There is a downside to practically everything. So if a mother shops her kids off to daycare and does not realize this, she is just not facing reality. I see them racing by me in the morning with their kids all bundled up in their child seats, and I say “I don’t want to go to work, I KNOW that they really don’t.” It’s got to be pure hell parting with those kids every morning, especially to the conditions which you describe. [I am sure there are notable exceptions, of course, but these do not disprove the general rule.]
And people who do not want to be parents such as you described in part of your post ought not to do so. People who do want to be parents ought to insist on changes in the community and society that will optimize the parenting. The problem is not just that family who cannot afford what you might consider *Quality* childcare jobs is having to put their children in non-quality… (Is this also *cheap* daycare?)….gee whiz….the point is that DAYCARE is not a quality concept. We tell ourselves it is so we can justify that we are doing it.
For single parents…we have a difficult issue here…one that includes considering that it is cost effective to support mothers to be home and stop criticizing them as “on welfare”. We do not live in an enlightened society…anyone who thinks we are ….needs to contact you off list!! (You are a psychiatrist and they need help with reality orientation) The real economic issue is that we are a consumer society and the only real purpose we have is to have consumers and we think we have to have everyone going home with a paycheck so they can go spend it on stuff they will throw away or didn’t need anyhow!!! I love to shop and spend money and buy stuff. I love my children and grandchildren MORE. Change the priority. Re-engineer the marketplace and send a parent home!!!
What would help me as a working mom is fair treatment from politicians and the media. I enjoy my life, and wouldn’t have it any other way, but it would be way cool not to have quite so many people thinking that I am doing something wrong and looking down their noses at me. (1) Quit it with the “it’s better if young children are home with one parent.” Pfui. Americans like the idea better, that’s all. Show me some legitimate research that shows this (there isn’t any). Really, both ways are fine. Kids like daycare and thrive there. Kids like to be at home and thrive there, too.
The Family Income Report provides color pictures showing trends of real median family incomes to increase awareness. Incomes have hardly improved past 2 1/2 decades, especially compared to the rate of improvement for prior generations – - especially for families with children – - while their tax rates for homes, FICA, etc. are much higher than prior generations. It is understandable such places economic stress on many families, forcing more mothers to seek work outside the home than might otherwise be the case – - and getting others to help pay day care cost is of interest to them.
All people who use daycare are ”dumping” their kids… I have no problem with it for older kids, and realize that in some places it’s safe for even the little ones. I’m just frustrated that I can’t find any useful information from anyone I’ve met around here, and that anyone who isn’t berating me for not being a SAHM is ridiculing me for thinking that it matters who’s watching my baby. I actually had two mothers in the area tell me the other day that I “think too much”, “daycare is all the same, they rip you off for letting your kid play on their floor”, and “it really isn’t worth asking them about anything but price, you’ll see that when you aren’t such an overexcited new mom.” I’m starting to feel as if I’m the only person in the world who takes a middle ground. Anyhow, I was commenting on some of the people I’ve met here, not on childcare jobs-users worldwide.
If one thinks doing home daycare would be good for her then that might be an option. You can make quite a bit of money while being able to stay home with your children. And since, her kids would be playing with the other kids; her job wouldn’t take her away from being with her own children. For me, this has been the ideal job. Who knows, when my children are in school full time, I may return to work outside of the home, but for now, we are quite happy with this arrangement and it may work for your friend also. Presently, I have 4 full time daycare children. Potential $100.00 per day!! ($500.00) a week!! I couldn’t make that working out of the home and having pay $1000.00 per month for my two children to be in daycare. Mention it to her. You do have to be cut out for this type of work, though. It isn’t for everyone.
Government can provide daycare any cheaper then private daycare – in fact, it will probably cost more, because of the extra costs required to administer it. Trade union, like teacher unions, will then emerge at government daycare centers, which will force costs up even higher as they have done at public schools. Of course, this will all be justified by a requirement for child care degrees, which will help keep down the number of people providing daycare and rationalize the need for higher wages. There is no doubt that cheap but good daycare would be nice to have. It used to be that mothers stayed at home to provide ‘free’ daycare for their own children. This service is considered to be ineligible for payment when you take care of your own children, but not if you take care of another’s!
Well I stay at home with my son who is 14 months old and I cannot imagine leaving him in the “care” of a stranger. I do, however, understand that single mothers do not have many choices in their child care arrangements and have to make do with what they can get. And I do feel for those mothers. But for those two parent families who make good money and choose daycare for an infant rather than having someone stay home, I say shame on you.
Didn’t anyone ever tell you not to pull things out of context? So what IS the point of going to college for years to in order to hold the lowest level care home and daycare jobs? If all someone is going to be doing is lifting dead weight and shoveling shit, they can get those childcare jobs right off the street. My very highly accomplished aunt was an RN, and it was a field that I had considered as a kid. This country would grind to a halt without RN’s. Or rather, there would be a four hand scramble to get substitutes in pronto, and open new schools to train new ones.
Preschool is not academically necessary, any more than traditional school is necessary. However, like any other homeschooling parent a parent who chooses not to do the traditional preschool or childcare jobs should be sure that their kids have social interaction with other kids, time spent listening to books, and lots of learning experiences-in fact, all kids need these no matter what type of preschool they have.
