Blog #7: Working Poor Women's Paid Labor

There were many factors that contributed to the instability of child care experienced by Jacqueline and Julia. They started out living in a homeless shelter in their cities shelter system. While Julia was trying to go back to school, she attended a community college down the street while the kids dad watched them. When Julia and the children's father broke up, they no longer had anyone to watch them while their mother went to school. She had her younger sister move in to try and help her watch the girls. Julia's grants would be cut if she worked over a certain number of hours and the money that she was making at her second job would push her over the top, so she quit her second job so she would still qualify. She then applied to the Agency for Child Development, but along with the rest of her city, she was put at the bottom of a very long waiting list. While waiting for this program, Julia joined the welfare-to-work program where she was provided child care. However, the problem that most low-income mother's face is the hours that they are required to work at their minimum wage jobs. Most day care facilities are open 6am to around 6pm Monday through Friday, the hours of a "normal" work day with a little time on the front and back end to allow parents to drop off and pick their children up. Minimum wage jobs do not provide normal business hours and you are often required to work nights and weekends, with no one to care for your children. Also, these minimum wage jobs do not offer any benefits for the mother's or their families.

There are such a high number of care givers in a child's early life in these situations that it is not good for development. Often a lack of good quality child care will lead to conflict between parents and providers, as well as poor quality facilities and programs. Overall, there are not very many good child care programs available if you do not have the money to pay top dollar for one.