The Mother Load

A new study of day care will make many moms feel guilty for using it. But they shouldn't

Show me a study about children in day care, and I'll show you a study that's bound to make mothers feel bad. (Let's face it: the prospect of choosing the wrong breakfast cereal is enough to make most of us feel bad.) We moms get caught in the tension between academic studies (and our own fears) telling us that day care breeds ear infections and bad habits, and equally compelling research showing that if we rear our kids at home, we retard their social development. We worry when our toddler clings to us in the morning--and when she doesn't. Add the...

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