Teen Mom OG star Maci Bookout married Taylor McKinney in Florida recently, but some of her fans are more concerned about the mom of three’s daily routine.
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When Bookout discovered she was pregnant with her third child (son Maverick, now 5 months), she quit her job in social media, which is perfectly understandable — she would definitely have her hands full with son Bentley (7), daughter Jayde (1) and the newborn. Any mom of two kids under 2 years old will agree that’s more than a handful. So much of a handful, it seems, that Bookout is sending her two youngest kids to day care while Bentley is at school. And people are not happy about this particular parenting decision.
On this week’s episode of Teen Mom OG, McKinney told friends that part of his daily routine is dropping Bentley at school then Jayde and Maverick at day care.
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“If Maci is staying at home and Taylor seemingly never works, why do Maverick and Jayde need daycare?” one viewer asked, while another demanded, “What is Maci doing that her kids need daycare?”
It’s not strictly true that Bookout and McKinney don’t work. They run their own T-shirt line, TTM Lifestyle. And being a reality TV star counts as a job, right? Sort of?
In any case, is it really anyone else’s business whether a mom decides to send her kids to day care? Obviously, when you share your parenting choices with millions of viewers, it does become their business, but Bookout is hardly putting her kids in danger.
There are pros and cons of day care, but research by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development published in 2006 suggests that children in quality day care centers may even have an intellectual edge over those in other kinds of care — with a nanny or a relative, for example. When researchers compared kids in quality day care to those in other, equally high-quality child care situations, children in day care centers performed slightly better on tests.
Ultimately, we all make decisions based on what we think is right for our kids — and to a certain degree, ourselves. For all we know, Bookout’s kids are having a blast at day care.
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