A Child's Place in Society: New Challenges for the Family and Day Care

• Published in: Children & Society
• Main Author: Sommer, Dion
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Wiley 1992
• Subjects: Iceland
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1099-0860.1992.tb00397.x; https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1111%2Fj.1099-0860.1992.tb00397.x; https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1099-0860.1992.tb00397.x

SUMMARY. Using the experience of a study of childhood in Denmark, Norway, Finland, Iceland and Sweden, this article explores the now common situation of children growing up in two settings: their families and day care centres. In Denmark, where almost all mothers work and where good quality care is widely available, the family and day care centres are seen as having important complementary roles in supporting children's social development. The child learns to both integrate and separate the experience of these two worlds, more or less successfully depending on how well he or she is developing at home, and the relationship between the home and the day care centre. Day care should be seen as a positive support for family life: dual‐socialisation through family and day care is, and will remain, part of the lives of most children.