This doesn't match my experience. We've got two young kids. Both went to daycare from an early age (6 months or so). It's been great for everyone. I think t

This doesn't match my experience. We've got two young kids. Both went to daycare from an early age (6 months or so). It's been great for everyone. I think there's pretty significant upside to the kids to spending time both with other kids and also with multiple different caregivers. It's also great for us adults to have interests/activities/ambitions (like, a career) outside of the kids. Not saying there are no downsides, but overall we're very happy with the decision. I'm not saying you're saying this, but there's this fallacy/myth out there that if you don't want to spend 24 hours a day (or all waking hours of the day) with your child and responsible for their well-being, then you're a bad parent or damaging them or something. It's possible to love your kids, enjoy spending time with them, be a great parent, and also find it exhausting or even untenable to be responsible for them all the time. There's also this idea floating around that people used to raise kids with an extended network of adult caregivers, and that that was good for everyone. That resonates with me. For people who don't have family around to help, daycare has sort of taken that place, for better and worse. (Daycare providers are not faceless service providers -- they become close members of your extended community!) The downsides of this are widely talked about. But I know folks who've had loads of family help ... with significant associated emotional burden.