Reply to NYT article about baby who died first day of daycare

Forum Index » Preschool and Daycare Discussion

Reply to "NYT article about baby who died first day of daycare"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]It's not relevant where I live or what I drive.  I'm not the one saying I had "no other choice".  That is my entire issue.  This line right here

What this article is about is that my infant died in the care of a stranger, when he should have been with me. Our culture demanded it.

How does "our culture demand it"?  Does it demand she live in NYC?  Does it demand the spouse work freelance?  Is that a demand that "our culture" puts on everyone? No, it's choices they made, not anything they were forced into.  She even says had she known the outcome, she would have made a different choice.

That's all I am saying.  I am not saying she deserves it, that she should have made a different choice, that she somehow caused it.  I am just saying that our culture does not force mothers to leave their kids with strangers.  There are a lot of people that make it work on one income.[/quote]

What she says is far more nuanced that that.  Every choice we make has both immediate and long term implications and we cannot know what those will be without a crystal ball.  However, our culture does not support women who want a parent to be able to stay home with their children for the first six, eight twelve months without a significant hit to their ability to support themselves in the short term and reenter the work force in the long term.  And that is not a gamble most working moms can afford to take. And jobs - for either parent - don't grow on trees.  It's not a matter of just going out and getting a new one.  By contrast, other countries - like Canada for example - mandate parental leave periods of up to a year out of recognition that children need their parents in that first year and parents need to be able to reenter the workforce after that. You may not agree with her choices but she is stating a true point - culturally this country does not support or encourage women (or either parent really - and I think it's even harder for men) to stay home with their children for a meaningful portion of the first year of the child's life. There is no meaningful [i]choice [/i] here.[/quote]

I also completely agree that there is a huge issue with affordable high quality child care in this country.  But ultimately these issues all go hand in hand as a lack of meaningful support for families trying to both support and raise young children. This is not a one sized fits all kind of situation.  But real problem is lack of support for meaningful choices.[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics