August 15, 2000 - Tuesday
When I dropped Harry off at Daycare this morning he started to cry, red-face and all. He's not done that before, not with me at least. His mother's been getting some of that recently, but that's because she's the mother and has the goods, and likely because she spend much of the month of July with Harry. But, we both spent the entire week with Harry on vacation and perhaps he's starting to remember his father. Whatever the reason, he sure didn't want me to leave him.

I drove away thinking what a terrible idea daycare is. This arrangement we now have of active parenting seems like such a much better way. With daycare, you leave you child with a virtual stranger for the better part of the day (at least we will be doing that starting next month) for them to especially raise as they see fit, potentially compromising parents' own methods of child-rearing. What's more, it made Harry miserable to be there without me. Wouldn't it be better to keep trying to be with him ourselves? It might be difficult with his mother going back to the library full-time, but maybe there's a way.

When his mother and I returned to the daycare at lunchtime to pick Harry up he was happily playing with his friend Eleanor, learning from her because she's a few months older and developing his social skills. He didn't seem at all affected or afflicted by my earlier departure and reputedly settled right down shortly after I left. So, maybe daycare's not such a bad idea after all.

And, all that crying about daddy leaving is almost certainly just a normal phase, but one that pulls the strings of parents. It's all an apparently normal part of babies becoming familiar with the world around them. Harry's growing awareness of his environment has yielded other intrigue as well, including him bursting into tears last evening when we pulled over in our car to say hello to a friend we happened to see. Harry was probably surprised to see a face in the window after watching the trees zoom by right before, but his startled reaction suggests a much greater understanding of what's around him and what should be around him. Harry needs to keep learning and daycare, ultimately probably helps that process.


Comments, opinions?