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I remember when I worked in daycare, one of the things we talked about as workers were the way the parents behaved. In private we divided them into two groups. The first group were the ones who always came straight from work to pick up there kids, an occasionaly stop at a doctor, dentist or grocery store, but mostly they were there as soon as possible after work. These were the people who if they had a long enough lunch break would sometimes stop in and have lunch. These were the parents that if the child was having a tough day, would call and check on them. These parents also would pull thier kids out of day care on days when they had vacation or a day off. They always seemed happy to see thier kids and right away started asking them what they did at school.
The other group, tended to show up at the last possible minute before we closed and started chargning late fees. We would often hear the mention that they had gotten off early, but had run errends first. We would shake our heads in private when she showed up in sweats, and told us that they were "off that week, and using the time get stuff done and relax" yet thier kids were still in day care, all day, every day. They were the ones whose kids would tell us often of spending the weekend at Grandma's or a babysitter. They were the parents would walk in and grab the kids and only want to talk about thier day. They would not ask us how the child's day went, nor would they ask the child. They acted like thier children were a nuisance. You could also see the difference in behavior in the two groups of children. To us we had a clear picture of the diffence between women who need to work and women who just want to work. There were a few who fell in between somewhere, but usually it was pretty clear which mom's put thier kids at the top of thier priorities and which did not.
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