Babies don’t need mum at home for a year. They need her for three

WE are meant to be entering a new era by preparing Ireland’s first Early Years Strategy, but we’re telling ourselves porkies writes Victoria White

The biggest one is that children do best with a parent at home for the first year.

Parents don’t need a year at home. They need at least two, and probably three, years. That’s what the “international evidence” the Government is quoting says. (UNESCO says one year is the minimum). But the garbled version of this “evidence” with which we are being presented doesn’t just tell us that one year off is great — it tells us it’s all you need. When you’ve done a year, your child can waddle into a crèche and you can work all the hours God sends.