She justified it by calling it "preschool" ( I think that is what the assistance actually paid for), but it so obviously wasn't the real reason and preschool is not generally 20 hours a week. It was because her son was still in diapers and younger than my kids so he needed more constant supervision. She couldn't just plop him in front of the TV and take a nap.

The provider she used is great. We used her when we only had one that needed full day care and she was very professional, but I don't know that I would call it a preschool. I know she did the best she could, but I can't imagine it's easy to provide a full preschool experience when you are completely on your own with 12 kids and several of them are infants and toddlers. I saw it more like daycare plus, rather than a facility wholly dedicated to preschool. We're probably kind of snobby as ours went to a Montessori preschool and we were lucky enough to be able to afford that, but when you send your kids to "preschool" for 4 hours a day, 5 days a week, and in diapers to boot, that's not about providing a preschool experience.

She could have easily used the funds to send him to a preschool-only facility with most of the resources dedicated to age appropriate preschool learning, but for the usual 2-3 hours a day, 2-3 days a week. She probably could have sent him the same Montessori preschool we sent our kids too and she had full flexibility to drive him back and forth, to and from, whatever facility she chose.

Anyway, it just didn't make sense to me and I think it fits with the many comments here regarding parents who just want to be rid of their kids as many hours a day as possible whether they are working that day or not.

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