All week leading up to my 15-month-old son?s first day of daycare, we watched a video tour of the centre every night at bedtime. This ritual pacified some of my guilt over sending my son to daycare during COVID. He was more interested in the keyboard than what was on the screen, but I memorized every detail since I knew I would not be allowed inside due to pandemic safety restrictions?no tours were being offered to parents. I was worried about the usual things: how he would adjust to not being with me all the time, if he would eat and nap well. On top of that, I was worried about COVID risks and whether I was making the right choice.
?The anxiety around the pandemic was definitely a new experience,? says Katie Watkins, a parent of three kids in Kitchener, Ont. ?There was some pause as to whether or not we were going to send our daughter at all.? Her two older kids had attended daycare as toddlers, but they had also spent plenty of time with relatives and babysitters during their first years of life. But her youngest, born in October 2019, had never been in the care of anyone besides her mom or dad. ?I really had no idea how the transition would go. Stranger danger is a lot more real in pandemic babies,? says Watkins. Stranger anxiety and separation anxiety are, in fact, normal developmental milestones that typically begin around six to eight months, and peak between 10 and 18 months, regardless of your child-care choices. This means that for kids under age two, morning drop...