ABSTRACT
In 1996, a telling headline appeared in a Dutch newspaper: “Belgian Child Only Comes Home to Sleep” (Utrechts Nieuwsblad 1996). The piece that followed was written by a Dutch correspondent who had recently been sent to Belgium. The newly arrived man wanted his young daughters to become quickly and smoothly integrated into Belgian society. He described how the Belgian state cares for young children: when they are babies they go to child care, and at the age of two and a half they go to school, where they stay from 8:30 A.M. until late in the day. They have lunch there, and when classes are over, they can go to clubs until 6:30 P.M. The Dutch journalist was shocked. “How does this full-time care affect the welfare of children?” he queried. He decided not to let his daughters assimilate any further into their new home country. Instead, they came home for lunch to eat their bread with peanut butter, “just as if we are still in the Netherlands.”
