Reply to NY Mag: Daycare is Broken

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Reply to "NY Mag: Daycare is Broken"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]What's broken is an economy that forces a majority of parents to work full-time in order to make ends meet.[/quote]

This.  Institutionalized child care is never a good thing for babies and young children.  It’s just a sad result of our economic system. [/quote]

I agree totally that institutionalized child care is never a good thing for babies and young children.  However, while the economic system often seems to make this inevitable for many families, I also wonder why so many people do not consider this hard fact when planning, or failing to plan, their families.  The attitude in this country seems to be that everyone is entitled to have as many children as they want rather than encouraging people to figure out what they actually can afford, what daycare options they can reasonably plan for, before bringing children into the world.  So many new mothers and many new fathers as well are quite surprised by how much they would prefer to care for their own infants at least the first few years but find they have failed to anticipate this and therefore can't economically find a way to do it.[/quote]

So you anticipated all this ahead of time?  I feel like there was so much I didn’t know about parenting, and how parenting would change me, until I was actually a parent.

Also the problem is if everyone did as you say and only have kids they could “afford” the birth rate would likely drop pretty dramatically.  [/quote]

Unlike many parents today I prioritized my desire to care for my own children when they were too young to go to full time school and so did my husband.  We are not professionals and not the least bit affluent.  Even so, we made it work for us because it was a high priority.  I know other families who have done the same.  It's not easy, but it is possible.  For instance, I currently know a young family where the husband works night shifts and the wife works a few shifts as a server in a restaurant.  They take care of their baby themselves while the other is working.  They don't want anyone else caring for their baby so they found a way to avoid that.  They live in a small house in a nice neighborhood.  They struggle but it is worth it for them.  Nannies and au pairs are not an option.  They didn't know much about parenting before they had kids either but when they met their baby they did not want other people taking care of him.  They don't plan to have another child but might change their minds eventually if their economic situation improves.[/quote]

They have a small house in a nice DMV neighborhood working shifts at a restaurant?  I call BS on that one.[/quote]

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