Child Care For Love Or Money

Undoubtedly, cultural and social class differences contribute to these struggles, but it is from more universal human dynamics that these conflicts arise.

As women moved into the formal labor force in large numbers over the last forty years, care work – traditionally provided primarily by women – has increasingly shifted from the family arena to the market. Child care, elder care, care for the disabled, and home care now account for a growing segment of low-wage work in the United States, and demand for such work will only increase as the baby boom generation ages. But the expanding market provision of care has created new economic anxieties and raised pointed questions: Why do women continue to do most care work, both paid and unpaid? Why does care work remain low paid when the quality of care is so highly valued? How effective and equitable are public policies toward dependents in the United States? In For Love and Money, an interdisciplinary team of experts explores the theoretical dilemmas of care provision and provides an unprecedented empirical overview of the looming problems for the care sector in the United States. Drawing on diverse disciplines and areas of expertise, For Love and Money develops an innovative framework to analyze existing care policies and suggest potential directions for care policy and future research. Contributors Paula England, Nancy Folbre, and Carrie Leana explore the range of motivations for caregiving, such as familial responsibility or limited job prospects, and why both love and money can be efficient motivators. They also examine why women tend to specialize in the provision of care, citing factors like job discrimination, social pressure, or the personal motivation to provide care reported by many women. Suzanne Bianchi, Nancy Folbre, and Douglas Wolf estimate how much unpaid care is being provided in the United States and show that low-income families rely more on unpaid family members for their child and for elder care than do affluent families. With low wages and little savings, these families often find it difficult to provide care and earn enough money to stay afloat. Candace Howes, Carrie Leana and Kristin Smith investigate the dynamics within the paid care sector and find problematic wages and working conditions, including high turnover, inadequate training and a “pay penalty” for workers who enter care jobs. These conditions have consequences: poor job quality in child care and adult care also leads to poor care quality. In their chapters, Janet Gornick, Candace Howes and Laura Braslow provide a systematic inventory of public policies that directly shape the provision of care for children or for adults who need personal assistance, such as family leave, child care tax credits and Medicaid-funded long-term care. They conclude that income and variations in states’ policies are the greatest factors determining how well, and for whom, the current system works. Despite the demand for care work, very little public policy attention has been devoted to it. Only three states, for example, have enacted paid family leave programs. Paid or unpaid, care costs those who provide it. At the heart of For Love and Money is the understanding that the quality of care work in the United States matters not only for those who receive care but also for society at large, which benefits from the nurturance and maintenance of human capabilities. As care work gravitates from the family to the formal economy, this volume clarifies the pressing need for America to fundamentally rethink its care policies and increase public investment in this increasingly crucial sector.

From your baby's perspective, choosing the right nanny is probably the most important decision a parent can ever make: this book is about making the best possible choice. Coming home to an abused, badly injured, or even deceased child is a parent's most horrific, unimaginable scenario. And yet it happens: In 2012, two small children died while in the care of a nanny. The Nanny Time Bomb is the most accurate and comprehensive analysis of the current crisis in child care, offering case studies and practical advice to help parents make the most educated, well-informed decision when choosing a nanny for their child. The book takes the reader through various types of nannies—from graduates to undocumented workers—thus allowing parents to see how the industry has evolved far past schoolgirl babysitters. Setting itself apart, Jacalyn S. Burke's exploration of the different types of nannies offers a new perspective on child care not only for parents but also for those interested in larger sociological trends. This book gives a voice to the often-unheard grievances of nannies, showing why they may snap; explaining how to prevent tragedies; and describing how parenting has evolved. The author's examination of current cultural and social trends will be useful for a wide readership beyond parents.

Written and edited by leading practitioners and researchers in early childhood, this new edition of Pugh and Duffy's highly regarded book provides a critical examination of key issues in the field. The fifth edition is extensively revised to emphasise the role of multi-agency working in responding effectively to the needs of children and families. Written with the new Early Years Foundation Stage and the Early Years Professional Status requirements in mind, the new edition of this best-selling book includes fully updated coverage of policy and research, practice, and workforce issues, as well as four brand new chapters on: - Children's Centres - Health services in the early years - Leading and working in multiagency teams - Quality in early childhood education This book is essential reading for students on early childhood studies courses, PGCEs and early years foundation degrees, and multi-agency team-workers in early childhood services provision. Dr Gillian Pugh is Visitor Professor at the Institute Education and former chief excutive of Coram Family. Bernadette Duffy is Head of Centre at Thomas Coram Centre for Children and families in Camden.

Contributors to this volume demonstrate how the ethics of care factors into a variety of social policies and institutions, and can indeed be useful in thinking about a number of different social problems. Divided into two sections, the first looks at care as a model for an evaluative framework that rethinks social institutions, liberal society, and citizenship at a basic conceptual level. The second explores care values in the context of specific social practices or settings, as a framework that should guide thinking.

The first book in the series Policy and Pedagogy with Under-three year olds: Cross Disciplinary insights and innovations establishes a path for the much-needed examination of the experiences of infants and toddlers in contemporary educational settings across the globe. Bringing together internationally renowned scholars in the field, it starts a series of discussions about the positioning of under-three year olds in contemporary practice and policy contexts. It takes an in-depth look at what this means for our understanding of under-three year olds and those who share their worlds. Featuring some of the most important contemporary topics in this pedagogical domain, such as care, well-being, belonging, professionalism and status, the contributors offer a kaleidoscope of perspectives for contemplating the new normality of very young children living their lives in group-based early childhood settings, and what gives rise to their current realities. It also explores some important policy directions and trends.

In a highly accessible mix of narrative and interviews with social science research, Dodson unearths the untold story of a silent movement for justice in contemporary America. Lisa Dodson spent eight years interviewing more than 800 supervisors, teachers and healthcare workers about their experiences interacting with the working poor. She repeatedly heard accounts of people bending the rules to help workers get by. These stories point to a surprising and inspiring phenomenon of the middle class refusing to be complicit in a fundamentally unfair enconomy.

This annual report examines the dynamics of paid employment in care activities in Latin American countries, as well as household expenditure on such work, and proposes normative criteria for public policymaking in this sphere. It also covers 1) poverty trends and determining factors in Latin America; 2) income distribution and social spending trends in the region; and 3) situation of disabled people in Latin American and Caribbean countries.