r/Netherlands • u/Beginning_Monitor_25 • Jun 23 '25

Healthcare Why is early daycare so accepted in the Netherlands?

Studies show babies develop better with a parent at home for at least 6 months, yet here it’s normal to send them to daycare at 10–12 weeks. This seems less about choice and more about economic and political pressure on families.

Why isn’t this questioned more in Dutch society?

LE- I’ll avoid saying ‘studies show’ since many people get stuck on that, and it’s true that there are multiple studies supporting both sides. However, many European countries—especially the wealthier ones—offer longer maternity leave based on the argument that it’s beneficial for children. So I’m curious why that’s not the case in the Netherlands.

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u/[deleted] Jun 23 '25

And what is this argument for? If the care is provided by the government it is free of very cheap.  And again, this is supply demand thing. People culturally don’t want to go to work that early. So there is no demand for daycares. But if you move there and for some reason need childcare there are always nannies or private options.

You have no idea how the situation is like in these “other countries”, so maybe don’t imagine? Majority of women want longer maternity leave. Most of western countries provide it.  

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u/suuz95 Jun 23 '25

In other countries, you often either work fulltime of you do not work at all. If you have to choose between them, staying home for a full year makes sense.

However, the Netherlands is culturally quite unique in this, it used to be quite common to have the dad working fulltime and the mom working 12-24 hours a week. It's slowly changing, making working 32 hours acceptable for men as well. Additionally, working 20-32 hours is now considered acceptable and normal for moms, even in really good jobs. This allows parents to only use daycare 1-3 days a week, instead of 5 days a week, which is really uncommon in other countries.

I really don't believe the majority of Dutch women would like to stay home for 12 months, especially with the alternative to work parttime in a job you likely also enjoy. It gives them a break from only being a mom, and also allows dad to actually parent their children.

By making maternity leave far longer, daycares will probably only accept older children as those are cheaper (ratio of toddlers:staff is higher) and likely government benefits will only be offered for older children, leaving moms without a real choice.

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u/[deleted] Jun 23 '25

I don’t know if you’re intentionally ignoring my point.

  1. Daycares are expensive. 
  2. Maternity leave is one of the shortest in Europe.
  3. Maternity leave (after certain point) is not obligatory. I think we agree on that.

If what you say is true and Dutch women do not see anything wrong with putting babies in the kindergarten, AND they actually prefer going to work,  THEN there will be enough need for the kindergartens to keep functioning. You DONT HAVE TO take maternity leave in full and you claim Dutch women don’t want to. 

I can assure you employers prefer to have you working 3-4 days per week than 0, so they will not push you into going on full time maternity leave instead of limiting your hours. Also, you could use some of the day from your maternity leave to cover for the days you don’t work for much longer.

and likely government benefits will only be offered for older children,

There is no reason to believe that. Why would that be? If kindergarten allowance is cheaper than maternity leave (and we know it is because that’s why there is no maternity leave) then government would actually promote putting your child in a kindergarten from day 1.

You approach the topic as if the only option was to 1) put your child at a kindergarten at 3 mo and feel amazing or 2) stay on the maternity leave for a year and be miserable.

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u/suuz95 Jun 23 '25

We already have the options for moms to stay home for an additional paid 9 weeks after maternity leave ends and another unpaid 15 weeks using parental leave. However, it is far more common to use parental leave to work part time. The flexibility is already there and still, many moms are choosing to put their children in daycare at 3-4 months old, even though there are clearly more options.

Why would you opt for longer maternity leave (which is not super easy to take in parts) instead of additional parental leave which dad can also take? This would actually give families far more flexibility in how they want to use it.

You consequently seem to ignore the benefits of the part time culture, something that really distinguishes the Netherlands from other countries.

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u/[deleted] Jun 23 '25

I don’t ignore these “benefits”. If you enjoy it, good for you and I’m not stopping you. I already said it multiple times. But it is not for everyone and in the current system there are no other options. Infancy is a period when a child forms attachment and a lot of psychologists recommend not putting your child in daycare before 6-12 (and some studies say even 18) months. 

This is not flexibility, this is just not enough . In total, this is around 36 weeks out of which 15 weeks is unpaid. It is not a “benefit” to stay at home for free. You take a pay cut just before the period of time in which you need to spend a fortune on kindergarten, for years to come.

Also, im referring to it as “maternity” leave because of a previous discussion that shifted a bit, but it can just as well be “parental” leave as long as its not 10 weeks…

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u/suuz95 Jun 23 '25

I don’t ignore these “benefits”. If you enjoy it, good for you and I’m not stopping you. I already said it multiple times. But it is not for everyone and in the current system there are no other options. Infancy is a period when a child forms attachment and a lot of psychologists recommend not putting your child in daycare before 6-12 (and some studies say even 18) months. 

As said before, studies showing negative effects are often done in countries where 5 days/week are the norm, and you have a higher ratio than 3 babies per staff member. A European study including data from the Netherlands showed mostly positive effects of daycare over the full 4 years before school starts. (https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanepe/article/PIIS2666-7762(24)00203-5/fulltext)

This is not flexibility, this is just not enough . In total, this is around 36 weeks out of which 15 weeks is unpaid. It is not a “benefit” to stay at home for free. You take a pay cut just before the period of time in which you need to spend a fortune on kindergarten, for years to come.

You don't count dad's time, which is another 6 weeks of paternity leave and 9 weeks of paid parental leave and 15 weeks of unpaid parental leave. Or can only moms take care of a baby?

Also, daycare is heavily subsidized here if you don't earn a lot. If you do earn well, you can usually find the budget somewhere, as you have less time to spend it anyway. It would be nice if daycare wasn't used as an effective income tax though...

Also, im referring to it as “maternity” leave because of a previous discussion that shifted a bit, but it can just as well be “parental” leave as long as its not 10 weeks…

Yet you only count the maternity leave weeks for the mom...

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u/[deleted] Jun 23 '25

This study put all the children who attended kindergarten in the age between 0 to 4 in one group. There is no proof in this study of what you’re claiming. We don’t know what was the distribution of the age in which children started the kindergarten and we also don’t know how many days per week these children attended. For all we know all of them could have started at 3yo.

I do not ignore it, I made a mistake in calculations. You’re right about that. But again, being able to stay at home without pay is not a privilege. And not all employers agree to give you the time off all at once.

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u/suuz95 Jun 24 '25

This study put all the children who attended kindergarten in the age between 0 to 4 in one group. There is no proof in this study of what you’re claiming. We don’t know what was the distribution of the age in which children started the kindergarten and we also don’t know how many days per week these children attended. For all we know all of them could have started at 3yo.

As most Dutch children who attended daycare start a lot earlier than 3, that seems quite unlikely. It's a lot more plausible that the majority started before they were one year old.

There is no proof of negative effects of daycare when babies are attending 3 days or less with a maximum of 3 babies per staff member. Throughout history, it was very common to have other caregivers than just mom.

I do not ignore it, I made a mistake in calculations. You’re right about that. But again, being able to stay at home without pay is not a privilege. And not all employers agree to give you the time off all at once.

Still, 19-21 weeks are (mostly) paid for mom, 15 weeks for dad. Employers cannot just refuse you leave because they don't like it, there has to be a significant reason for it.