Where I live, Germany, it is very common to spend weeks, sometimes even months, trying to slowly get a child used to going to day care. In my home country, the Netherlands, this wasn't really a thing when I was younger and, from what I've learned from people with young children there, isn't common even today. That got me thinking.
Are there many differences between countries when it comes to day care and specifically getting your children to go to day care in the first place?
We're currently getting our second child used to day care. For our first child the entire process took six weeks and represented the Idea trajectory - nobody was ill, she liked going there, she liked eating there and she didn't make a fuss when it was time to sleep there. Still, this represents a significant investment of time (and therefore money) for any working parent. Sometimes it seems really absurd and impractical. I get the impression that the entire day care system in Germany revolves around the idea that mothers don't work or, if they do, it's only ever part time.
How does this look like in other countries? I've linked an article (in German, but translation services are available) about the system we're stuck with here, if anyone wants to dive deeper.
Yeah this is how things roll here in Australia, more or less.
We did an initial visit with mum, dad, and twins for an hour or so. Then the next week just with mum again for an hour or so.
After that we just dropped them off and left them there for 3 hours or so, 2 days a week. They would cry for a few minutes when you drop them off, and cry when you arrive to collect them. Generally though they had a great day playing with educators and other kids.
The thing I learned around that time was, crying doesn't necessarily mean sadness. Like when you arrive to collect them they're not suddenly "sad", but they burst in to tears and look very upset. It's just an emotional moment. When they see you they're happy, excited, they feel love, and loss, and yeah maybe a bit angry that you left them there. They're still figuring out all of these emotions and yeah it manifests as crying.