Child Care Chapter 6 Summary

Children are encouraged to communicate their needs, feelings and thoughts. They are given opportunities to choose and use reading materials.

Caring- the process of looking after the needs and wellbeing of another person due to their age, illness or disability

Krashinsky begins his argument by acknowledging the fact that a clear majority of mothers with young children are working, and the rate at which this is occurring has grown consistently since 1976. This is a direct result of the feminist movement, as a combination of factors such as higher pay, less discrimination, and more schooling, has resulted in young women beginning to view a life in the workplace as normal. As a result of this, many mothers are not going to stop working unless a policy offers them a significant sum, which would undoubtedly cost more than the best childcare program available. Instead of trying to prevent mothers from working, we should encourage them

The problem is accentuated by the widening of the gap between rich and poor, that can be translated in this matter as an increase of difficulty for low-income families to have access to the much more expensive high quality day care options. There are several aspects that built such a controversial situation and the most important are certainly the cultural and economical ones. The huge growth in women’s independence and professional ambition, in addition to importance, of the last decades, caused the fall of the cultural basis that have always taken for granted the responsibility of the mother as the full-time caregiver (Chisholm 38). Now women are more willing to gain a successful and respectable place in society, and this can be achieved almost exclusively through hard work and full immersion in their jobs. Simultaneously, the economical situation of our society caused many families to depend on two incomes to satisfy the basic needs. In fact, the increase in the cost of living not sufficiently balanced by a relatively smaller rise in wages, and a greater attitude toward materialism and conspicuous consumption, have given women the same financial responsibility as men (Chilman 451). This aspect can be fully applied only on families with an average income or better, because professional daycare programs are pretty expensive and in some cases can reach prices higher than the minimum wage. Those factors

The authors focus on how child welfare represents traits of national identities. Gordon uses child welfare to examine how the lower classes conceived of their rights as members of a racial/national identity. Whiteness entitled someone to a certain living standard. Gordon illustrates this with how Clifton community members defined white children’s welfare as contradictory to what their brief Mexican other adoptive-parents could provide. Gordon argues Arizona shows how nationalism and racial systems could become inherent possessions of the individual (Gordon, 240). Gordon points out how this meant that nationalism excludes whole groups. As she states the “chance [of becoming white] was denied to Mexicans” because white was defined against Mexicans

Every parent wants their child to succeed and will do just about anything to ensure that success, but not really knowing how to make their child successful is scary. What makes it worse is there is a lot of information out there about how to raise a child that isn’t really true. Chapter five talks a lot about the finding of the ECLS and what the data from it showed. Again conventional wisdom, in this case what factors of parenting affect test scores is proved wrong which isn’t very surprising. It made me think about what possible conventional wisdom I’ve heard which may be wrong. The ECLS data showed that there is still a black-white test score that stems from bad schools which is pretty depressing. I thought is was king of weird how it matters

Today there are two countries in the world that do not currently guarantee paid maternity leave for employed new mothers and/or expecting mothers, those countries are the United States and Papua New Guinea, according to the International Labour Organization, an United Nations agency, which recommends a minimum 18 week maternity leave (Rubin 2016, p.1). In recent years, the controversial issue of guaranteed maternal leave has been a prominent topic of debate amongst political activists and elites, particularly in the United States, where reform is a feasible option but has yet to be achieved. It is this absence of policy that serves to provide guaranteed maternal for all working mothers that has been linked to significant health related issues; these adverse effects not only impacts those mothers, but their children as well. Although paid maternal leave remains a controversial matter, policy reform that implements such leave is not only a feasible option in the United States, both economically and politically, it is an ethical necessity in order to facilitate the well-being of American women. Thus, in order to work toward ethical political/governmental policy that supports the well-being of women in the United States’ workforce, it is crucial that guaranteed paid maternal policy is implemented.

The Urban Institute published a case study that promotes the creation of national paid family leave policy in the United States. In the study, it is shown that this issue has been debated countless times in the past. George H.W. Bush even vetoed an unpaid family leave act during his presidency. This displays the struggles of enacting policy relating to this issue. The lack of a national paid family leave program in the US has left working mothers with three options: “return to work immediately after childbirth, quit employment, or take unpaid leave” (Urban Institute, 2017, p.3). The issue with these options include, loss of pay, unemployment, or the lack of parental presence in a child’s early development. Moreover, although some private companies offer paid leave, less educated and lower income mother have little access to this paid leave, which exacerbates their financial instability, keeping them in a lower societal class. This study found that not only is the current system is inadequate, but it is also inequitable, which causes financial hardships across the nation. According to the study, there has even been a 32% decrease in income after childbirth. Although this is the current situation, some states have enacted a statewide paid family leave program, which displays

Recently women’s rights and women’s equality in the workplace has come back to the fore as a topic for discussion in government agencies and the United Nations. Whilst this is a very important topic, when it comes to time off from work when a new child is born, women in the US have some provision, whereas men have none.

Pregnancy and early child development is a fundamental aspect of human society, and is pertinent to the development of a successfully functioning community. The developmental and social progress of any civilization relies on children, as they will compose the future working population. Therefore, a mother or father’s involvement in the child’s development is of extreme importance, which is why family leave has been implemented all over the world. Family leave refers to the period of time granted to the employee to care for their newborn child. As communities evolve economically, financial stability is necessary, for what is perceived to be socially successful for a child’s development, which is why paid family leave is popular throughout the world’s nations. However, ABC News reports that “the U.S. is only one of three countries in the world that don't offer paid maternity leave” (Kim, 2015); the same is true for paternity leave. The United States government has an interesting track record dealing with family leave, but in order to analyze what the US government and advocacy groups have done to solve this issue, there first needs to be an understanding on why this issue is so difficult to resolve. The arguments that support and oppose paid family leave in the United States are equally valid, therefore causing a stalemate in the attempted policy making of legislative bodies.

As a society, we value the health and well being of each citizen; however, in the case of new mothers and their infants these values tend to be less distinct. The case about paid maternity leave is a clear example which demonstrates how these values go unfulfilled, resulting in women having to face a moral dilemma of choosing between what they want to do versus what they must do. Women, are faced with the dilemma to choose to either to spend time at home caring for their new child, which is detrimental for a child’s emotional and cognitive development, or go back to work in order to have a sufficient income to provide for her family.

Child care assistance in America has always been an issue. Some mothers have made hard choices that were unsafe for their children. “Working mothers that cannot afford childcare have left their children in cars, with other children that are not capable of caring for them, and with strangers”, (Michel, 2011, para. 2). These are dicey situations, since the mothers may be blamed. Some may not have a logical solution to their problem. People may judge them, and assume they are selfish. They do not understand the situation these mothers are faced with. Some mothers fear the loss of employment, and do not want to lose their income.

A woman in the work force is not an uncommon sight across the United States. In 2013, it was recorded that 70% of women with children under the age of 18, contributed in the work force (Bureau of Labor Statistics). Many women have valuable knowledge, skill set, and experience needed to help employers continue to be an active business. Most of them work because they have to provide some, if not all, of the yearly income required to maintain home and family. However when a working woman becomes pregnant and gives birth or even adopts, there are no mandatory benefits that the employer must offer to assist the new mother financially while on leave from work. Across America, so many new mothers are left to rely on other sources, if any, to help provide their basic needs while they recover and care for their new child. If there is one thing the United States lacks, it is that employers are not required to provide paid maternity leave at the federal level.

Abramovitz (1992) discussed the family ethic and social reproduction as primary motivators to the introduction of several social welfare programs. The idea that childcare should be accommodated and considered in workforce development programs is in direct contrast to the proposed function of social welfare programs. As such it allows for women to enter into or remain in the workforce and to have families not bound by patriarchal gender roles (Adams, Spaulding, & Heller, 2015). Abramovitz later discusses the tendency of programs that serve the middle and upper classes to remain fully funded and not have their budgets cut or redistributed while those programs that serve only poor and working-class people are underfunded and further restricted (Abramovitz, 2001). Funding for various educational and occupational grants diminish the funds allocated for workforce development programs on federal, state, and local levels. As such there are insignificant resources to fund the initiative of childcare provision or accommodation (Adams, Spaulding, & Heller, 2015).

The legal basis for maternity leave in the United States are relatively new, with a dramatic rise in women’s participation in the labor force. A 1994 census indicates that, of married women with infants under 1 year of age, 55% were employed (Bachu, 1995). For those women with young children who are employed, the majority (65%) return to work shortly after the birth of their child, and most work full time (Hayghe, 1986). In light of these statistics for maternal employment, child and family advocates have pushed for parental leave legislation and supportive policies in employment settings.