Can working devotee-mothers send their children to child care?
Yeah so how can we best take care of our children and help them in krishna consciousness also if we are in a situation where we have to send them to child care many devotee parents prefer to not send their children to child care but if we are in a situation where we have to then what can we do answer there's no absolute principle about this the most important thing is the children should feel loved and cared for by the parents so that love is can be even expressed in the quality of the time that we give not necessarily the quantity that we have to always give the child but we have to find out how we can express our love best for the child and yes because the formative years of a child are very important and because during the culture that we live in often exposes the children to many undesirable influences right from the early childhood so if they have the more or less readily available or constant presence of a mother that offers us a very nurturing protecting influence that access so in that sense it's good if it's possible and many devotees plan their lives in such a way that by the time they have a child then they can at least take off for a few years take a small break from their career and take care of the child in the formative years and then resume their career or whatever so that may not always be practical use cases in different situations but if we can find if we have to send the child to devotee care we should try at least to make sure that our job doesn't take so much time you may have to I don't know change the job or change the profile new job whatever so that it's not that we are again working very long hours so that at the end of the day when we come we are dead tired and we are not even available for a child at that time that will not be good at least when we are available we should be fully available for a child and if it is possible there are some devotees who are offering child care that would be the best and as the community grows that sort of thing also happens the devotee itself devotee community itself creates various support systems for its members so if there is a good devotee child care then you can always choose that and apart from that as the child grows if you we are giving good impressions good samskara in getting the child to temple and having other good children as friends to some extent there are some influences which you may not be able to change like the in this sense child goes to school what kind of friend the child will choose at school we are not going to regulate so much but at least when a child is at home with us and what kind of friends other times the child stays with that we can select not select in the sense that completely control but at least we can monitor to some extent and help the child select make wise choices so as much as possible we try to surround with good impressions and then we leave it to Krishna so child care is may not be the best for all children but then in our specific situation if that is the best that we can do most important is that we don't load ourselves with negativity or guilt or anything like that in any situation because that will dampen our enthusiasm to make the best of the situation yes sometimes certain situations are not the best and we have to if things could be different that would have been better but if they are not then we have to make the best of what is there there's no need to burden ourselves with negativity yes this is what and I'll do my best and then you can also look in the devotee community if there are some other mothers who have also gone through the situation but they also have to put their children in devotee care in child care how did they manage you can learn something valuable from them also and if we are trying sincerely Krishna will give us the intelligence and things will work out thank you.