BlogHer - child care - Comments

Thank you!

Suzanne Reisman — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 11:20:20 -0500

That's so awesome.

Suzanne Reisman, Contributing Editor - Feminism & Gender
Campaign for Unshaved Snatch (CUSS) & Other Rants

Thanks for the info

Candelaria Silva — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 20:57:05 -0500

I'm in.

blog.candelariasilva.com

Good and plenty!

subvert the dominant paradigm

artpax — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 13:38:35 -0500

Great post! The situation will only worsen as long as deregulation is seen as a good thing, privatization as some sort of a personal right (Corporations are not people and should not have personal rights! You can be immortal or a person, but not both!) and egregiously immoral profits by the mega-rich and the corporate are allowed to amass wealth through the siphoning off of funds that should go into decent wages, benefits, and improving infrastructure.

Get political women!

Nancy

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Decent Wages for Child Care Providers

Hunter smith — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 11:27:45 -0500

Hunter

I am so happy to read this conversation although my children are now getting older. When I graduated from college in 1985 I got an exciting job in New York. After a few years working off broadway I took a ridiculously low paying job, more like an internship, at a film company reading scripts for a famous actress..I then gave birth to my first child. Despite having a great education and a masters degree my salary couldn't compare with my husbands and my salary didn't cover infant day care. I left the job market and finished my Masters Degree. As my husband's career took off my remained stagnant. Today with two Masters Degree's I look back and wonder what happened.

I didn't understand the economics of staying home for too long. Employers do not want house wives. I now pay a babysitter what she deserves. She has full health coverage and a salary worthy of her work. Two of my children have are from a Russian orphanage and carry deep emotional scars. In my opinion my sitter is worth more than all the therapists that receive $200 an hour. That is when I decided to pay her a substantial salary and begin to sacrifice for her. She sacrifices for me every day. Without her I would be lost.. Now that Barack Obama and Michelle may make it to the White House I spend my days campaigning as a volunteer hoping that my four children, two girls and two adopted boys from an orphanage with special needs, will have different choices if they decide to have children.

No doubt it is

Suzanne Reisman — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 15:46:14 -0500

Not only that, but it is not a skill or talent that counts as work, and therefore should not be acknowledged as having monetary value. My friend, who is a SAHM, once pointed out to me (after I made some dingbat comment about splitting up chores that I forever am ashamed of myself for thinking and still wonder what was wrong with me) that if she died, her husband would have to pay someone to do everything she does for him for free. So if someone else does the child care, society acknowledges that there's some remuneration that is required hence it has some monetary value as work, but when a mom provides the service, it's something she should be doing anyway and therefore of no value. Sickening.

Suzanne Reisman, Contributing Editor - Feminism & Gender
Campaign for Unshaved Snatch (CUSS) & Other Rants

I wonder if perhaps society

earlgreyrooibos — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 15:19:43 -0500

I wonder if perhaps society doesn't want to invest in childcare because of this assumption that women should stay home and do it for free. There is this illusion still that all women can and want to stay home and raise children full-time. I think we need to work on breaking down that stereotype, and call attention to how many families need to have a dual-income household to survive (as well as the number of single parents out there).

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Suzanne! You've said it!

Atena — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 13:27:33 -0500

With the way we treat the care and education of young children in this country we are asking for trouble. There is no good reason for not investing in children and families early on - it speaks to the fundamental contempt that is held for women and children in our society.

I agree with your comments (though I must say that it was actually cheaper for my husband to quit his job and care for my daughter than to pay for quality childcare while we were both working). I hope that BlogHer readers will find out what early-childhood/family - related legislation is happening in their communities, and support it. In Illinois we are urging people to remind their legislators to support Preschool for All, which is our state's universal Pre-K initiative. Contact your local Child Care Resource and Referral agency to find out what the relevant advocacy issues are.

Thanks for writing this!

Atena

Assumptions, Biases & Irrational Fantasies

Gendered professions

Morra Aarons Mele — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 07:45:26 -0600

Amazing post, Suzanne.

I heard something stunning the other day at school: as psychology becomes increasingly a "female" profession, status and money get lower.

A professor wondered if the same would happen to law, since over half of law school students are women. Same for medicine, esp. family practice, which you already see.

Great post

Jill Miller Zimon — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 20:15:56 -0600

In addition to these categories of child care workers, there are also the child care workers in children and family welfare programs and facilities. They too are dramatically underpaid, just in the terms you raise (the value of what they are doing) but also the stress of what they are doing, since so many of them are working with abused and neglected kids who've been removed from their homes.

In Ohio, we're looking seriously as investing in early childhood care. I too am not 1005 positive about mandatory preschool but for sure, the investment commitment in our kids could do no harm. And it certainly could do some good for the people we attract to the work.

Jill
Writes Like She Talks

OK That's not so bad, RE

Denise — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 18:25:44 -0600

I've seen you far more idealistic and I can live with these ideas. I do not, however, like what Mrs Edwards said in her Keynote at BlogHer about mandatory pre-school.

~Denise
BlogHer Community Manager

Flamingo House Happenings

Liberal feminist roots or common sense?

Suzanne Reisman — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 16:14:52 -0600

Your proposal may be branded as "liberal feminist" but the reality is that it is practical and necessary.

Suzanne Reisman, Contributing Editor - Feminism & Gender
Campaign for Unshaved Snatch (CUSS)& Other Rants

What Nelle said...

Suzanne Reisman — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 16:12:48 -0600

Child care workers are paid so little because parents can't afford even the cost of adequate care, let alone what a high quality program costs. Child care tuition is more than public universities in 49 out of 50 states because there is essentially no public investment in the early childhood care and education field.

Suzanne Reisman, Contributing Editor - Feminism & Gender
Campaign for Unshaved Snatch (CUSS)& Other Rants

Excellent post, Suzanne!

Zandria — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 14:43:01 -0600

I've never understood how some child care workers can be paid so little when they're in charge of other people's most valued possessions.

Personal blog: Keep Up With Me
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My liberal feminist roots...

nelle2nelle — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 14:17:33 -0600

about to surface.

*throws something behind Denise to distract her from this post*

This nation need to address the entire issue of child care for working parents. By putting in place a strong system, children will benefit, parents will benefit, child care professionals will benefit, employers will benefit, and as a result, society will benefit.

This has been a debate topic elsewhere recently; it was rather contentious. I'd like to see a) a system of childcare nationwide; b) paid parental leave after becoming new parents. Some favoured 26 weeks for each parent, my personal leaning is 13 for each parent. This would be administered through UI (disclaimer: I'm a UI adjudicator) and paid for not by employer contribution as is UI, but by employee contribution (read as taxes.)

I handle quite a few cases involving child care employees, and their salaries are outrageously low. Yet we have structured a system at the moment which would break if salaries were brought to k-12 salary levels - most parents would not be able to afford the resulting cost.

This would obviously be a very, very contentious issue; more conservative regions would wish no part of such a programme. Pity... our children are the most precious and important resource, and we should be looking for ways to improve their care whilst also finding ways to benefit parents and all of society.

nelle

right on!

piperoflove — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 16:52:18 -0500

This post caught my eye because I have been thinking lately about how lucky my youngest son is to be going to such a great daycare.

I was a stay-at-home Mommy with my oldest son, and it was a great thing...a very hard thing, but it was a tremendous blessing as well. When my second son came along my marriage was ending and I no longer was going to be able to stay home with my boys, whether I wanted to or not. I grieved over this. I was of the mind that sending kids to daycare was a way of shirking real motherly obligations. This mindset came, almost exclusively, from my circle of friends who were also stay-at-home Mom's. I thought my youngest son was doomed to a life less rich because he would be going to daycare.

I was so wrong! My daycared baby is now almost four. He is incredibly adaptable and easily taken care of. He's happy and loves going to "school."

I liked your point about rooms full of children the same age, playing with toys that are just their size...my sons would not get that type of all around social learning environment at home. He is also cared for by people who are trained to teach and nurture and discipline well.

Both of my boys are amazingly intelligent and even though they have had different infancy and toddlerhoods, they have shared the same nurturing care. I appreciate the blessing of great childcare...it's a brilliant invention!