The five-year project, Families, Children and Childcare, which began 18 months ago, involves 1,200 families - 600 in London and 600 from Oxford and surrounding rural areas - and is following their children from birth to school. The study is looking at the different kinds and combinations of care that young children experience, from day nurseries and childminders to nannies, grandparents and fathers.
Mothers were asked when their babies were aged three months and again when they were ten months old about what they thought would be the ideal form of childcare, if money was no object. At three months around half of the mothers said they wanted to care for their babies themselves, and did so. When it came to care provided by someone else, only 4 per cent said a childminder was ideal. The most popular choice of carer was the child's grandparents. Fathers came bottom of the mothers' list, preferred as a carer by less than one per cent of mothers.
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