…my first post.
It is Monday, my day to spend with the kids and I am taking a short breather to reflect on an intersection of things: parenting, working, changing dipers, vocation, gender, wipping snot, making lunch, creativity, family roles, economics, reinventing marriage, public policy, tick checks, doing dishes, educating children, continuing to learn as an adult, sustainability, making zip lines, hacking life, loving my kids into deeper Being… Once you begin to touch the web of reality, it all reverberates.
I read an interesting book recently by child developmentalist, Stanely Greenspan, called The Four-Thirds Solution: Solving the Child Care Crisis in America Today. The short version is that the research is overwhelming…the children who spend most of the work week in day care, are not getting what they need. That is, our society’s child care experiment which started in the 60’s with the launch of Head Start, to support low income families with more parenting skills and short term child care…became its own cultural norm where parenting became outsourced outside of the home, so that parents (male and female now) could ’spend’ increasing amounts of their time being employed. The consequence is that while the child care industry permits parents to work more (yet real wages have decreased in the past 30 years and second income does not always offset the cost of child care)…almost every indicator of children’s health (physical, social, emotional) is compromised in significant ways.
Greenspan’s proposal is that, ideally, children have a max of 1/3 of the work week in day care and the rest of their waking hours are cared for by consistant family who practice what is commonly refered to the Attachment Parenting style. Logistically, this means that, ideally, a two parent family will design their lifestyle around both parents working 2/3 time and then both provide child care 1/3 time each…enabling them to live off of 4/3 income and their children are cared for by them all but 1/3 of the work week. His idea is not a static or unflexible model, and he offeres lots of different hybrid versions that people are utilizing. He goes into detail responding to the likely initial rebutals: people can’t afford to live off of 4/3 income (his response, maybe, but do you have cable tv, or eat out regularly, or have items in your budget that are less important than optimizing your children’s first and most important years?), what about single parents (no question about it…more difficult, less options…but as in all contexts – maximize the options you have…be creative), etc.
…well even as the kids are clawing on me as I type, I can’t help but feel that this is vital work and a creative, though difficult to impliment at times, option.
…pause on this for now…time for praxis
