Bright Horizons offers these tips for helping parents start child care. 1. Recognize your emotions. There are biological things going on that make us feel stress when we separate from our young children. We are meant to protect and care for our vulnerable children. 2. Build a relationship with teachers. The relationship between you and your child’s teacher is a very important one and can go a long way in minimizing difficult emotions. To ensure the experience is positive for the whole family, build a trusting partnership with teachers when starting child care. 3. Have a back-up child care plan. There will be days when the unexpected happens, such as if your sick child is unable to attend child care or your center is closed on a day you work. Having a back-up child care plan in place can ease the emotional upheaval of the situation. 4. Develop routines. Establishing family routines is a way to help children feel more secure and comfortable. Ideas include picking up and dropping off at roughly the same time so the same teachers and children are there and similar activities are occurring; and develop fun routine activities for before and after child care. Maybe you sing the same song every morning and have the same snack in the car on the way home each day. For more information on Bright Horizons, visit brighthorizons.com.
