Should I send my child to daycare for their social development even if I don't necessarily need the childcare?

Hi everyone, this is kind of early since I'm only 18 weeks along, but everyone has been telling us we need to sign up for a daycare spot ASAP or else we will be out of luck so I'm doing my research now.We are lucky because we live quite close to both my parents and my in-laws (20 minutes drive now, we will be moving next year to a new house that is ~10 minutes drive from both sets of parents). And they have all expressed that they will be happy to help us out with childcare. So we could definitely get away with not using any daycare at all, which would of course be amazing since daycare is so expensive.However, other people with kids have been highly encouraging us to enroll our child in daycare anyways because it'll be better for their development (and to be honest this is something that I was concerned about too). They've also mentioned potential issues with grandparents spoiling the kid too much and letting him/her get away with bad behaviour that would not be allowed in a daycare setting. I'm hoping to get some advice and hear from other people's experiences.Our options:1) No daycare at all. I will of course try to join those "mommy groups" and bring him/her to as many "social events" as I can to let them interact with other kids, but I realize this won't be the same as they still won't be away from family until they go to kindergarten at age 4.5. Major pro is of course the cost savings.2) Part-time daycare. I am leaning towards this option but I know it can be a bit difficult to find daycares that allow part-time enrollment only. If we do go with this option, how many days would be optimal? Would 2 days out of 5 be enough? 3 out of 5? Maybe just 5 mornings, or 5 afternoons? And how should I schedule the days (e.g. all in a row, Mon/Tue/Wed, or spaced out, Mon/Wed/Fri)? I'm leaning towards this option since it would be a good compromise.3) Full-time daycare. Because it's so unnecessarily expensive I probably would not go for this option, at least not initially, but I've considered enrolling our child in a more structured "preschool" style program when they're a bit older. E.g. I know a lot of parents will put their toddlers in a Montessori program at age 3 to give them a year of slightly more "formal" education before they start kindergarten.If I do sign them up for daycare, what age would be best to do so? I feel like it would be a waste of money to enroll them too early...perhaps something like a gradual increase from 2 days a week at age 18 months, to 3 days a week at age 2.5, and then a full-time structured program at age 3.5? (I'm still wincing a bit from how expensive this would be compared to essentially free childcare from the grandparents, but obviously it'll be worth it if it ends up being much better for the child's development.)Thanks in advance for any and all feedback! via /r/Parenting https://ift.tt/31wLEe5