Coffee? or Toffee?

I leave Mickey in the crèche so that I can go to work and make my career. I wonder if that statement is true. We leave the baby in the crèche so that we can go to work, make our careers, and feed ourselves and her. Isn't that the actual truth? Once someone told me that at least one of the parents has to be with the baby during the day. I replied back, may be Shri could think about it. That was my mother in law and I have never ever heard that again. I have put up a lot of fight with the family and myself to get back to work after the baby. Thanks to Shri, he never gave me an option of not working. Finances, career and a better future for Mickey, all of these made me go back to work.

Just yesterday I was telling a pregnant friend of mine the advantages of leaving your baby at the crèche. Mickey learnt a lot. She learnt to share, care, and socialize apart from learning the rhymes and the colors and the numbers and the shapes and the animals and the fruits and so on. There are so many more. Mickey never feels jealous when I carry or am affectionate to another baby. She never feels jealous when Shri holds my hand. But that’s not the case with kids who are stuck to their moms. I have enough evidences.

Of course, she is exposed to illness. She brings home cold, cough and fever. That doesn't mean kids who are at home with their parents never fall ill. There are evidences for this as well. Mickey better get immune to these now than later when she starts schooling.

Another thing about being in the day care is that she misses us. Rather we miss most part of her growth. I feel guilty. I feel guilty coz the mind set with which I was brought up was that the moms are always there for the kids. My mom was there for my sister and for me, forever. I feel guilty coz she may miss us. I feel guilty coz she is so small. I feel guiltier when she is the last one to be picked up in the night. I feel guilty coz the world makes me feel so.

She loves going to the crèche, coz she gets to play with her friends, more toys, more rhymes and more affection from all people around her coz she has been going there since she was 11 months old. That way she helps me get relieved of a little bit of the guilt. But come to think about it, isn't she getting a better future coz of the little extra money that is there.

The Debate - Coffee or Toffee??? goes on!!!!