Working mothers 'damage their child's health'

Telegraph ^ | 12/30/06 | Graeme Paton

[bruinbirdman]

Working mothers are harming their children's long-term development by sending them to nursery from an early age, a leading author said yesterday.

Michael Morpurgo, the former children's laureate, sparked controversy by saying that it was "utterly extraordinary" that half of mothers with children under five had jobs outside the home.

He said lack of contact between children and parents was directly to blame for rising levels of mental health problems, sleep disorders and anorexia in young people.

The comments were dismissed by child care groups, which said studies showed that youngsters benefited from increased contact with other children as early as possible. But they won support from the Conservatives, who said nurseries were subjecting children to an unnecessarily formal education.

The debate follows the launch of The Daily Telegraph's Hold on to Childhood campaign – a drive to raise awareness of the damage caused by junk food, marketing, over-competitive schooling and electronic entertainment on children's lives.

Mr Morpurgo, recently awarded an OBE for services to literature, said: "It is utterly extraordinary now how many children grow up without their mothers around them. You have got 50 per cent of mothers these days of children under five who are employed outside the home. Well, you are cutting off something there, whether you like it or not, and it may be an uncomfortable thing to recognise."

He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that sending children to school at four or five was too early.

"We pack our children off to care groups or even to school, but many countries in Europe do not send their children until they are seven," he said. "They live in the bosom of their family. That is where they are nurtured – within the nest. That is where they can grow their wings, they can learn to fly." He added: "I don't think it is an accident that one in 10 of our children is suffering from mental health problems, from sleep disorders, from eating disorders and things like that."

In October, an eminent group of child care experts raised concerns about the long-term effect of placing children in inadequate day nurseries. In a letter to The Daily Telegraph, they said that separating children from their mothers risked "storing up behavioural difficulties".

Last year, research by Professor Michael Lamb, of Cambridge University, found that nurseries caused distress to young children. He found that levels of the stress hormone cortisol doubled in youngsters during the first nine days of child care without their mothers present and continued to be much higher among children five months after starting nursery compared with those who stayed at home.

Of the 521,000 day care places in England and Wales, about 85,000 are thought to be taken by under-threes.

Sue Palmer, a former head teacher, who wrote the book Toxic Childhood, charting the damaging influences of modern life, said: "Children need one-on-one care in their earliest years. It affects their education and gives them a head start in life. While nurseries can provide safety and warmth, they cannot provide the attention and consistency that a mother can."

However, Hayley Doyle, spokesman for the National Day Nurseries Association, said: "Many parents need to work and should not be criticised for choosing to send their children to a nursery. The vast majority of nurseries are recognised as being of a high standard and studies have shown that children who have been to them are, in the long term, higher achievers and better earners."

But David Willetts, the Conservative shadow education secretary, agreed that nursery education might be harming young children. "What is happening is we are making child care for three- and four-year-olds much too like a formal school experience – that's what all these Ofsted inspections are forcing them to do," he said. "We are not allowing children to go through their own development."

Penny Nicholls, strategic director of the Children's Society's two-year Good Childhood Inquiry, said: "We have one of the lowest wellbeing quotas in Europe for children. Even though we are twice as wealthy as we were 50 years ago, that wealth has not brought happiness."

[lndrvr1972]

Well, if the American family was not taxed to death there could be a one bread winner for the family.

[metmom]

I'll NEVER understand a mother who goes back to work soon after having a child. I can't help but wonder why they even bothered to have one in the first place.

It's beyond me, too. Children are a full time commitment. Why have them just to shove them off to daycare,/nursery school/school?

[Humidston]

God bless you both.

Liberty Wins, I just read your grandmother's story and it was beautiful! I had a wonderful "Grandmother In Law" who was cut from the same cloth. I was delighted when she decided to adopt me as her own flesh and blood, and I still treasure some of her most precious mementos that she gave me before she passed away. Her avocado green Kitchen Aid mixer still rests on my kitchen counter for use when I bake her recipes! Her name was Ruth. Lord how I miss her.

[metmom]

There's a book out called *Better Late than Early* by Drs. Moore and Moore, that discusses that very issue. Many children are not physiologically ready for school until 10. The optic nerve is among the last to be myelinated and so the signal is often garbled by the time it gets to the brain. They state that many of the cases where kids are put in special programs to help with there dyslexia improvement came because the child matured physically not because the program worked. But since the child improved while in the program, the program is given the credit.

[wintertime]

Once it gets its will and Pre-k is established throughout the land. The NEA will then lobby of toddler schools.

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The above should read: Once it gets its will, and pre-k is establish throughout the land, the NEA will then lobby for "Toddler Schools".

Best to correct this now. Bannie has been having great fun correctly my posts for grammar errors.

[wintertime]

But what to do when parents refuse to read to their kids because they are tired or busy?

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The illiteracy rate in my county in Maryland was 20%. The parents are products of the government schools as well.

[ishabibble]

That is exactly right. "Uncomfortable" doesn't even cover it...in the case of my own daughter, it was pure selfishness. However, being a battle-scarred mother during the 80's, which I survived very nicely on homecooking and a real genius for bargain shopping, I was able to emotionally manipulate, that is to say SHAME, my daughter into seeing the cold hard fact that her son was being harmed by being in a windowless concrete building with people I wouldn't let watch my dog. For three yrs. I never called my grandson anything but "Veteran Commuter". I wrote my daughter a long apology letter, stating that if I had known the damage a Masters degree would have on VC, I would have never sent her to that overpriced university. I can only thank God that she went to college before Girls Gone Wild took hold. I also took one week's worth of coffee cups and fast food wrappers out of her car and giftwrapped them.

My daughter quit her "career" and is a full-time wife and mother now. She will be having her second child in the early summer. It was never about money since Mr. X gave them a beautiful house and vehicles when they married, it was about feminism. My poor girl was brainwashed with the idea that her worth was tied to a workplace, a title, a salary and perks. She is pretty happy these days, if a little chagrined, and my grandson is over the moon to be with his mommy every day.

This article is dead on. Watch it be buried before dawn tomorrow.

[Spyder]

No brainer, that one. If you and your spouse can't afford to spend (at least) the first five years with your child, you can't afford to have a child. And it may mean that you don't have all the toys you want. Those things are pretty low on the scale compared to your child's love and future happiness.

You're welcome to your opinion, of course. Mine is that that is a bunch of B.S. We have two very happy, healthy, well-adjusted children (aged 21 and 17) who have done very well. If every family with 2 jobs waited till they "could afford" it, all that would be left is kids on welfare. I don't feel a bit uncomfortable reading the piece because at no place is the source of this identified as any kind of expert other than the self-named variety.

I worked between 20 and 40 hours a week from the time each of our kids was 8 weeks old. Dad was Army (now retired) so he worked full-time and then some, being gone to Korea for 2 years total without us and a 4-month stint in Kuwait. Both our kids enjoyed going to daycare and enjoyed coming home. I remember them in middle school, listening to Dr. Laura on our way home from school, and they would get ticked when Dr. Laura would insist that women stay home.

You want to hold yourself up as holier than thou for staying home with your kids, that's your perogative, just don't expect everybody to agree with you or follow your advice unless you have some pretty darned exemplary children.

[Spyder]

I grew up in the same small community where the Moores lived and taught. They had a certain following, and they were "interesting characters," but their research wasn't so overpowering that more than a very few of their students followed their lead.

[Salvation]

I agree with this article. Stay home with your kids. Cut back -- we can all live on less.

[Salvation]

Good for you. and hugs too!

[Theo]

You're exactly right, of course. It's a sacrifice -- one filled with joy and fulfillment -- to care for your kids, but they turn out better if parents are engaged with them through their "formative" years.

Too bad so many mothers feel the need to fulfill their occupational goals and pay off school loans instead of care for their kids. Yeah, sexist of me....

[Politicalmom]

My youngest child is three and I STILL don't leave her with a babysitter. I would never leave a child who can't communicate well with a stranger.

I am thankful that I have a good husband who values my contribution to our home and children over having extra money.
I would have never survived leaving a six week old baby in daycare.

[ExTexasRedhead]

I agree wholeheartedly with your comments. IMO, infants and small children should never be left in daycare facilities to be raised by strangers. Don't have children if you can't raise them yourself for at least the first five to seven years of their lives.

[endthematrix]

" But what to do when parents refuse to read to their kids because they are tired or busy? I scratch my head on that one daily.

Thats rationale behind public schooling. The problem isn't that there is a "free" educational system in place to reduce illiteracy in our country, it's that the system has been HIJACKED by the NEA and become a social experiment for various agendas.

[derllak]

Thank goodness for mommies like you! Trust me, you'll never regret the time spend with your beautiful children (like I need to tell you that!) I'm thrilled your husband is supportive. Every child should be so blessed! Enjoy your children....they grow up way too quickly! :)

[little jeremiah]

Read/pingout tomorrow.

[Mygirlsmom]

I'm making a sweeping indictment. Spend time with your child (4 years old and younger) and you will be richly rewarded. Pawn off the responsibility to others and take what you get. Sorry to be cold, but those are the facts as I see them. Some here may not like it. Tough.

Truer words were never written! MGD and I can tell within about 5 minutes of interacting with a child whether they were raised at home or in daycare. It has nothing to do with whether they are "naughty or nice", but rather how they respond to attention when it's given. Take a look at my profile for my story...

[SALChamps03]

I am a father of two daughters; one 15 and one 10, who both went to daycare while her mother and I worked to provide them with food, clothing, medical care,a home, and other basic needs. They are well-adjusted intelligent children.

[SALChamps03]

I'm not a member of the NEA, nor have I ever been a member of the NEA, nor will I ever be a member of the NEA. There is an old saying that explains what happens when one assumes. I do not support the NEA in any way shape or form; never have; never will.