Child care may be defined as care for young children 0 to 8 years, provided by adults who are either their parents or not their parents. Informal child care by relatives, nannies, or home care providers typically takes place in a home setting while formal care by trained and untrained caregivers takes place in school or care center settings.
The term child care includes physical care, safety, nutritional care, health care, early stimulation, and preschool education services provided to young children in the age group 0-8 years. Caregiving is there for central to development whether a caregiver is a parent, grandmother at home, or a teacher or caregiver/ worker in a child care center. These services form the core of child care. Early exposure to child care can foster children’s learning and enhance their lives and its absence can leave them at risk for troubled relationships and various other social and psychological disadvantages. Responsive caregivers who surround children with language, warmth, and learning opportunities are the key to good outcomes.
Role of mother
Child care has become a major issue in most of the countries of the world. It is a universal truth that children require the love of their mother the most. It is obviously a very hard decision for a mother to select between working out of the home and staying home with the children. Whether she is working or staying home does not matter. If she pays more attention to children, spends quality time with children, shows genuine love for children, and builds a true relationship with each other.
Importance of 0-3 years
It has been proved through experiments and research that a major part of children’s cognitive, affective and psychomotor growth takes place at an early age below three years. There are many types of research that have proved that the absence of parents’ attention towards children at an early age and lack of child care services for further growth and development of children is very harmful.
The current trend in the country
Early childhood care lays the foundation for a child’s overall growth, learning, and development. In India, traditionally family-based child care has been a very strong feature of the Indian family system. Due to urbanization, industrialization, and globalization large number of women are joining the workforce. The institutional child care facilities are highly inadequate and underdeveloped in India so far. The quality of care is also impacted by the knowledge, attitude of mothers and their living conditions. The lack of proper information about child care practices also negatively impacts the quality of child care.
