The concept for the Home School for Babies and Parents program was triggered by situations resulting from the pandemic; parents were working from home, schools were closing and I began taking work as a nanny. Yet, even caring for infants as a nanny, the least distressful of all childcare situations, I was aware that the attachment needs of the baby were still not being respected. However it was within that position that I was able to help the parents set up a way to care for their infant themselves, while continuing to work from home, hence the beginnings of HSBP.

As I continued along this line of thinking, so many other issues I’ve had around childcare, started to come to the surface. That having to console a baby, who was just handed to me, was indeed as bad as it felt. That the distress and anxiety the baby expressed was not the only way things could go. That the trauma the babies were experiencing was not necessary. And certainly, the anxiety and guilt the moms were feeling was not necessary either.

We have been going along with a ‘standard of care’ that is contrary to healthy child development, for over half of a century now. The standard of daycare for infants and young children in practice and academic research is shown to produce distress and anxiety in infants and young children. However, whenever the legitimacy of daycare is challenged, it is the mother or child’s coping and social skills that are put to question.

As all the pieces of a home program started coming together, a whole other world of possibilities presented itself. Just as we are experiencing a significant rise in home-schooling and engagement in Montessori and Waldorf type communities, babies receiving unparalleled care, at home with their parent(s) is now a viable option.