Various theories and bodies of research on child development place an increasing emphasis on how the emerging sense of self and resilience within young children are strengthened by a secure relationship with their primary caregiver.
Across the industrialised countries of the world, full daycare in a group setting is a fact of life for ever more children at ever earlier ages, for ever longer hours. Today, it is possible that young babies and children may spend more time across a week in the care of a secondary caregiver than in their own parents' care.
A baby who is in nursery from the age of three months old to school age, from 8am to 6pm, five days a week, will spend thousands of hours in out-of-home care. This, in what is a significant and crucial period of time in any child's life, leads us to realise how equally important the relationship between a parent and their child's secondary caregiver should be.
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