Reply to How can we improve the childcare crisis?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]3-6 months paid leave. Encourage parents to stagger their leave (it's good for families because it forces both parents to bond with children and develop parenting skills). Large employers will be required to provide a minimum of 3 months per employee, smaller employers and people who are self-employed would be subsidized out of a central fund. Can also follow models from other countries that offer 100% paid leave for some period and then diminishes to a lower percentage for longer leaves. But jobs are guaranteed after the leave.

Subsidized or free childcare (based on income qualification) starting at 1 year. Parents would sort out the first year between leave, family help, and paid help. Then we'd have government run or sponsored (so private centers could apply for government subsidy in order to offer free/reduced price care to people) childcare centers from 1-3. Not offering government sponsored care for kids under 1 resolves a lot of logistical issues with infants and babies, who require much lower caregiver to child ratios and also are less mobile. Toddlers are ideal for group care -- they do parallel play, can follow basic directions, can walk and play on playgrounds, etc.

Subsidized or free preschool. We already have this in DC and other places. It's fantastic in terms of enabling parents to work while also providing social-emotional skills to kids who need it and some pre-kindergarten academics.

Expanded aftercare and summer programs for school age children (again, DC already has this to some degree) to close the gap for working parents. People overthink this stuff for some reason. School age kids don't need particularly expensive care outside of school. We don't actually need to be doing enrichment. You can just make sure you are hiring qualified minders and then let kids play. They get enrichment in school. Some parents will pay for classes and the like, but we really just need safe places for children to play after school or in the summer while their parents are working.
[b]
You treat having children as a normal and expected part of most people's lives and structure society in a way that supports what children need (time to bond with parents, intensive care as infants, and safe group care as toddlers and preschoolers). You stop acting like having a child is some outlandish and selective activity only engaged in by the rich or the selfish and acknowledge that it is among the most basic human instincts. And you also recognize that by helping parents maintain employment through their children's early years, you actually keep more people (especially women) in the workforce, paying taxes and maintaining their skills. [/b]

I know this doesn't work perfectly in other countries but it works a heck of a lot better than the system we have here -- better for workers, better for families, better for kids.

What we currently do Does. Not. Work.[/quote]

Preach! I just posted a similar sentiment on the controversial non-political opinion thread. It's weird how many people are anti-children these days.
https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/555/1061797.page[/quote]

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