Although some traditionalists may raise eyebrows on couples who resort to entrusting their children to child day care centers, it's not really a matter of choice for a majority of parents these days. Due to financial constraints, the number of double income families consistently increases each year, and an offshoot of this phenomenon is their growing dependence on child day care centers.

On the other hand, there are also some parents who, even if they don't really need the extra job, still feel the need to work for their personal satisfaction and fulfillment. Thus, they go the route of looking for suitable child day care center which could meet their particular requirements.

More options are being offered

Recently, there have been a couple of options made available for parents who need to continue working while still being able to keep a close eye on their tots. An example is telecommuting. Largely due to the Internet explosion, more and more jobs can now be done even while in one's PJs, in the comfort of one's own home.

Parents, then, don't necessarily have to leave for the daily grind day in and day out, as they communicate with their officemates via the phone or via instant messenger. All paperwork are sent via e-mail and fax, and deadlines are still faithfully met. The mom or dad can do away with finding child day care centers that can look after their kids.

The upside to this arrangement is that the parent is right at home to keep a watchful eye on the baby, clothe him, feed him, and put him to sleep when needed. The downside, of course, is your concentration on work could possibly be diminished, but this is such a small setback compared to the advantages of telecommuting.

Another great option for modern-day employees are employer-run child day care centers. These are facilities built right within the employees' office building - perhaps a room or in some cases, an entire floor - devoted to child care services.

This is part of the work-life balance that employee-friendly companies are pushing so that they would be able to, in turn, achieve better attendance, retain good employees, and eventually, receive better performance from their employees.

When the child day care center is situated a few steps away from where the parent is actually working, the parent can actually become more efficient at work as he or she doesn't have to worry about picking up the child after work or checking on the child care specialist every so often. Moreover, he or she can also visit the baby during lunchtime and coffee breaks.

Because of these two wonderful options, parents don't have to struggle with that big decision of whether or not one of them has to quit his or her job.