Extension in Daycare Facility Hours - Essay Example

Extension in Daycare Facility Hours Outline This essay would prevail upon you the need of a daycare center needed to children even for more and long hours. I say this because I feel it has become quite necessary to extend this facility for working mothers who are struggling and trying to juggle both areas. By doing so, there will be a lot of advantages for the female employees. They will feel free and their productivity will be increased. And on the other hand, children would find more chances of growth and nourishment at day care centers. Thesis Statement If day care facilities availing duration is extended there would appear positive consequences and outcomes for both the parents and the children being brought up in day care centers. Introduction Although, it is generally considered that in-home care by a relative, such as father or grandmother, is a strong choice of many families. Less preferred is out-of-home relative care, and far more expensive is in-home nanny care. Supports for childcare, such as offers of free babysitting by grandparents or other relatives are not always a clear positive factor, despite economic savings and greater feelings of parental security. When a family chooses care by relatives, emotional or time-demanding reciprocal social obligations may increase stress on the family, even though the economic costs or time convenience may be a plus factor in that choice. In addition, clinical cases suggest that some trust in relative care may be misplaced. Besides this, another important element is socio-economic condition of working women. In this regard, the range of options for childcare varies widely by region. Parents in rural areas may have far fewer trained personnel available whether for family daycare or center care. Choosing appropriate or needed childcare may be quite different depending on family needs and resources So, viewing to this entire situation, it is again requested to consider and accede to my request and introduce this facility as soon as possible. Daycare Facility Extension Analysis Kristin Droege argues that it isn't child-care itself that is dangerous to the development of children, but is simply the quality of the child-care facility that can harm children. In her opening she points out that the term "child care, is used to refer to any form of care for children that is not provided by parents. Places like churches, synagogues, community centers, and even in the workplace and schools as corporate/school sponsored programs. (Kristin, 1081-83) She continues to defend child-care by noting the work of attachment theorist John Bowlby; which basically concludes that as long as a child receives sensitive and responsive care giving during the first year of life they will develop an internal model of oneself as worthy of love and generally recognize that "others" are viewed as good and trustworthy. With this in mind the idea that it is not child-care itself but the quality of child-care is again reinforced and continues to receive reinforcement through the findings that the most common form of child-care, (about 20%), is that of placing the children in the care relatives; although it has been found that about 69% of all the relative care examined proved to be inadequate. (Bowlby, 109-12) Thus the solution is to educate parents about high quality child-care programs, what the affects of high quality are, and how to find high quality care; though the problems of finances and illusion can still sway parents in picking less than adequate day-care facilities. On average parents only spend about 20 or so minutes inspecting different day-care facilities which is adequate to get the full spectrum and knowledge of such a facility. In addition there is always the issue of finances in which many parents sacrifice high quality care in order to save a few dollars down the road. Though in some cases the issue of finances can't be avoided Kristin Droege has proposed that the government could invest in the creation and dissemination of information about early-childhood education programs as a public service. Overall if parents are willing to take the time to fully research and seek out good high quality day-care and spend the money they know their child is worth, it would then seem a safe assumption that high quality day-care could be beneficial to children and even a new standard for the future. (Kristin, 1081-83) It is important to emphasize that we cannot know if these figures reflect parents' true preferences or the limited availability and affordability of different child care options. All research suggests that there is an extreme shortage of child care in general, and it is likely that parents are not always able to find the arrangement they prefer. For example, a study of 846 male and female workers conducted by the Public Agenda Foundation in 1983 found that the most desirable kind of child care for working parents was a company-sponsored on-site center. Half of the parents, and nearly two-thirds of the mothers, saw this form as an excellent solution to their child care problems (Zigler, 68-74). Thus, it is not surprising that it appears that college educated, middle class, and professional women are more likely to use child care centers and private baby-sitters, since they can afford them, while less educated and lower income women use relatives and neighbors (Zigler, 68-74). But what must be emphasized is that, in actuality, most parents do not employ a single type of child care arrangement. On the contrary, most of them use a combination of resources, so that impermanence, flexibility, and fluctuation characterize most arrangements, especially when children are very young (Lamb, 195-202). In a four-year longitudinal study of working mothers with preschool age children in New York City, over 50 percent of those who used child care changed their arrangement between the first and second time they were interviewed. Many of these women changed from care by a relative to a combination of relative and non relative care. This change was due in part to the aging of their children and to the decline in available relatives. The number of relatives available to provide child care is now declining, in part because these relatives are themselves seeking or holding paying jobs (Coontz, 140-46). Day care historically has existed to provide supervision of children of working parents, particularly low income and welfare mothers, and its emphasis is therefore custodial. The nursery school was established to provide an enriching educational experience to children of more affluent parents supplementary to family life, and has emphasized child development rather than supervision. Finally, compensatory education programs, such as Head Start, represent an attempt to provide compensatory experiences to impoverish and minority children who are perceived to be at an educational disadvantage compared with their more affluent counterparts. The idea is to "even up" the competition for future educational and occupational opportunities. Long term tradition of day care in America is one of supervision for the children of working mothers and 'enrichment' for the children of non-working parents who can afford it. The notion that nurturance is woman's work, the belief that government should not intervene in family life, the assertion that public child care is too expensive to provide, and the level of disagreement about the goals of child care among policy makers and citizens are interrelated elements that have prevented public commitment to child care and contribute to the current contradiction between the growing need for child care and the persistent lack of supply. Conclusion American culture and ideology generally assume that the family is a private institution and that within it reside the natural resources for caring for children. There is no consideration of paying a wage to mothers who perform child rearing tasks in their homes--and child care workers who do it elsewhere are paid a paltry wage--because child care is not seen as a set of tasks. Rather, child care is believed to be a natural and necessary component of being a mother, something that emanates from an instinctual bond existing between mother and child. The relationships cultivated between parents and children, as well as the manner in which they are cultivated, are seen to be private matters based on the culture and personality of' the family itself, including its ethnic, racial, religious, and political values. In a pluralist society where diversity in this value orientation exists--and to some degree is celebrated--it is difficult to imagine a unitary family-related policy or program that would equally represent all interests. Furthermore, the family is the one social institution in which this diversity can be expressed without the judgment or interference of others--so long as it remains a privatized institution. Works Cited Bowlby, J. & Fry, Margery (2000) Child Care & the Growth of Love: London: Pelican. 109-12 Coontz, Stephanie _The Way We Really Are: Coming to Terms with America's Changing Families (NY: Basic Books, 2002) 140-46 Kristin Droege and Carollee Howes: Child Care in the United States and Industrialized Nations; Pediatrics 2004; 94: 1081-1083. Lamb, Michael, Ed. Child Care in Context: Cross-Cultural Perspective on Child Care (2001) 195-202 Zigler Edward F., and Edmund W. Gordon, eds. 2002; Day care: Scientific and social policy issues. Boston: Auburn House. 68-74 Read More