High Price of Day Care?

I can't stand most media reports about day care, because they seem designed to terrify and guilt-trip working moms. The reports are never about quality day care, which I've found to be a godsend in my life as a working parent. However, an article on the high price of day care, which ran in the New York Times last Wednesday, is well worth reading.

The findings were objective. Unsettling, too.

The article reported on a day care experiment in Canada. Synopsis: 10 years ago the Quebec Family Policy started subsidizing day care at government-approved centers, ultimately spending $1.4 billion a year to offer care at only $7 a day. Mothers who suddenly had an affordable way to return to work did so in droves and gave the economy a lift.

Great so far, right?

Then three well-respected economists analyzed the well-being of the children (and parents) in the program. They found bits of good news -- but most of it was bad. On the kid front, higher levels of anxiety and aggression in the kids versus other Canadian children, greater risk of obesity and behavioral problems, better prepared for school. The parents reported being more depressed and less satisfied with their marriages than other Canadians.

In the United States, we're in the same boat: Almost two-thirds of children younger than 6 don't have a parent at home with them during the day, up from roughly 33 percent 35 years ago (when many of us were kids).

My working mom heart says: It can't be true that day care is bad for kids and parents. I know in my situation it wasn't -- my three kids all thrived in day care. As did I -- knowing they were safe and well-cared for while I was at work.

Another voice says: Of course it's true. I remember kids in day care who weren't thriving, young children who were away from their parents and the comforts of home for too many hours a day, too many days a week. I remember one day care dad who campaigned for the center hours, 7:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. five days a week, to expand. His children were both under 5.

So what I have to say is: Yes, it's true, quality day care is no magic bullet for working parents (or their children). But beware politicians and conservatives who use this study to alarm and guilt-trip working mothers into quitting their jobs or hiring nannies or begging grandma to baby-sit instead of using day care. Because good, affordable day care is a critical component of success for working parents. But what this study shows is that employees also need flexible hours from employers, so we can give children and ourselves what all families need to thrive: time together.

By Leslie Morgan Steiner |  June 21, 2006; 10:00 AM ET  | Category:  Raising Great Kids
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