If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
In the ongoing "Mommy Wars of 2013", there is still a backlash against mothers who hire individuals (mostly women) to help with childcare. Is this a class issue or just another cafeteria fight?
Buffet said that, "Women are the key to America's prosperity...The closer America comes to fully employing the talents of all its citizens, the greater the output of goods and services will be." Buffet's essay reminded me of my hardworking mother and her experiences during World War II.
When people in the world of "haves" I now inhabit tell me that things are impossible or too hard to achieve, I think back immediately to the women I grew up with, single moms counted out by so many. And I am inspired by and grateful for their example.
When I think about our nation in the next hundred years, the best growth strategy is to have diversity: to utilize more women, elderly and people with disabilities.
The difficult and important work of caring for children -- so often assumed to be "women's work"-- is tragically undervalued, leaving parents and other caregivers unsupported.
I often wonder about the lessons we teach our children and the rules we require that they follow, specifically, our school rules.
The very definition of poverty is to be lacking the money to cover the basic needs of food, clothing, shelter and healthcare. If you can't do that, how can you choose to spend money to start a business?
For many of us, Take Our Daughters and Sons To Work Day is an opportunity to spend time with our children and proudly show them the work we do. But for millions of working families, it's no holiday, as they are forced to bring their children to work because they can't find child care.
Forget about "two becoming one" when a man and woman marry; in fact, what we really experience is a "his" and a "hers" marriage -- a husband's and a wife's.
State preschool offerings vary considerably -- from impressive (and proven) universal preschool in Oklahoma to a disappointing lack of options in Arizona. That's why the president's plan makes so much sense.
I know many mothers and caring nannies who have witnessed inappropriate behavior by other nannies they know on the playground, at a playdate, in stores or at school, but choose to keep their mouths shut due to fear or anxiety about how their comments might be received.
The truth is that economic development in every community depends upon the existence of high quality, affordable child care and early education.
Not quite realizing that behind every exceptional woman there is a community of faceless and nameless women who have helped sustain her, the legacies of the migrant women from Puerto Rico, sculptors of today's communities in New York, are all but forgotten.
I hope that as we continue this conversation, we do so with the understanding that no one woman's experience is the same, that we all have different choices to make, and that we all have something vitally important to bring to the table.
Average child care fees exceed average housing costs among families with two children. In most states, the average annual cost for an infant in center-based care exceeds public college tuition. It's easy to see that for some women, it's financially more beneficial to stay at home.
As a policy concept, universal preschool is a beautiful idea, but on the ground, nice ideas require concrete resources for the people putting those ideas into practice.
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