När är det dags för dagis?

This study analyses children’s entry into childcare and parental assessments of when they ideally would like their children to enter childcare. This is important not least to understand parental attitudes to their own work and the kind of investments in work-life that they are willing to undertake. This information also qualifies the picture of how well the combination of work and children functions. The study uses a survey from 2003 including a random sample of children born in 1993 and 1999. On average children start childcare when they are 1,5 years and we find that parents often wish for a later entry than is the case. Early start seems to increase as children start earlier in 1999 than in 1993, a young mother leads to an early start, and children with older siblings start earlier. It is the children from families with low income that start later and these parents also wish for a later start than other parents. An unequal gender division of economic resources in the family shows the same pattern. On the contrary gender equality measured by father’s parental leave length also leads to a later start.