(ed:..bloody hell..!..i find myself agreeing with family first?and that ...

??Conservative lobby group Family First is using a report from a controversial academic to claim day care is detrimental to children.

The group issued today the report that claims spending long periods of time in day care ? and away from parents ? is detrimental to a child?s long-term development.

Family First commissioned its report, Who Cares, to look at the increasing number of children and infants spending time in early childhood education while their parents are at work.

Advocates say staying at home with their children is a luxury that many parents can no longer afford.

Hayley Whitaker, early childhood spokeswoman for the NZEI union, said parental policies in New Zealand were ?abhorrent? compared to other countries.

?We should be able to give people the choice to be at home with their children.

They shouldn?t have to feel that they?re forced back into the workforce.?

However, there was a lot of evidence to show high-quality early childhood education benefited children, she said.

?Everything in moderation, really.?

That quality depended on having qualified teachers and better student teacher ratios.

In his report, Dr Sigman said the level of a stress hormone, cortisol, was increased in 70 to 80 per cent of children in centre-based care.

The hormone is produced in response to fear and uncertainty ? and too much of it was linked to a lowered immune system, he said.

?Attending daycare for an extended time ? whether small-scale and home-based ? or large-scale and centre-based -

- that routinely triggers stress in young children could have potential long-term consequences for their mental and physical health as adults.?

High-quality care did not override the effects, the report said.

?The degree of warmth and affection ? particularly between mother and child ? can curb a child?s stress reactions and generally make a child more resilient to stressful and difficult situations later on.?

Dr Sigman recommended fulltime parenting should be a child?s right ? that the status of fulltime mothers should be enhanced -

- and the current 14 weeks? paid parental leave be extended considerably.

Child Poverty Action Group spokeswoman Susan St John said the problems in accessing day care were inflexibility and the high cost.

?It?s like a contract and a commitment ? which then gets parents trapped on to a treadmill ? and at the end of the day they might be quite surprised when they do the sums to work out that actually they?re not much further ahead.?

None of that was concerned with what was best for the child, she said.

Labour social development spokeswoman Jacinda Ardern said financial constraints often forced parents back into work.

?Families need to be able to make the decisions around the care of these children that work best for them -

- but right now it?s not a matter of choice for many of them.?..?

go to source/story>>>

Day Care Study: Critics Dispute Family First Findings? | Stuff.co.nz.

Source: http://whoar.co.nz/2012/ed-bloody-hell-i-find-myself-agreeing-with-family-first-and-that-really-is-a-first/

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