First Experiences: Going to Day Care

Date: 1985
Author: Fred Rogers
Photographs: Jim Judkis
Publisher: G.P. Putnam's Sons
Series: First Experiences
ISBN: 0399212353
Purchase: Amazon (Paperback)

Text and photographs copyright © 1985 by Family Communications, Inc.

Summary

Going to Day Care is a publication from the Mister Rogers' Neighborhood First Experiences series. In this book, real life photos are used to help young people feel more comfortable with any fears or reservations they may be feeling about going to day care.

A Note From Fred Rogers

For more and more young children, day care -- rather than preschool or kindergarten -- is becoming the first major separation from home.

For many parents day care is a necessity, but even those who put their very young children in day care by choice have mixed feelings about what that separation may mean. Most parents find separation easier to cope with when they feel good about the people who will be looking after their child and about the place where their child will be. Finding a day-care situation that feels "just right" may take a lot of time and effort, but I believe you'll find that time and effort worthwhile -- for both you and your child.

Talking candidly with your child about going to day care can help lessen his or her anxious feelings about being away from you. When children are reassured that they will come home at the end of the day, they can often find more enjoyment in all that happens during your times apart. And letting them know how much they are loved and valued at home can help them develop healthy, trusting attachments to the new adults who will be looking after them in day care.