My husband and I are trying to decide whether we should put our 6 month old in daycare or hire a nanny.

Posted on Oct 19, 2007

Many parents believe that a child needs to learn socialization skills even as an infant. I disagree. I maintain that in the early years, a child needs a loving and nurturing caregiver more than socialization. They have many years of schooling ahead of them to learn to be social. They are babies for such a short time. However, our nannies form playgroups with other nannies, so the children they care for do get the chance to be with other children. Unfortunately, daycare children can become very ill because daycares are a breeding house for germs. We receive calls every day from parents who have a child in group care and because of so much illness, which means one or both parents lose days at work, decide to hire a nanny instead. If it were my child, I would have a nanny for the first three years, then preschool then school.