Small memories, big effects

Who knows an educator or mother of a young child? Today's post is a desperate plea to people who care for our little ones.

Last week findings from a $200 million study by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development were made public- think how that money could have been used IN schools! The study looks at the effects of child care to children's development from infants through high school; the researchers' "subjects" are currently in 6th grade. The observed youth compare in socio-economic status but vary in years spent in child care programs.

One finding released last week is that children who spend 4 years in child care prior to kindergarten are more likely to have behavioral problems up through at least the 6th grade when compared to children who spend two or fewer years in child care. However, the study shows that the difference in behavior between children based on years of child care is extremely small (less than 1 point difference) and the author of the study admits that the child care centers attended for four years were, on average, of lower quality than the centers attended for 1 or 2 years. The assumption from some that child care is hurting your child has NOT been proven, but the effects of environment to a young child does make a difference in that child's development.

Many news stations, including ABC, NBC, FOX, NY Times, and Slate, jumped on this finding as a good time to rag on child care and even, eh-hem, direct some of the blame towards working mothers. Slate's article, "Bad Mommies, Does Day Care Ruin your Kids," has a catchy title but its main point is that raising kids is a woman's career and should be done in the home. Slate's article in its title alone plays on the paranoia of many mothers who work; that they do not spend adequate time with their children and hurt their children for life (but to be fair to Slate, the next day a Slate article entitled "The Kids are Alright," written by senior editor Emily Bazelon calls "Bad Mommies"'s author William Saletan out on his ignorance towards childrearing as a woman's role and since last week "Bad Mommies" appears to have been removed from Slate's pages, but if you find a copy please post!)

While not all news surrounding the report blame mommies for not staying at home (where are the daddies?,) my disappointment deepened irregardless when I found no major publication that took the study release as a way to look beyond good vs. bad child care, and acknowledge the basis for a $200 million study on child care. What is more important than debating the state of our child care is to realize that child care is not going anywhere. Minimum wage in the U.S. has not increased in proportion with today's cost of living. One reason for this is that minimum wage and the poverty level is measured by obtaining the household cost for food and then multiplying it by certain variables. Genetics has allowed us to mass produce food so the price of food has not increased during the past twenty years as much as cost of rent or cost of child care. Thus the national measure of a living wage is not accurate. Inflation of living costs disproportionate to increase in American wages means that more parents need to work full time to support their families. Working twice as hard as the generation prior just to remain middle class leaves no parent to be at home with young children. So let's face our situation today and invest in making child care beneficial to our children's growth!

I lived in North Carolina for part of last year and they have a wonderful statewide star-rating system of child care centers. It is not mandatory for a center to post its number of stars, ranging from 1 as bad to 5 as excellent, but there is serious pressure from families who are aware of the importance of the star system from seeing it on commercials and posters around town. California does not have statewide standards that translate into a comprehensible 5 star-rating scale. Don't you think it is important for more states to have standards for their child care centers so that parents of young children know who to trust their children to while at work?

What are your top 5 criteria in selecting a good child care program for your toddler-aged child? See mine below.

1. 1 adult per 7 students.
2. Child care worker's salary adequate to a living wage.
3. Basic early education training mandatory for all staff.
4. At least one healthy meal offered per day.
5. Sanitary conditions and safe play toys.