I often why working parents who have children in daycare leave them at daycare when they have a day off from work. Is it because they don’t know what to do with their children when they are off?  Is it because they don’t want to pay for daycare and not send them?  Is it that they don’t have fun with their kids so they don’t want to spend time with their children?

I used to work at a daycare center while I was in college and watched too many parents leave their children at daycare while they went out and had fun.  Watching children be crushed when their parents would drop them off at daycare knowing their parents were not going to work.  They would ask, “Why can’t I stay home with you?”  and listen to the parents respond, Mommy and Daddy need some time to relax. When parents would pick up their children right before closing time after spending a full day by themselves and see those children be crushed, asking “Why didn’t you pick me up?”    After watching children be crushed for years because their parents dropped them off when they were not working, I vowed to never be one of those parents!  I vowed that would never send my children to daycare when I was not working.  If you have appointments to go to then that is not really a day off, but if you are spending a week of vacation relaxing while you ship off your kids to daycare, then why did you have kids if you don’t want to spend time with them?

I have heard people make so many excuses as to why they send their kids to daycare when they have a day off.  ‘I need run errands and my kids are hard to control.”  or, ” They have more fun at daycare than they would at home with me.”  Bologna!  Unless it is a special day at daycare, they would rather be with you. “I need time to myself.” Ugh!  Do you get to go to the OB/GYN by yourself?  Then you have time to yourself!  Next time you have to bring your kids to your annual appointment then you will learn what it means to appreciate having time to yourself. Learn how to have fun with your kids, don’t leave them at daycare, pick them up and go out and do fun stuff with them!   Enjoy your children when they are young and spend as much time with them as possible, quit making excuses of why you don’t spend time with them when you are off work.