Sunday, March 26, 2006

The Garden School Tattler

Sara Writes: that's what parents are asking for the DECISION...I don't want daycare but I don't want it stopped either.. what I would like to see is the government supporting stay at home parents just as much..

It's an interesting idea, but complicated. To accommodate parents who want to stay home means a government grant would go to private homes. So what, you say, working mothers get grants and so do students, why not stay at home mothers?

Most working parents would probably say because a working person is a contributor to the work force and the economy and a student is liable to eventually find a job that contributes a taxable income. It's an investment. Studies say it works. Stay at home parents would use grant money without a return on the investment. And who would pay for it? Would working class parents have to pay for stay at home parents to stay home? Seems unfair.

It seems that the decision to stay at home, and I did it for fifteen years, is a pioneer position. You're on your own. If you give up the second income, that's your choice, and you have to live with it.

At the same time, if the government did pay parents to stay home, how much of a say about that home would the government be entitled to? Could they tell you what you could and could not eat, what if any religion you could practice, how many children you can have, when and where, and what things you could and could not do in your government subsidized life?

Personally, I think a home is a sacred place and not for government interference. We've fought long and hard in this country for freedom, and to invite government funding into our homes is just asking to turn back the clocks. Boston Tea Party revisited.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

As a working mother of two, I struggled with the choice to put my children in childcare, over staying home. We all have decisions in life, every aspect of everyday there is a fork in the road. That is the wonderful thing about our society, and economy really. That a woman can chose to have children, and whether she bests serves her family by joining the workplace, or providing her own care as a homemaker. Financially speaking, there wasn't much of a choice in my case. We need two incomes. So, where did that leave my two beautiful children? In the hands of very qualified, intelligent, loving care providers that I am so fortunate to have found. To ask the "government" be it federal or state to supplement stay-at home moms seems pretty far fetched to me. I agree with Judy, I don't want the government to tell me how to raise my children, as they would be inclined to if they were funding it. The bigger question would be where would we stop? Asking the government for more help is usually asking for more trouble. I think most of us have enough of that already.

Sara said...

Thew government willpay me to leave my children so why can't they pay me to childcare my children...?

You can't have one without the other.