Letters: Research: Parent skills more important than daycare issue

Tony La Torre's recent letters to the editor have created quite an angry buzz among local parents. I'm glad he qualified the claims of his first letter with a second ("Letter's intention was not to judge," July 16).

I'm on friendly terms with Tony and his wife, and for those who have not met him, he's not an insensitive curmudgeon. He's also not a parent or a child development expert. He's certainly still entitled to his opinions, but like many people searching for an explanation for what they see as the decline of civility in our society, I think he's barking up the wrong tree, especially when it come to child care.

"The optimum environment" for a child is not necessarily "one parent at home." Extensive research by the National Institute of Child Health and Development has shown that kids in daycare generally do just as well academically and socially as kids cared for at home. Kids who attend daycare might be slightly more aggressive—but they also tend to have slightly better math and reading skills. These differences, however, were so minimal as to be "barely noticeable." Google "daycare" and "effects" to find out more.

Tony is right that the secret to happy, healthy, successful kids is loving, stable adult guardians. But the age, marital status, number and gender of those guardians is less relevant than the loving and stable part. In fact, additional research has shown that good parenting skills are vastly more important in a child's development than whether or not a child is in daycare.

To speak only of what is good for children, however, is to ignore the larger picture. Each member of the family deserves to be happy and productive. Many parents choose to stay at home with their children because they want to. I admire that. I also admire people who work outside the home, serving the wider community.

That's the beauty of living in the free world. We can each build the life that's best for our family because we understand our own unique situation better than anyone else. This doesn't mean that any way is the best way—but no way is the only way.

Ruth Rhodes

Crescent City