The infant: ready for community life?
Children are accepted in nurseries from the age of two months. However, some specialists believe that at this stage, the baby is immersed in an environment inappropriate for his development. Miriam Rasse, nursery psychologist and director of the Pikler-Loczy France Association explains: “the community is not a need for a small but a choice or a necessity for parents. An infant does not have sufficient psychic maturity to live outside his family environment. His main task is to build his individuality and not to pay attention to others. It is important to remember that at birth, the child is not aware that he is another person. He merges with his mother, his entourage or his environment. Around 8 months, he begins to understand that he and his mother do not form a whole, hence the fear of separation ”. Laurence Rameau, trainer of early childhood professionals and former daycare director, has a different opinion. “There is no point in waiting for the anxiety of the eighth month to end to begin community life, which is expressed differently in each child. There is no no suitable age to start nursery school. For Laurence Rameau, the ideal would be to wait until the parents are ready. Indeed, it is often difficult for a new mother to leave her 2-3 month old baby with other people.
One year maternity or paternity leave: the ideal?
The psychoanalyst Sylviane Giampino, specialist in early childhood also believes that the community is not really baby friendly. According to her, toddlers should stay within the parenting environment for at least their first six months. “After maternity leave, the dad should take over. It would be necessary to set up a tiling between the parents in order to prepare the child, between its 4 and 6 months, to the entry in a mode of care. In fact, for Sylviane Giampino, entering the community should take place only when the child has acquired sufficient capacities to be able to talk about his parents in their absence. “She should be given time to build a meaningful relationship with her mother and father. Because the younger the child, the more fragile the bond he has built with them », Specifies the psychoanalyst. “I am expecting a lot from Minister Dominique Bertinotti concerning the improvement of the quality of reception methods for toddlers. This is essential for their present and future balance. If maternity and paternity leave could be extended, if parents could keep their child for up to 1 year, we would live in a better society. Provided of course, that the families are not isolated. He the places of exchange between parents should be developed, even if, let us remember, some quickly need to go back to work ”. For her part, Miriam Rasse persists: “until the age of 3, the community is not preferable. Before this age, the child is unwilling to spend a whole day with other children. In fact, it is only when he says “I”, that is to say around 2 1/2 years old, that he will be truly aware of himself ”.