A couple of months ago I told you a little about the kind of society that we have invented (or that we have allowed to be invented), in which children have little real importance in the gear of an adult world and end up being almost an impediment to Let's develop our professional activity, being forced to look for someone to take care of them.
It is what has happened. We have to pull the grandparents or point them to the nursery and, although most are a few hours and that's it (which in itself would not have to happen, because parents would have to have the option to take care of them), it has been seen that 22% of children who go to nursery school spend more than 8 hours a day. Come on, that on schedule "work" more than most adults. Regrettable.
These are the figures that emerge from the study "Nursery and Families 2013", conducted by Edenred, and show that there is an increase, since last year there were 16% children who followed those schedules. In addition, they have seen that 80% of children spend a minimum of five hours.
Now the children go later
Probably related to the crisis and the lack of means of families, this year it has been seen that the children enter the nursery later. In 2012, 75% of children entered before reaching the year of life and this year the percentage has dropped to 70%. In addition, if in 10 years ago 10% of children went to daycare 12 months of the year, this year only 6%. The rest is used for 10 to 11 months, staying that month or two months with parents or a family member.
And this is a problem?
Ok, some children spend more than 8 hours a day in daycare, for 10-11 months. This causes them to be there about 1800 hours a year there. Is this a problem for children? Well, not for everyone, because it cannot be generalized, but for many, since many children are stressed by simply being separated from their mother and father.
As we have commented on other occasions, a child should not stress. The adults get stressed. Some of us even burn from so much stress, and the consequences we all know: unhappiness, somatization, depression, anxiety, etc. It is an unpleasant situation that we want to get out of, something that is normally achieved with a change of habits or a change of life, that is, moving away from the source of stress. If we adults, who have tools to manage this stress, want to get away from it, imagine little children, who have not yet learned to live with stress, much less try to stop it.
They only have to complain, they only have to cry, in case someone takes pity on them, and they only have to get attached to what they play for the day and show the parents, when they are with them later, that they are not comfortable with the situation where they are, that is: misbehaving, constantly challenging them and making them angry. Something like a "look, all the tension that I have accumulated in the nursery today I have to take it out at some point, and what better place and time than at home, with the people I trust."
So eight hours ...
So yes, eight hours is many hours for any child. Too many It's forty hours a week. Regrettable. And I don't say it to blame the parents, because "you're leaving it there all day." I say it because if they do so, it is because they have no other way of doing it, and this is what should not happen. Children are the citizens of the future, and they are also the present. We must give them resources, tools and support in their growth and development so that they grow emotionally healthy, physically strong and with a relative autonomy that allows them to make decisions and seek solutions.
In the first years of life, which are the most important emotionally, children need above all, especially, their parents.
Their parents, because they are the people who love them most, the ones who can give them the most love and the ones who can spend the most time, exclusively or almost exclusively (sometimes there are other brothers), so that they know the world, life , emotions, conflicts, solutions, love, feeling safe, feeling protected and learning to live and be. Yes, many of these things can be learned in kindergarten, but it is not the same. The idea is that they create bonds and bonds of trust with someone, and there is no one better than their parents to make that happen.
But are they so stressed?
Well that seems. In a study conducted in Switzerland in 1999, cortisol (stress hormone) levels were compared in 70 children, aged between 39 and 106 months. They took samples at home and in the nursery where they went throughout the day in two moments, mid-morning and mid-afternoon. In addition, parents and teachers filled out questionnaires to assess the behavior and temperament of children (if they were outgoing or rather introverted, if they behaved aggressively, etc.).
The researchers saw that cortisol levels increased when children went to daycare or school, and also saw that children aged 3-4, the youngest of those studied, increased cortisol level as the day progressed. When the children played with other children and had a good relationship, the levels increased less than when the children played alone, who suffered a more pronounced increase and, in addition, had worse self-control and worse behavior. When they were at home, the levels had the opposite tendency. In the morning they were somewhat higher and as the afternoon came they were decreasing.
The normal thing is that, that cortisol levels are higher in the morning, which is when we are most active, and as the day progresses they go down, falling in the afternoon until falling at night to go to sleep. In children aged 3-4, on the other hand, the trend was the opposite, so it can be said that it is so much that yes they get stressed enough, especially if we consider that we talk about children who here in Spain, by age, already go to school. Imagine how much stress those who separate here from their parents will be much smaller.
And not only stress, but also health
But it is not only stress that a child who spends more than eight hours in a daycare can take. Everyone knows that in a place where there are many children, diseases spread with incredible ease, because they all have very immature immune systems.
It is estimated that children who go to kindergarten have twice the risk of otitis, pneumonia and virasis and that is why pediatricians have come to recommend that they not be enrolled in a nursery school until they are at least two years old.
But hey ...
But nothing, it is what it is, this is still the case and will continue to be that way as long as governments allocate more resources to create childcare places so that we can reconcile work and family leaving them there to take care of others than to give us longer leave for take care of them. No, shut up, this was a few years ago. Now neither nursery places nor paid time to be with the children.
