Psychoanalyst and influencer Erica Komisar has sparked controversy by claiming parents should feel guilty for sending their children to daycare, which she describes as 'warehouses for children.' With over 300,000 Instagram followers, Komisar, 61, is known for her blunt parenting advice and has worked with celebrities like Kourtney Kardashian.
Komisar argues that daycare centers are inefficient and that mothers who use them are 'turning off empathy' for their children. She criticises policies promoting free childcare, such as those proposed by New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who aims to provide free daycare for children aged six weeks to five years. Instead, Komisar suggests the government should pay parents directly to care for their own children.
'If you give some of that money - let's say you give $20,000 or $18,000 - to the families to use as they see fit, they'll find a better way to care for their children,' she told The Free Press. She believes families could use the stipend to stay at home or pay a trusted neighbour or grandparent.
Komisar claims daycare centres leave children cared for by 'transient strangers' who cannot meet their needs due to high child-to-carer ratios. 'There's no way for one person to meet the distress of five or eight or 12 children,' she said, adding that this leads to elevated cortisol levels and children going into 'silent mode.'
She also criticised American capitalism for forcing women into a 'work at all costs' mentality. Komisar, author of 'Being There: Why Prioritizing Motherhood in the First Three Years Matters,' took six months off after each of her children's births before returning to work for just one and a half hours daily.
