Would you trust someone else to care for your child? According to a UNICEF report, you could be taking a gamble on your child’s well-being if you send them to childcare at a very early age.
Mothers who have to rush back to their jobs after they give birth have no choice but to send their kids to childcare as a result their children are missing out on essential one-to one care in their first year.
Many mothers believe that it’s not really a choice, that sitting at home to care for your child for the fist year is a luxury not anyone can afford, Claire from Edinburgh commented in The Times newspaper here in the UK.
The only people who can afford to stay at home with their children are those on benefits. So called “hard working families” like mine have no option. We have to go back to work to pay the bills – or starve.
That comment rang so true with me; I have no children of my own but a friend of mine sends her two kids to childcare. Can you trust this woman with your children? I asked her once. ‘I have to, there’s no choice.’ Was here answer.
So are governments to blame then? Should governments have definite policies on maternity leaves to make sure mothers spend enough time with their children? What’s your country’s attitude towards childcare? And if you are a working mother do you feel under pressure to rush back to work?
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The United States says troops supporting Somalia’s government should be allowed to capture Somali pirates on land.Currently countries are allowed to hunt down pirates in Somalia’s territorial waters but not pursue them on land.
Piracy on the coast of Somalia’s has been on the rise with a 120 attacks reported this year and 16 vessels still being held. But is it justified to go into another country’s territory to fight piracy? Is that a temporary solution to the problem?
Instead of trying to pass a resolution to get into Somali territories to combat pirates why arisn’t the UN helping Somalia form an elected government to handle its own affairs? Is it better to help Somalia fight piracy or form a democracy?
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Would you take a pay cut to save your job? Some companies are now asking their employees to take a lower salary to avoid getting fired.
The latest example is of steelworkers at Corus who have agreed to take 10 percent cut across the company’s entire UK workforce of 25,000 for six months. A wise choce or are they selling themselves short?
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And in a bid to save teh Auto industry The United States House of Representatives has approved a bill to lend the country’s three main car makers — General Motors, Ford and Chrysler — up to fourteen-billion dollars to help them through the current economic crisis.
And now the question on many people’s mins is Where’s my bailout? There’s even ‘Where’s my bailout?’ art.
Here are a couple of more blogs expressing anger at the govermnet’s bailout. Glenn Hall says on this blog…
I’m not thinking about buying a car, and I don’t need a student loan — The bailout I need is for my retirement plan. If Paulson wants to buy some distressed assets, he can start there! And I bet there are millions more like me. Where’s our bailout?
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BBC World Have Your Say 
It’s rare to find someone to care for children with love as their duty is to take care of them and not to love them as if they were their own. A childcare is a professional centre. There is just “artificial” care. A mother’s care is second to none. It’s like breastfeeding which naturally can’t be replaced by bottle -feeding in terms of physical and emotional contact between the mother and the child.
However childcare remains a necessity for mothers who have no relatives to look after their child when at work. As a compromise, there should be well-trained staff in childcare centres at least for the child not to feel neglected, to have some social skills. But the building of a child’s personality is the responsibility of the mother. A child can have different tutors but basically he/she has only one mother. She should work out how to create a motherly atmosphere for her child even for a limited time every day.
Children in early age don’t need to be transported from home and childcare on regular basis. They need to be carried in the arms of their parents. For that, a child must feel that he/she belongs to a home and not to a childcare centre.
Maternity leave: no business of government re private companies.
The ‘UN’ help Somalis form a democracy? The ‘West’, you mean, since Chinese and Indonesians and Nigerians don’t give a damn about Somalia; the same West whose every attempt to help Muslims leads to vilification, rage, ingratitude and an escalation of anti-Western terrorist madness. No thanks. Somalia is – believe it or not – a member of the Arab League. Let the AL and the wider Muslim world get their hands dirty trying to improve that country’s internal affairs. The West needs to completely disengage from the internal politics of Muslim states (and failed states).
Let’s abandon the fiction that Somalia is a sovereign state in any meaningful sense, and not adopt the delusion that democracy is a serious option for that country. Piracy needs to be tackled because it affects other countries (e.g. those dependent on the oil that passes through the Gulf of Aden; the nationals of various states whose lives and safety are endangered by piracy; etc). It’s idiotic for international law to permit hunting down pirates until they reach the sanctuary of land.
Govts would be doing the soceities a lot good by creating some conducive relationship atmosphere for mothers to conviniently impact on their babies. Am not sure of the capability of the so-called Child Care Centers for example in maintaining cultural traditions which has derailled among the present generation as a result of neglected role of mothers now blamed on the search for sustenance. Wat ever,
Children, Turning Point of My Life!
TEHRAN – The birth of my child altered my life. I knew it would. My character changed, so did my wife. I am ever so grateful. The sleepless nights, the occasion when the child runs a temperature and you have to watch over it; finding pampers during the war years; trying to find decent milk powder to supplement the baby’s feeds! It was an ordeal, but well worth it.
Every child has a right to ask for constant attention and affection, if only it could speak. Don’t leave it to anybody else. The rewards are immense. I don’t care how you do it, but for the first six months, at least, be there! Otherwise why bother. The key word is love, but you discover that later.
later on, kindergarden, yes, but you have to keep a close watch on the care availabe.
Yes and No. Usually, natural parents provide the most caring, though not necessarily the most effective, nuturing (Every parent starts as an amateur.). Overtly concerned childcare providers may provide an excellent, though different, child-rearing service. Grand parents, aunts and uncles, and even concerned and loving, extended family members have turned-out excellent citizens.
Child care for profit is more questionable. It may be structured to maximize care, or it may operate to maximize profit. Or thirdly, it may change day to day as different staff, with their different personal problems, come on duty.
The WHYS question is certainly legitimate. At the bottom line though, our only useful product is more people like ourselves. And so, an even more pressing question is: Why are we still asking this question? We should know how to do this most fundamental of tasks in near perfect fashion by now, shouldn’t we?
Re: Would you trust someone else to care for your child?
Not a stranger; especially a young child.
Re: So are governments to blame then? Should governments have definite policies on maternity leaves to make sure mothers spend enough time with their children? What’s your country’s attitude towards childcare?
Governments are not to blame for someone’s personal choices. Don’t have sex unless you are in a situation to also deal with the consequences which could be a baby. I think it’s not only because mothers would not have adequate maternity leave but because babies would be born into conditions where it was certain they would be disadvantaged. Some mothers are too young to be having children- do not have adequate education to obtain a job that would even provide benefits like maternity leave.
The French President should get a World Medal for being the first to tell Mugabe to go away.
What we were all saying should have happened months ago, is happening now, but its to late Cholera has reared its ugly head, and more people are dying. I bet non of his adjudants will get it nor thier families.
Come on the rest of the World, join the brave, give the Zimbabweans a Christmas Present, that they will never forget. Politicians and Leaders speak for your people, i bet most of them are waiting for you all to pluck up courage. Speak for us, you have the clout, we only vote for you.
Your God be with you, and guide you to do the right thing.
John in Germany
Come on WHYS, what’s going on? Look at the second post from the top by someone called VictorK. Does it have any relevance to the topic? Are you people sleeping or what? I now understand why Russel Brand(!) show has gone on air unnoticed!!
re: pay cut to save job?
The answer is that just about anyone would. The workers at Canfor’s Fort Nelson, BC plywood plant did. The company kept the plant open for a token period of time, then closed its doors for good a couple of months ago. Their oriented strand board plant in Fort Nelson also was closed indefinitely. They retained their valuable license to cut, however, signaling either that they will reopen in the future when the market for their products improve or that they will ship raw logs elsewhere to their other plants.
Workers should take a pay cut only if their jobs are guaranteed in a written contract by an entity that can be forced by law to deliver on that promise. Vague assertions that maybe the plant can stay open if workers take cuts create, at best, an interim during which the more savvy or informed workers can look for jobs elsewhere and at worst a deception to keep workers calm while the company’s plans to close go ahead.
RE “” Many mothers believe that it’s not really a choice “”
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——— The world was never designed for kids.
Oh, there have been brief interludes in some children’s lives throughout history. Overall the vast history of the world indicates the world is set up for the rich and powerful who only want to squeeze mom and dad dry and then put junior into the breech to squeeze the life out.
Western culture has demanded and got the man and woman completely out of the house in many cases, both working overtime or two jobs so they can afford to pay for the daycare and health insurance needed. Obviously these are usually choices in what should be a fairly balanced plan since most families are in a very managable 1-3 child range.
The trade off has been increasingly unmanagable and poorly performing kids who are more tuned in to the internet and modern culture than absent family. That and the reduction of the western family doesn’t match the ingrained mandatory growth economic model which leads to illegal immigration and more problems.
Interestingly, the poorer you and your country are, the more kids you can have because there is seldom much responsibility to provide much for them with little expectations for them. Always a testament to the potential of all of us when one of these ragamuffins grows up to be a great leader, artist, or businessman.
Re: CHILD CARE…..
Who is going to support the (mother) financially if she does not place the child in child care; at a time when she needs to return to work…..
Is UNICEF, going to give these mothers PUBLIC ASSISTANCE…….
Would you take a pay cut to save your job?
It depends on the job; if i like the company (yes) and no, if i did not like the job and or company….
But is it justified to go into another country’s territory to fight piracy? Yes…If the country is UNABLE to do the fighting against piracy….
Is that a temporary solution to the problem? Yes…But is the other choice..
Ransom…
@Ramesh: what are you talking about?
Pay cut to save job.
To many employees and unions have been sucked in by those money grabbing big bosses that don’t care a damn about their workers (luckily a lot do and are fair),
The worker is always the sucker, we all know what mergers bring, and the regulating authorities as well, but they authorise mergers with an intensity thats not believable. The losers, the employees. City Bank, Bank of America, and so on.
Lobbyists, wheel and deal in places of power. and most of the time they succeed.
The workers Lobyists (the union) are forced by the Republicans to refuse a deal, and are blamed for the refusal of the 17B for the motor industry in America. One again the worker is the looser, World Finance, a greedy cancer that takes the life out of the normal tom dick or harry.
Listening to the BEEB and some of those finance types, i wonder what makes them tick, probably the next diamond for the missus, and the next better 4×4.
Or so it appears to me. Its not wrong to want to achieve, but over the downfall of others, the lowest, careless, dirty, method.
May i predict, that if things do not change the way is being opened for the under dogs to revolt. It has happened before, and can happen again.
John in Germany.
Re: Would you trust someone else to care for your child?
Here, in Botswana, generally young children are left with the maid at home. It’s cheaper than taking the child to day care, parents know (or are inclined to believe) that their child is being better taken care of, because its on a one-to-one basis, and since the child is always at home; parents feel secure because they know the environment in which their child is. But let’s not discount the number of family members who pitch in.
Yes, children in this set up may not have the best mother-child relationship; but they arguably have a good relationship with their family as a whole, and a sense of “community” is instilled from an early age.
In terms of the law, a mother gets 6 weeks before and 6 weeks after confinement, as a bare minimum.