But it has also raised voices that had become rather muted in recent years - the lobby that believes that the state should not give any help with childcare costs, that no-one who isn't well off should have children, and that mothers of under-fives shouldn't be in paid employment at all!
I encountered several men (there are women too) with this attitude as I was commenting on the childcare costs story on a couple of radio stations recently.
This all seems to have led seamlessly on to the 'neuroscience' debate about the effects on children from their early experiences. At one end is Aric Sigman, trawling research studies to warn that rising cortisol levels in children in daycare should tell us that there could be severe negative implications from what may not be a benign 'lifestyle practice'.
At the other end was last week's conference at Kent University, where the message was that parents and policymakers should disregard all these 'neuromyths' and stop putting so much stress on what happens in children's early years.
It is true that the findings of neuroscience have been used to justify political and philosophical positions in a way that the neuroscientist themselves would believe excessive. And we need to stop making parents, particularly mothers, feel so guilty about everything.
However, those in the early years sector know from first-hand experience how important the first few years of life are to a child's future. We need to use scientific evidence in a measured, controlled way to give families and society a brighter future.
