Stepfamilies: Stepparent Roles For American Children

“14.2 million children under age 13 met federal requirements for child-care subsidies in 2011-2012. Of that number, 8.6 million were eligible under state policies. Yet only 1.5 million children actually received the subsidies. That means only 10.6 percent of the number of children meeting federal guidelines actually get the subsidy” (Davidson 2017). The question that will be answered throughout this paper is, how accessible is childcare in the United States? Child care is the care of children by a day-care center, babysitter, or other provider while parent/ parents/ or legal guardian is working. The median household income for the United States is $53,8895 (Census Bureau) and the average cost of childcare is between $10,000 and $16,000 (Hamm 2015). This means that childcare can cost families making the median income 30% of their annual income. Given that this is the median household income, half of households have an income that is below this costing them more than 30% of their income. The United States has excellent child care that is affordable for some, however, most low-income families are unable to afford it.

In today’s society, most families consist of both parents working and with that comes the conflict of shared childcare, nurturing and shared household responsibility. Since the day of old, it was and always has been the mothers’ responsibility to care for the child and the home. To cook, clean, feed the children and attend to the husband's needs. Of course, this concept also depending on the culture of which the couple was brought up on (Kaakinen, Coehlo, Steele, Tabacco, & Harmon Hanson, 2015).

Some families are not able to provide childcare when they need it for their kid(s). “The cost and the scarcity of day care have helped create what sociologist Joya Misra calls “the motherhood penalty”” (Quart). Some families have to have only one income so that one parent could stay home to watch the kid(s). Single parents have to move in with their parents for help because they can not afford the care. People should not have to quit their jobs to take care of their kids when there are multiple daycare facilities.

The United States is the richest nation, yet millions of Americans live below the poverty line and millions more struggle every month. The children in society today living in poverty is increasing daily. The majority of these children are from single-parent homes where sometimes parents are not working or have become disabled and therefore cannot work. Children who are raised in foster care and leave as adults do not have strong relationship ties most of the time and are at an increased risk for experiencing poverty, early parenthood and homelessness (American School Board Journal, 2007). The reason for most of the poverty in the United States is due to low family incomes.

Fathers today spend more time taking care of their children compared to previous generations. Even with these gains, today's mothers devote almost double the time that fathers do for child care.[2] While every situation is different, in most families there

There are many different family dynamics in today’s society. But what really makes a family? Every definition found has defined family, in simple terms, as “A father and a mother raising their children together.” However, not every family is like that. Most families are not like that at all. Different aspects come into play in families such as divorce, death, and abandonment that can redefine the family structure, either for the better or for the worse. A family does not have to consist of the traditional sense of the nuclear family, but rather a family can consist of friends, step-siblings, step-parents, half siblings, or family members outside the immediate circle of parents and brothers and sisters. Anyone who can come together is a family;

Before the development of daycare companies, mothers in U.S.A would leave babies dozing in carriages parked outside movie places, under care of other friends, cribs, and cradles, locking them in tenement flats and car parks in factory lots (Pruissen, 2012). Some women took their children to their mothers, to neighbors and strangers. In all these instances, the security and care of children were not guaranteed as some women would lose their children or find them with infection such as lice, fever or running noses. Being able to leave your child under someone else 's care can be very hard on mothers.

Children born to single or unwed parents causes serious problems and discussions not only within society, but also the welfare system. Becoming a parent seems to be one of the most beautiful things life has to offer to people. The laughter of children warms the heart like nothing else can, and the way their eyes light up when they receive something as small as a piece of candy reminds us all that the little things in life are the most important. However, children require time and money which often gets overlooked by many people. Raising a child with two married parents seems difficult enough, but today many people are having children out-of -wedlock which also seems to create more single parent homes and puts more pressure on that one parent who struggles to support the child. From 1960 to 2000, out-of-wedlock births grew by 600%

This soon changed after the 1960’s when women started to become more independent and realized that they could depend on themselves rather than a man. This was a turning point for most women which is the causation as to why so many Hispanic mothers have decided to raise a child on their own. In the article “Does Family Structure Matter? A Comparison of Adoptive, Two-Parent Biological, Single-Mother, Stepfather, and Stepmother Households” the author Jennifer Lansford helps us better understand the lives of different family households. While reading the article, I noticed how gender roles became reversed in certain households. For instance, in a single mother parent household, the mother took on the role of providing, protecting, caring, and nurturing the child. The article also demonstrates households where the mother’s occupation income was higher than the father’s occupation income. This led to the mother taking on the responsibility of providing more for her

According to the data from the NSCAW II wave 3 tables, children in out-of-home care were predominately cared for by relatives not receiving compensation from the child welfare system, followed by foster caregivers, and lastly by formal kin care, or relatives who receive compensation from the child welfare system (Dolan, Casanueva, Smith, and Ringeisen, 2012). Foster caregivers most likely to be between the ages of 30-49 years, slightly more likely to be black than white, have more than a high school diploma, work full-time or choose not to work, and be married. Formal kin caregivers were most likely to be between the ages of 50-59 years of age, be white, have a high school diploma, choose not to work, and also be married (Casanueva et al.,

Functional and dysfunctional families are two different family settings that can cause conflict for the story.

Culturally is it unusual that Lanesha’s grandmother is her primary caregiver? I would like to say no to this question, but the facts behind this issue don’t support it. Within the African American community, approximately 12% of African American children nationally are cared for by their grandparents, compared to approximately 7% of Hispanic children and 4% of non-Hispanic White children (NCBI, 2010). Lanesha and her grandmother are part of a larger issue that is reflected in today’s society. Several reasons can exist for this paradigm, anything from the parents needing complete education, the grandparents supplementing expensive daycare costs, or simply because the parents are not involved in the child’s life.

The paper cites that relatives of the children are not as prepared or get as many resources, support, and training to take care of the children compared to a non-kinship caregiver as the government and other organizations focus more on training and helping people to be able to take multiple children, not just one person taking one child and waste resources in something that will only benefit that specific child. The author proceeds to list articles and journals that support evidence that kinship caregivers tend to be poorer, less educated, older, unemployed, and of lower economic status compared to non-kinship caregivers; he also lists how, with few exceptions, children are better with strangers than with relatives because they receive more

I total agree with your points. if you look at most America families they pay car payments, mortgage, clothes for their kids, and groceries and all this are just a fractions of what is needed. For a family to live comfortable this days, unless both parenting are working or one of the spouse has to be making a high salary.Which mean either the mother has to stay home and take care of kids to reduce the cost of day and the dad work or via visa. Furthermore, some family choose to become a one-income

Change can always be a good thing in life. From when I was born and throughout Second Grade I was living in Chicago with my Mom. My family and friends either lived in Chicago or neighboring towns. I was a really enthusiastic person according to both my parents and I was never sorrowful and I always had a large grin on my face.