her kids in day care. However, some of us at-home mothers worry about the rest of America's kids in addition to our own. There isn't enough quality child care, and it's pointless for Robertson or anyone else to try to hustle American mothers away from paid employment. Most cannot afford that luxury.

Corporate America hasn't done much in a concrete way to accommodate parenthood, and the author doesn't think much of what options parents do have. He appears positively scandalized to reveal that day-care centers are, gasp, a business, and one that has to turn a profit in order to stay viable just as any other business does. Can a day-care center provide loving care to children and make money at the same time? You'd never know it from reading this book.

"In the face of the strange but powerful alliance of feminism and the Business Roundtable, who can be relied upon to defend the interests of children and families?" orates Robertson, near the end of this slim volume. The answer is, parents are on their own. He remains opposed to the "day care establishment that would foist the destructive regime of universal day care on every family, all in the name of concern over children's well-being and development."

I would welcome the existence of a regime Robertson calls "destructive," as long as it's "universal." This would make a welcome alternative to the inadequate patchwork non-system currently prevailing in the United States. Low-income mothers have the fewest choices regarding child care, and Robertson doesn't bother to ask them if they would prefer a clean, safe, universally available day-care environment for their children.

Instead, he trots out an eighty-year-old quote by noted child-care authority [sic] G.K. Chesterton, who is said to have said, "If people cannot mind their own business, it cannot possibly be more economical to pay them to mind each other's business, and still less to mind each other's babies."

Gosh, that's really helpful advice. And talk about witty! Maybe Dr. Laura (she's quoted in this book, too) could embroider that as a sampler.

Rating:
Summary: Conformed feminist and stay-at-home mom
Review: As a graduate of Barnard College, I would consider myself a feminist. However, after reading this book, I must say that I am disgusted by the influence of the modern feminist agenda in the media, acadamia and politics, and the subsequent damage which this "feminist" influence causes to children.

New mothers who are trying to make a crucial decision about whether or not to stay home or to return to work are unwittingly given incomplete information. Isn't the women's movement about educating women and giving them the freedom to choose their own path? If so, shouldn't feminists be truth-seekers, educating themselves and other mothers about both the pros and cons of daycare? In Robertson's book, I found example after example of the opposite happening in our society.

Studies showing detrimental effects of daycare have been vilified, or simply refused publication. Childhood experts have taken their anti-daycare (or pro-mother-at-home for the child's early years) comments out of their books because of backlash from feminists. I could continue to give mortifying examples, but please read the book because Robertson does a very thorough job of spelling out for the reader just how bad daycare is for children and why we never hear anyone say so.

I recommend this book to any parent struggling over their employment-childcare decision. I would also recommend this to mothers raising their children full-time because it will support your choice to put your children first. Most of all, I recommend this book to policy makers who falsely believe that government funding of center-based childcare will solve problems. Please read this book.


Rating:
Summary: The TRUTH about Day Care... Finally.
Review: Day Care Deception is an excellent, well-researched, and hard hitting book that reveals the truth of the dangers of non-parental care and the importance of Parent-child togetherness. It challenges our current cultural placations that day care is "OK" and that a parent's choice to put a child in the care of others does not damage that child.

The author discusses a surprising number of very well funded [some government backed] and well researched studies that reveal a huge range of ill-effects to children placed in day care. He outlines how the research itself is manipulated and distorted to show 'positive' or 'neutral' outcomes, when the actual data shows very clearly that the outcomes are overwhelmingly negative. The author also reveals a wide spread media conspiracy to keep these findings from the public to avoid causing anyone to feel 'guilty'.

Any parent considering how their child will be cared for on a day to day basis would do well to read this book. In order to make good decisions, families need to know the *truth*. Every parent wants the best for their child, and they need to have all the facts so that they can provide this to the best of their ability. Robertson has written a very compelling and important book that all parents should be privy to.

Rating:
Summary: The TRUTH about Day Care... Finally.
Review: Day Care Deception is an excellent, well-researched, and hard hitting book that reveals the truth of the dangers of non-parental care and the importance of Parent-child togetherness. It challenges our current cultural placations that day care is "OK" and that a parent's choice to put a child in the care of others does not damage that child.

The author discusses a surprising number of very well funded [some government backed] and well researched studies that reveal a huge range of ill-effects to children placed in day care. He outlines how the research itself is manipulated and distorted to show 'positive' or 'neutral' outcomes, when the actual data shows very clearly that the outcomes are overwhelmingly negative. The author also reveals a wide spread media conspiracy to keep these findings from the public to avoid causing anyone to feel 'guilty'.

Any parent considering how their child will be cared for on a day to day basis would do well to read this book. In order to make good decisions, families need to know the *truth*. Every parent wants the best for their child, and they need to have all the facts so that they can provide this to the best of their ability. Robertson has written a very compelling and important book that all parents should be privy to.

Rating:
Summary: Day Care May Be Harmful to Children and
Review: Day Care Deception provides a focused view of a child-rearing practice that has heretofore escaped much-needed scrutiny. Utilizing current research and insights of his previous book, Forced Labor [There's No Place Like Work], Robertson does a masterful job in presenting a fair but critical examination of the impact of raising children in center-based day care. Day Care Deception's primary value is in establishing the following facts: 1) Parents, especially lower-income parents, consistently say they prefer raising their children at home, or the care of close relatives or trusted friends, not in full-time, center-based care; 2) day-care advocates have successfully obtained federal tax breaks and corporate perks for affluent parents who do drop their infants and small children at center-based care; 3) political leaders in both parties should reconsider policies that hurt those families who sacrifice money and opportunity to raise their chilren at home; and 4) lastly, and most importantly, center-based care is generally physically and psychologically harmful to infants and small children.

The facts about day care are not comforting. Thirty years ago, few parents would ever consider dropping off infants and toddlers for 35-40 hours a week so parents could maintain an affluent lifestyle, but we are doing that today. We tell ourselves false rationalizations like "it helps them socialize," or "they love the toys and interactions." The truth is just the opposite: small children want to be with their mothers and fathers, not with near-strangers, no matter how well-intentioned. As one person in the book asks: if we could all come back as small children, where we would prefer to be raised? At home, or in a day-care center? The answer is obvious to most of us, but somehow we aren't willing to provide that home for our own children. The excuse of economics doesn't justify our actions: most children placed in day care have affluent parents, not struggling working mothers who have no choice.

Families in America are under siege, as Robertson notes. The economic, fiscal and cultural factors that made center-based day care so prevalant are fascinating, especially for those of us who remember the days before extensive day care. I recommend reading both Robertson's books to fully appreciate that history; his previous description of maternal advocacy, and the "family wage" in the feminist movement of the early 20th century is highly instructive. In addition, the developments contributing to the baby boom of 1946-1964 deserve careful consideration.

Day Care Deception is well timed. With the fight over gay marriage, judicial activism regarding privacy, and other issues affecting families and society, day care can and should be carefully evaluated. Politicians in both parties carelessly support "affordable day care", without being forced to explain why other families should pay the cost for this harmful practice. Full-time, center-based day care is not good for children. Whether this surrogate child rearing is morally and culturally justified is a critical question to answer. To date, too many political and corporte leaders have been allowed to act like they are "childrens' advocates" when they prompote day care. It is clear that many of them are not primarily interested in helping children, but in fact prefer governmental intrustion, family restructuring, or private profit.

Reading this book made me grateful to my own mother who raised my sister and me at home in the 1950s and 1960s, and my father who provided that home. Today, that choice is extremely difficult. Many parents today are valiantly resisting cultural trends, suffering financial losses and wrongfully paying taxes for others' day, to raise their own children and avoid full-time day care. Those parents should read this book, as should other parents interested in childrens' welfare. It will help them appreciate the moral value in raising their own children, rather than relinquishing that duty and joy to others.

Rating:
Summary: No punches pulled
Review: Enjoyed the book. Read it after listening to the interview
on First Voice.

The interview is online at
http://www.7to7.net/rob.html

There's a transcript for those using dial up.

--J. R.

Rating:
Summary: hooray for honest research
Review: I am a graduate student researching the negative effects of maternal absence on infant biology and psychology. I have been approached numerous times by fellow grad students and a few professors, warning me that my research might make some moms "feel guilty," and therefore maybe I shouldn't do the research. My response is that moms are adults who can take care of their own emotions and make their own choices. Infants and toddlers are stuck with the choices their mothers make. Why should I not do research to protect moms? Shouldn't we know what's happening to our children?

This book was a breath of fresh air -- at last, someone has the guts to print the real data. Funny thing is, I consider myself very liberal, and an active feminist. I am pro-choice, and very much for working moms -- as long as those moms take those few years off to spend with their developing children (or, find a way to work at home). I am also for paternity leave.

All this is to say that as a scientist, a liberla, and a feminist, I applaud this book. This is not a "conservative" book, it's for everyone who should know the truth about what's happening to our kids. Tough if it makes parents uncomfortable. Do what's best for your kids, not what's convenient for you.

Rating:
Summary: Uncovered Deceptions!
Review: Informative and critical, this book gives each reader a reminder of his or her own childhood. In different cases, the serious ideas inside the book will make you either appreciate your past or make you despise it.

My initial interpretation of the book was split into two contradicting ideas. One being this book gives phenomenal insight to the day care's "don't go there" ideas and its fundamental influence on children at a young age but also a feeling of ultimate disbelief. Robertson points fingers every way, which may be relative, but creates bias while doing so. He sums it up as parents, the government and anybody who supports day care establishments (radical feminists, he says) are uninformed and should have seen the leering evidence long ago.

Although there could be alternatives to Robertson's approach of pointing fingers, his comment at the bottom of the book cover "What the child care establishment isn't telling us" is a definite theme throughout this book and is displayed thoroughly.

This book creates some bias but is written with precise facts that are very informative and gives solutions to this child-rearing problem.