There’s actually a nonzero amount of skill involved in child care, especially for younger children. If you have no experience and you’re dumped into it, you’re probably going to feel overwhelmed. You’re also probably going to do a bad job. You’re unlikely to kill the kid, but you could very well give the kid a really bad week. I would have questions about a parent who offered their child up for that kind of “experiment”.
That makes sense. So I guess it’d probably be good to read a book or two on childcare and maybe get some experience doing something lower stakes like babysitting for a night at a time first.
From there it seems to me like a) you’d be able to find someone to let you babysit for a week and b) you’d have enough knowledge and experience such that the experiment would provide useful information. What do you think?
Going from zero to a week is a bad idea, but it would be fine to start with supervised time, move on to babysitting for an evening, then to a sleepover, and go from there. Repeat for a few nights.
There is definitely skill involved—I couldn’t be a daycare teacher. But those people are working multiple children. The job is much easier with a 1:1 child:adult ratio.
There’s actually a nonzero amount of skill involved in child care, especially for younger children. If you have no experience and you’re dumped into it, you’re probably going to feel overwhelmed. You’re also probably going to do a bad job. You’re unlikely to kill the kid, but you could very well give the kid a really bad week. I would have questions about a parent who offered their child up for that kind of “experiment”.
That makes sense. So I guess it’d probably be good to read a book or two on childcare and maybe get some experience doing something lower stakes like babysitting for a night at a time first.
From there it seems to me like a) you’d be able to find someone to let you babysit for a week and b) you’d have enough knowledge and experience such that the experiment would provide useful information. What do you think?
Going from zero to a week is a bad idea, but it would be fine to start with supervised time, move on to babysitting for an evening, then to a sleepover, and go from there. Repeat for a few nights.
There is definitely skill involved—I couldn’t be a daycare teacher. But those people are working multiple children. The job is much easier with a 1:1 child:adult ratio.
This also has the advantage that you and the child get to know each other, which is a big thing.