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.
(2) Quit comparing childcare jobs with some impossible ideal of stay-at-home parenthood. I represent women getting restraining orders, and I’ve seen plenty of stay at home parents who have had their parental rights terminated. I’m *not* saying this is typical: it isn’t. But neither is the perfect mom (the image *is* a mom, not a dad) who takes her children out for interesting educational field trips every day, never loses her temper, never sticks her kids in front of the TV so she can get something done, gives her children only educational toys and nutritional food. Compare daycare to the *average* stay at home parent, not what you’d like to believe she is like.
(3) Quit it with the “some women *have* to work.” It is fine to work, even if you wouldn’t starve otherwise. (4) Bring some coherence to the treatment of poor women and middle class women. Poor women are supposed to “get off their butts and work”. Middle class women are supposed to quit their jobs and stay home, even if they’d much rather not. (5) Quit it with the working moms versus stay at home moms attitude. I know that U.S. likes to view everything as a big fight (preferably akin to pro wrestling), but this shouldn’t be a fight. We are all moms who love their kids, and we should be on the same side.
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.
If preschool is a necessity in getting a child ready for kindergarten? As someone who sent her kids to preschool really early, and believes firmly that a good preschool is a Good Thing…no, they are *not* necessary. If you are teaching her stuff already, and you have play arrangements for her to meet other kids frequently (preferably the same kids so that friendships develop), she’ll be as well off as her preschooler peers. About the only thing she would have no experience of is a class-room setting and taking directions from non-Mom; but then if you enroll her in just about any class or group activity, you can. There are also many childcare jobs available.
In Maryland, the childcare jobs salary varied, depending on the applicant’s education and experience as well as the location and company. If one was teaching in the public schools, the starting salary was about $9-10 per hour. If one was in the private, daycare sector, the starting salary was about $7-9 per hour. If the applicant had an associate’s or bachelor’s degree in early childhood education, the salary was slightly — and I stress slightly — higher. Benefits ranged from full medical dental via salary deduction and vacation, usually 5-12 days per year. Daycare reduction varied from place to place, position to position. For example, my former daycare center offered daycare at half-price for preschool and up, but at 3/4 price for twos, toddlers, and infants. Some chain places give free day care for one child, if the applicant is going to be the director or in a senior-level position. Most just offer a discount.
The time to tell you that your child may not go on a field trip because he misbehaved on the last one is immediately after the last one. It is absolutely inexcusable for them to tell you on the day of the trip, unless it is based on his behavior that day. I’m afraid I don’t have any suggestions s to what you can do about it; I think I’d probably tell him that I thought they were being unfair (unless you think this would cause worse problems in his behavior at school), and take him by himself or with a friend to the place they were going on the field trip.
