When my children were little, I couldn’t bare to put them in daycare either. I didn’t have children just to let someone else raise them or be the major influential experience on them. We lived on one income and it was tough but it’s not impossible. We only had one vehicle. We raised a garden where I put up food all summer. Other family had farms where we could buy and put up pork and beef at a reasonable price. I could sew which enabled me to make extra money doing alterations and other projects. Hubby got paid once a month and some months it was a big pot of soup that got us through the last week of the month. I went back to work after the youngest got to first grade. My children are exceptional adults. Contributing members of society. I think it makes a big difference when children can avoid daycare.
When I was working and going full time to college after the Air Force and my wife worked all day in a bakery, we put our son in a daycare. I remember the lady, Miss Mincy....wonderful woman who looked after our son and others. My son never suffered because of this. He remembers Miss Mincy to this day (he’ll be 40 in March).