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[–]Yayme 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I doubt a socialised childcare is anywhere nearby.

School literally was socialized childcare. The problem here is that our version of socialized childcare is now going away.

The children spent many more hours in school than they really needed to, and honestly, most of it was just busy work. Killing time. Putting in the required hours. The entire week before Christmas vacation is a joke - they're not learning anything, they're just goofing off. And the entire month before summer vacation is the same - field trips, assemblies, in-class parties. Not much meaningful at all happens.

As far as learning actual valuable skills like math, and reading, and history, and science - it was maybe four hours a day.

Which isn't to say that socializing isn't important for kids - because it is. Being around their peers helps them develop their own sense of who they are. It makes them realize if they're the smart kid, or the funny kid, or the athletic kid, or whatever. It gives them a sense of who they are, and how they fit in to the world, and ideally should help develop their self-esteem.

I'm fortunate that I'm in a rural area, so I think we're planning on trying school as normal next year. I can't imagine what life is like in the urban areas. And honestly, I have made a conscious decision to quit reading the news. It's literally ALL just covid or BLM stuff. I feel like there has to be other things going on in the world, but we're not being told about it. And with where I live, Covid and BLM doesn't really have a meaningful impact.... so I just checked out of current events. I got tired of the fear mongering.

The biggest impact to my life personally has been that they almost destroyed our healthcare system because they made it shut down due to Covid fears that never materialized.

But ya, school was our socialized childcare.

Also, I only had one child because I felt the same way you did. I knew I wanted a kid, but I like to travel and shop and have my down time way to much to have multiple kids. I'm also lucky that she's 14, so the super intense hands on parenting years are over. Now it's actually a struggle to get her to interact with me, instead of her needing me 24 hours a day.