Stranger at my Crib

"It is morning. Helen wakes, stretches, and turns over in bed to giver her husband a good-morning kiss. To her surprise he's isn't there. She hears footsteps entering the room, turns again, and is startled to see a stranger coming toward her-someone who's face and voice are unfamiliar. The stranger bends down, arms outstretched, and begins to lift Helen from her bed. The strangers touch is frightening. Helen starts to cry out-and then, abruptly, awakens to the light of day. Helen has had a bad dream. Before too long, it's disquieting emotional echoes will fade away. But for millions of infants and toddlers, Helens bad dream is far too often a reality-a reality that is repeated many times during their first few years of life."

The previous is an excerpt from Chapter 1, Who Cares for Our Children: A Parent's Dilemma, from Dr. Isabelle Fox, Ph.D.'s controversial book BEING THERE The Benefits of a Stay-at-Home Parent. She was a guest on this weeks show, Progressive Parenting. According to Dr. Fox, "Millions of infants and toddlers are being deprived of nurturing care due to both parents working and the frequent changing of primary caregivers."

She proposes the first two years are so integral to the healthy mental outcome of your child, that it is worth reconsidering your current lifestyle to foster this very important window of opportunity in a child's life. She states that most people are willing to get into debt and take out a loan to afford a car or a home, even a college education. However, it never occurs to parents to take out a loan to be able to afford to stay at home for the first two years of your child's life. She contends that in the final analysis, two years is but a blip on the timeline of your life. She believes that investing in a solid foundation is essential, "what good is it to build stories on top of a shaky foundation?" Without a steady foundation anything built on top of it is worthless.

"Caregiver roulette-the frequent change of primary caregivers-can cause lifelong and severe emotional damage."

The dangers of Caregiver Roulette are made up of the 5 D's:

• Drop Outs: 35% of American kindergarten children arrive unprepared to learn
• Delinquent behavior
• Difficulty in establishing intimacy
• Depression
• Drug and alcohol abuse

Dr. Fox went on to say that what children need to thrive are what she refers to as the three P's.

Proximity, Protection and predictability.

To hear more, tune in Thursday at 1pm on 88.1 KFCF FM, or listen streaming live at www.kfcf.org