A portion of parents who currently do not use childcare would do so if the quality were better. While childcare can be very beneficial for children, the critical attitude of parents is not entirely unjustified.
Approximately one in ten parents would only bring their children to childcare if the quality were improved, according to research by Ipsos I&O recently published. This is particularly true for women, highly educated individuals, and parents of young children.
These young parents are not entirely wrong. “For very young children, childcare is not always the best place to be,” says expert Thomas van Huizen.
“We have not yet found evidence that childcare has positive effects for babies from zero to one year,” says Van Huizen. However, a few studies point in the other direction. For example, a study from Bologna shows that it can have negative consequences for children’s IQ.
In the Netherlands, most parents return to work within a few weeks to months after giving birth. They then have to organize the care and childcare for their children. In doing so, they make choices that they stick to in the years that follow, Van Huizen observes. For example, mothers are more likely than fathers to work less.
In countries where children only start attending childcare from the age of one, it is much more common for both parents to work full-time. From the age of one, childcare has many proven positive effects on children, such as the development of language and social skills.
Dutch childcare has improved
The quality of childcare in the Netherlands is good and has “increased enormously in recent years,” says Pauline Slot, who conducts research for the National Quality Monitor Childcare (LKK), among other things. Babies also benefit from this.
For example, there is now one pedagogical staff member for every three babies, whereas that ratio used to be one to four. Since this year, it has also been mandatory to take extra baby training for those who want to work with the very young.
There is still room for improvement in after-school care (bso), Slot notes. “There are not many different activities for all the different interests of children.” To change this, bso’s could offer subjects such as science, technology, music, and drama, Slot believes.
On the waiting list
Almost half of the parents who do not use formal childcare have a positive impression of childcare, according to the Ipsos I&O survey. They prefer to keep their children at home because childcare is too expensive, for example, and they adjust their working hours to the children. Incidentally, only a small proportion can be persuaded to use childcare if prices fall.
Many employers are eager for staff, and the government is also trying to entice people to work more hours per week. On the waiting lists for childcare are parents who currently work fewer hours than they would like. 39 percent of the parents on a waiting list have been there for more than six months. The childcare sector itself is also under pressure due to staff shortages.
In 2023, 72 percent of zero- to three-year-olds went to childcare. Furthermore, after-school care and babysitting grandparents are very popular among Dutch parents.