How risky is it to send young, unvaccinated kids to day care or preschool? What about babies? And if you do decide to send them, what happens when there’s a COVID exposure? We talked to parents about how they’re navigating child-care decisions right now
Photo-Illustration: by The Cut; Photo: Getty Images In the early days of the pandemic, most parents didn’t have a choice about child care. As the virus spread, many day cares and preschools closed entirely, leaving parents scrambling to balance work and taking care of young kids who were suddenly home all day. Now, a year and a half later, parents of children too young for primary school are still making decisions about child care in an ever-shifting framework.
With all this in mind, Dr. Tracey Wilkinson, assistant professor of pediatrics at Indiana University School of Medicine, encourages parents to weigh the risks and benefits to their own family. “There is no wrong or right that applies to everyone,” she said. While recognizing that the risk calculus will look different for every family, she urges parents not to discount the advantages of day care and preschool for young kids .
Even if parents initially decided to keep their kids at home, they’re feeling increasingly burned out. In 2020, many parents rearranged their lives to keep their children at home, trying to avoid exposure to the virus at all costs. In the early months of the pandemic, Emily and her husband moved to Washington state. Her job had gone remote, he was the full-time caregiver for their two young children, and they felt lucky to be able to limit their family’s exposure to the virus.
“My husband and I had to put on our serious-adult pants,” Sara said of deciding to send her daughter to preschool. “Preschool is very optional at this point, but we decided to keep her in the preschool because she is doing so well. Her anxiety has improved so much. And 18 months in …. how much longer can we reasonably wait? She’s only in this fragile developmental window for so long.”
Mike and his wife, who live in Boston, decided to send their son to day care when he was 6 months old. They ultimately felt less concerned about their baby getting sick and more worried about the potential effects of isolation on his development. “Our biggest fear was that he would lack the socialization provided by day care,” Mike said.
What happens when kids get sick? Pre-pandemic, most preschools and day cares had predictable and consistent illness policies: Kids with fever, diarrhea, or neon snot got bounced until they were at least 24 hours symptom-free. With COVID, the stakes are higher, and things are a lot more chaotic. Entire classrooms might shut down for a week or more based on exposure or infection. A sniffly child, previously a persistent fixture of day-care life, now raises eyebrows at drop-off.
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