One of the toughest challenges faced by parents is to know whether or not their child is safe and doing well while they are separated during the day. Daycare cameras give parents confidence that their children will receive the best possible care. A child in a daycare center or home equipped with a webcam service can alleviate the anxiety of most parents who are apprehensive about the type of care provided to their child at the daycare. With a webcam, they can view your child throughout the day and be sure they are receiving the type of care that they want. They can also determine what their child does all day and can share experiences when the parents and child return home.

More than 400 daycare centers in the United States have webcams installed at their centers. Working parents might miss out on a lot of things their toddlers do, such as taking their first step or saying words like please or thank you. There are tiny cameras installed at the daycare centers that capture all the activities from their positions high in the corners of each program room. They stream the images instantaneously to a video server connected to the daycare's web site, where parents log in with a secure password to see movie-like footage of their children. The view a bit unclear; it's wide-angle, and parents can't zoom or focus the cameras. But they can tell whether it is story time or lunchtime, and they can see whether their children are sleeping peacefully, throwing crayons or singing nursery rhymes.

When a child has separation anxiety, parents are naturally worried about his/her state of mind after they have left him/her at the daycare center. Hence, they can immediately log on to the daycare server and check out their child's activity as soon as they reach work. Most daycare centers have open door policy, however, it is difficult for a number of parents to leave workplace in the middle of the day and check on their child. Webcams come in handy and lets the parents check on their children without ever leaving the workplace during work hours.

Daycare webcams also encourages the daycare personnel to do their best because the parents are watching the great job they do in caring for children. Since everything that goes on at the daycare center is recorded, the daycare owner, staff and other personnel can account for their activities and refute any accusations laid on them.

Sometimes the caregivers find webcams intrusive in their work when the anxious parents call them up for any little mishap that has happened such as the child has wet his pants or a toddler has gotten up from his nap too early. However, generally speaking, webcams have been a real boost to the morale of the staff. The daycare staff is not viewed as glorified babysitters but is given much respect due to the amount of hard work they put in taking care of children.

Offering parents and other loved ones the opportunity to view a daycare center anytime during the day online shows them the confidence of the daycare owners in the curriculum and states that they are true to their word when they say 'open door policy'.

Copyright 2001, 2004. All rights reserved. Any reproduction of this article in whole or in part without written or verbal permission is strictly prohibited. For information about reprinting this article, contact the copyright owner: Vanessa Rasmussen, Ph.D, Starting a Day Care Center, http://www.startingadaycarecenter.com.