Squeezed on All Sides, Parents Forego Day Care

[MountainLaurel]

In the Prince George's County community of Riverdale Park, town officials have noted a distressing sign of the national economic downturn: more children left home alone to fend for themselves by working parents too strapped to afford child care.

The problem was discovered by code enforcement officers who inspect apartments in the town of 7,000. They used to come across such cases once every couple of years. Then, six months ago, they found one child left alone, followed by another and another.

In one instance, a kindergarten-age girl was found hiding in a closet, apparently because she was scared, code enforcement officers said. In another, children aged 10 or 12 were missing school to watch their younger siblings.

Riverdale's experience comes amid an increasing economic strain in child care across the Washington region. In an area known for day-care waiting lists, many operators report a rise in vacancies as parents withdraw their children or cut back on hours because they can no longer afford the cost.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/20/AR2008122002113.html?hpid=topnews

[proud2BlibKansan]

1. If schools were community centers (as they should be) . . .

Of course that will be hard to do while we focus on drill, drill, drill and test, test, test.

[rurallib]

4. and cut, cut, cut funds

[tpsbmam]

2. As a result, daycare providers are hurting, at least the ones I know.....

I have one friend who has had to really scramble for business lately. She's an awesome daycare provider and has wonderful recommendations -- she used to have to turn kids away. No longer -- she was really freaking out this summer because she had so few kids. She's back to capacity for the moment but it's precarious (she's in NJ).

My neighbor has one child in daycare (I watch the older one for free a couple of days a week when she's not with grandma/in preschool because they can't afford to put 2 in daycare) -- the daycare provider only has two kids at this point and has warned my neighbor she may have to close and go back to working outside the home full-time (if she can find a job). She's the second I know of in this area -- the other has already closed down and managed to get a full-time job (despite the fact that we've lost 12,000 jobs in Buncombe County, NC.....includes Asheville.)

[Liberal_in_LA]

3. you are kind to watch the kid for free.

[tpsbmam]

5. Thanks.....they do stuff for me, too....

I'm disabled and there are things that are tough or impossible for me to do....when I ended up in the hospital, they took care of my dogs for me. He mows my lawn for free. It's not an equal trade-off most of the time (it takes 15 minutes to mow my lawn) but they're great friends & neighbors -- I'm not looking for equal. I"m happy I can help them and I adore their kid.

[EC]

6. This was going on during Reagan and Bush I too...

that's when the term latch-key kids came to be...

[FirstLight]

7. I am in that boat...

single mom working three paet-time jobs, all over the schedule, 3 kids (5, 6, and 16) and my teenager has been kind enough to handle the overlap in the eves or the weekends...for christmas vacay, my mom is taking one of the little ones so that the strain on the older sibling isn't so bad...otherwise the little ones will have him hog tied and be lighting a bonfire in the living room! lol

I HAD help with childcare, but CA has seriously cut the funding there, and since my kids are in school most of the time & I need no after school care, they let me fall off the rolls...

and I am barely making enough to survive, let alone pay for daycare, or anything else beyind survival at this point!


There are no real helps in place for families and children - we lost the benefit of extended families from a century ago, we lost our tribe, we no longer have neighbors who we are very close to, and your employer can fire you for just talking about your family or asking for time off to atend simple dentist appts...
Where is the support system, oh ya Your On your own

ya - who matters here?
you can tell the humanity of a society by how they treat their youth, ther elderly and their pets...

sucks, doesn't it?

[proud2BlibKansan]

8. Yes it does suck

So sorry to hear you are dealing with this.

[lonestarnot]

9. ramifications of a bushitler are dire and they are everywhere. Hang in there!

Thank God you have a child that is old enough to care for the younger ones! :hug: