My mother would love to keep my baby, and in a couple of years when she retires, she just might, BUT I love the fact that my baby gets to socialize all day with kids her age. That is a huge plus about daycare. They do learn a lot from being there. Sharing. Communicating well with others (especially others who are in the same mindset), etc. She isn't even 2 yet, and she comes home talking about these kids at school. There are positives and negatives with daycare. That also goes for kids who stay at home with mom. Really, if I could be a stay at home mom, I am not sure I would. I would love the extra time with my baby girl, but I also love that she is exposed to so many other things at school. There is no right answer really.
You bring up a very good point about the socialization.
When J was a toddler I volunteered at Duke Hospital as a Pink Lady.....I was the youngest by about 40 years

, but I loved it and she went to "Mother's Day Out" at the Church. It wasn't expensive at all, and it got both of us out of the house for about 4 hours a week. She got to spend time with kids her age, and I got to be "babied" by a bunch of old ladies ..... oh, those would be ladies not that much older tham me now

I didn't do it after T was born....couldn't afford to do it with 2 kids.
After we moved here, she went to church run pre-kindergarten nursery school, 3 days a week, and when she went into kindergarten, he started a different church run nursery school 2 days a week. It was good for them, and good for me too, because I started getting very involved in volunteering in the community.
I will say though, that the kids who went to daycare full time, were much more socialized than the kids who went to part time nursery school ( here they were just 9-12 or 10-2 depending on where they went) or didn't go at all. They "knew" more stuff too. We didn't have all the computerized learning stuff that kids have these days, which I think really makes a difference.