1588 Mommy study making bloggers mad

The only thing that surprised me about this study is that 1) they ever got funding to do it, and 2) they were allowed to publish it. Really, the pressure is that strong to assure us that children don't need parents--just government programs. And if the program doesn't work, it just needs more money.

"One of the longest and most detailed studies of UK childcare has concluded that young children who are looked after by their mothers do significantly better in developmental tests than those cared for in nurseries, by childminders or relatives."

Among other things in the article, I noticed this:

"Underpinning much of the problem revealed in the study was the discovery that most mothers leave organising childcare to the last minute before returning to work. This can have worrying consequences, concluded Leach.

She described the numbers of mothers not taking up references for child carers as 'staggering' and added 'there were mothers happy to leave a baby with an au pair, after one phone call conducted through an interpreter'."

It happens here in Columbus, Ohio too. I drove past a house on a busy street yesterday that had a handpainted sign in the yard "babysitting + phone #" and I was left to wonder if the resident was advertising for a sitter, or if she was offering to babysit. Either way, it's scary to think someone might chose a drive by babysitter that way.