On top of that, a recent NPR program described a case where a group of boys is regularly asked to spend a portion of each week taking care of small babies. He announcer also mentioned that the boys now look forward to it. Unfortunately, I don’t have any more details on this, but it certainly sounds good. Indeed, very good! Those boys can now go out and get babysitting jobs or childcare jobs, moving in on the girls who monopolize it, and preparing themselves to be involved fathers.
Except that the current monopoly will work very hard to keep them off “their turf”. As does any monopoly which is threatened. Those boys are probably less likely to be afraid of, or threatened by, babies. However, they may be more aware of the responsibilities of: kids. In practice you probably need to convince the parents (especially mothers), who are the people who select babysitters… Chances are that if you are human, you have been babysat before.
If women have a “lock” on the childcare jobs (a 90% rate of awarding child custody to women reflects this) and on the “educational slots” that permit them to stay at home if they choose, then should we implement affirmative action for men? Unfortunately, there *aren’t* such “educational slots”. People don’t really learn how to parent. Most mothers (as well as fathers) often feel ill-equipped for the job. There aren’t really any educational programs (Home Ec is pretty negligible) for this purpose.
So you are saying that as soon as she is old enough to have a baby she is a woman? They can do that at preteen (at least some can), have a job? I had a paper route at preteen level and many females have babysitting jobs or childcare jobs at the preteen level. I’ve even known females who were married at 13 to 14 years of age, so any girl who has started her monthly cycle is a woman eh?
My daughter is also twelve and has demonstrated the ability to care for children in babysitting situation. One of the ways we’re giving her experience sitting w/o having her bear the whole responsibility is by working for the church. There are groups that have got together at the church and hire small groups of teens to babysit. By being part of that she gets a chance to be in charge and if anything came up that was beyond her ability she could get the parents. If a family that we knew & trusted with 2 or 3 children hired her for childcare jobs, we would allow her, but for the first couple of times I would make sure I was going to be home so that if she needed assistance she could call for it.
I am considering paying a friend to look after my child for around 40 hours a week. Obviously this would be at least $1000 a month. This would be based entirely in her home. She does not have a business or any particular child care license; she does look after another child for payment, on a similarly informal basis, but only for about 10 hours a week and not necessarily every week. My basic question is how is this treated, as far as I am concerned, for tax purposes? Specifically, would I have to pay payroll taxes, unemployment tax etc. as I would for a “household employee”. I want to do this all “above board” and properly, of course. I’ve looked around a lot for information, including IRS publications, but they always seem to relate only to household employees” ie the “nanny tax” and these people apparently have to actually work in your own house, not their house, according to publication 926.
Increases Tax Credits for Child Care for Three Million Working Families. The Child and Dependent Tax Credit provides tax relief to taxpayers who pay for the care of a child under 13 or a disabled dependent or spouse in order to work. The credit is equal to a percentage of the taxpayer’s employment-related expenditures for child or dependent care, with the amount of the credit depending on the taxpayer’s income. The President’s proposal increases the credit for families earning under $60,000. It provides an additional average tax cut of $358 for these families, and it eliminates income tax liability for almost all families with incomes below 200% of poverty ($35,000 for a family of four) that take the maximum allowable child care expenses under the law. The President’s budget will include $5.2 billion over five years to expand the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit for three million working families.
Parents and children in rural areas also face a disadvantage – 83% of rural parishes have no private nursery, 93% no public nursery and 92% no out-of-school childcare. The report says: “Only 10% of employees in the UK now work a standard 40-hour week, but flexible childcare services have not been developed to meet the needs of shift workers who still depend on multiple informal arrangements. With both parents in nearly 70% of couples working, there is a demand for an all-day service for three and four-year-olds, not just part-time nursery education places.
Anyone applying for paid or volunteer work with children in NSW will have their lives scrutinized under new employment screening rules. About 100,000 people will be subject to the rules, which are believed to be a world first. They will apply not only to teachers and child-care workers, but also to school bus drivers, football coaches and school gardeners who have unsupervised contact with children. Under the two-tier system, no-one convicted of a sexual assault or child abuse crime carrying a penalty of 12 months or more will be allowed to work with children, whether paid or as a volunteer.
