Impact of Day Care on Parents and Family

[摘要] In addressing the impact of day care on parents and families, including the children who are in day care, one must first acknowledge the wide heterogeneity of the families who use day care. They include single parents who need to work to support themselves; single parents who are engaged in work-preparation programs in an effort to end their reliance on Aid to Families With Dependent Children (AFDC); single parents receiving AFDC who do not work and who, for various reasons, may have little hope of working, but where it is agreed that they need day care as respite or structure or as an educational or socioaffective experience for the child (a common but often vain intervention, given the quality of care such children are likely to receive); two-parent families who could not afford the most basic expenses without two incomes; two-parent families who could not afford the things they need and want without two incomes; two-parent families where both parents find great pleasure in working; two-parent families where neither really wants to be at home; two-parent families whose careers would suffer grievously if disrupted; and two-parent families where only one parent works but where the parents still choose to have their child in day care. There are certainly many more scenarios, but the point is that one must be careful when talking about the impact of day care because its quality, the reasons for which it is used, and by whom are key factors in determining what the impacts are.

[学科分类] 儿科学