Jan 20, 2010 09:45 PM
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Daycare for US kids
Life in the US is very different. Right from childhood there is a distinct difference. First generation Indians might have found it strange but the next generation has taken to it like ducks to water. With both parents working it is logical that infants have to be looked after by others. No grandmothers or ayahs or servants. It is the ubiquitous daycare for them.
Daycare is a place where children spend time from early morning till evening when their parents are working. They eat, sleep, play, learn the basics of life and get trained in the American way of life here.
Getting a place in a good state recognized daycare is not easy. Mothers scout and screen, look out for the best possible one and book them well in advance. The booking for a place for the infant in a daycare may be done when the mother is in the last stages of pregnancy as help for Indian mothers is generally only for a couple of months or so.
The daycare personnel are well trained efficient people who love children. They enroll just about eight to ten of them in every class so that they can look after the kids properly. Of course they cost quite a bit but the parents can relax, knowing that their children are well looked after. And they are. All possible amenities and comforts are available there. The infants have their own cradles(or bassinets), the toddlers their own beds, tables and chairs and everything in place.
The parents drop the young ones along with their clothes, bottles, lunch and snack boxes, diapers and anything they may need. They specify what their children like or don’t like, when the mother or father will pick them up. The daycare personnel keep a track of everything, when the kids have eaten, when they have slept, when they have been changed and the like. This is given in writing everyday to the parents. If they have fallen down, hurt themselves, been sick is also mentioned.
The infants have their own flexible time but once they go to the next class, when they are about a year old, there may be rules on when they can sleep, when they can eat and when they can play. They take their first steps under the guidance and supervision of the daycare teachers and learn their first words.
After their second birthday the discipline may gently begin. They get toilet trained, learn to put their play things in order, clean up after they finish playing or if they spill something and rush home to tell what they did in the ‘school.’ They learn when to say please or thank you and are trained in good manners and social behaviour.
My granddaughter who is now two and a half years old began going to her daycare when she was six months old. When she went to the next class there was some resistance from her as she was very fond of her teacher and classmates and though she could see them from over the low boundary between the classes she wanted to be back in her old class. Soon her earlier classmates too graduated to her new class and she was happy.
Now Shreya goes happily to her daycare, equipped with breakfast, lunch and snacks, milk, water, her gloves and warm clothes. She plays in the mornings when they have ‘circle’ time when all the kids sit in a circle and recite poems or listen to stories.
They have ‘projects’ where they paint make beautiful things which are displayed on the walls every day. After lunch she has a two hour nap after which she has her snacks and goes to the gym or play ground where she freaks out with her friends. It is lovely to see her running, shouting, laughing as she scoops up mud and puts it in the dumper, or slides down the slide or climbs the car or bus kept there. Here also she learns to wait for her turn and learns that pushing is bad.
A careful eye is kept by the teachers who supervise them. They fall and learn to get up by themselves, their hurt is kissed away and they learn community living.
The day I went to see Shreya at her daycare; the children were being dressed as ‘princesses’ in lovely coloured dresses. They were taken in a procession and they sang a couple of songs.
She happily introduced me to her friends and teachers, took me to the little bathroom where they are taught how to use the toilet and later wash their hands all by themselves.
‘She really enjoys herself and misses her daycare when she is at home during the weekend’, said my daughter, ‘She is kept so active and is so energetic that we find it difficult to keep pace with her. She waits for Mondays to go to her daycare.’
