It’s official. Working moms now have one more thing to worry about. In March 2007, the New York Times ran a story titled: “Poor Behavior Is Linked to Time in Day Care.” The article outlines a study that concludes even one year in a day care setting can result in disruptive—or even aggressive—behavior in your child for years to come.
The alarmist title of this article surely had working moms across America shiver. Luckily, researchers of this large study state that the unruly behavior, found in the 1,300 children assessed by teachers, was within the normal range for healthy children. The researchers from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development-funded study also point out that parents’ guidance and their genes are the biggest contributers to a child’s behavior. Interestingly, it also states that poor behavior—from bullying classmates to interrupting class—continues until the sixth grade.
Hmm. That’s a mixed bag. I’d chock it up as good news since another finding is that the quality of child care didn’t affect the outcome. Across the board, children who attended day care settings—regardless of their standard of care—were unruly in classrooms later.
This is truly upsetting news as not everyone can afford to hire a nanny or to quit their job. Both parents work in seventy percent of American families and according to the Children’s Defense Fund, 2.3 million American children under age five are in day care centers. To add insult to injury, day care is still expensive. Various expert assessments put day care costs from $4,000–$13,000 a year, per child. It certainly makes moms (and dads) angry to think that they may be spending up to twenty-five percent of their income for sub-par care that will result in a future mired with poor progress reports from middle-school teachers.
What’s the solution? For many of us, all we can do is make an effort to find a day care center with a good reputation, a philosophy of child-rearing that we agree with, a low teacher-to-student ratio, and hopefully a low turnover rate among staff. This last goal is quite challenging. Sadly, day care workers “are paid less than parking lot attendants,” says Joan Blades, co-founder of Momsrising.org, a nonprofit organization that aims to empower people across the country to band together to influence, and ultimately pass, family-friendly legislation.
“Child care is so substandard in the United States…. Child care centers can’t afford to invest in training and there is high turnover because the workers have to feed their families. And, ironically, parents still can’t afford it!” reiterates Blades.
In a phone interview last week, Blades outlined tragic statistics that show how having a child in America is the leading cause of “a poverty spill” for families. Trying to pay for child care has stretched family budgets so severely that a USA Today article last year reported some families spend more than thirty percent of their incomes on child care alone. For some, that results in dramatic decisions for the family—such as leaving a job, selling a house, or moving to another state with cheaper housing and child care costs.
Just three years ago, I made my own personal sacrifice. For working moms, it isn’t anything new, we all understand and accept these as just what women do in America. When living in Los Angeles, I was offered an amazing job as a journalism instructor at an LA university with the caveat of mentoring the university newspaper. I was completely excited about the opportunity and was told I would be able to continue freelance endeavors as I didn’t want to give up writing for certain magazines. I had mentally decided to take the job until I visited the campus day care facility.
Insert sound of a record rip here.
I wasn’t prepared to leave my then fifteen-month-old son in an over-crowded center, regardless of its good reputation. One of my friends had been on its waiting list for six months and couldn’t believe I didn’t approve. But, I spent three hours at the center and felt differently. I found myself sitting in the hot sun while 30+ toddlers were playing with water hoses and running around water tables under a make-shift tent in a parking lot area outside the center. Teachers were gossiping to one another and not interacting with the children very much. One was on her cell phone. I saw one child sitting in the bright sun just staring in the distance. I put a hat on him and then walked away. And do you know what? That center would have eaten almost half—yes half—of my salary. (Clearly, journalists don’t earn a lot and Los Angeles has some of the highest child care costs in the country, but still!)
