Page 407 - Essencials of Sociology

380 CHAPTER 12 Marriage and Family

Married Couples and Single Mothers. Figure 12.7
FIGURE 12.7 Who Takes Care of the Children
compares the child care arrangements of single and
While Their Mothers Are at Work? married mothers. As you can see, their overall arrange-
ments are similar. A main difference, though, is that
MARRIED COUPLES when married women are at work, the child is more
likely to be under the father’s care or in day care. For
Mother cares
for child at single mothers, grandparents and other relatives are
work 3% Father Grand- more likely to fill in for the absent father.
14%
parents
12% Other Day Care. From Figure 12.7, you can see that about
relatives
3% one of six or seven children is in day care. The broad
Kindergarten Organized conclusions of research on day care were reported in
and grade child care Chapter 3 (pages 84–85). Apparently only a minor-
school 42% facility a
17% ity of U.S. day care centers offer high-quality care as
measured by whether they provide stimulating learn-
ing activities, emotional warmth, and attentiveness to
Other
nonrelatives b children’s needs (Bergmann 1995; Blau 2000; Belsky
10%
2009). A primary reason for this dismal situation is the
low salaries paid to day care workers, who average only
SINGLE MOTHERS
about $10 an hour (“Child Care Workers” 2013).
Mother cares With many parents doing shift work (evening and
for child at
work 3% Father midnight work), some “day care” centers are open
11% Grand- 24 hours a day. The workers brush the children’s teeth,
parents
18% read them bedtime stories, and tuck them in. The par-
ents pick their children up whenever they get off work,
Other
Kindergarten relatives whether this is midnight or 6 A.M. (Tavernise 2012).
and grade 8% It is difficult for parents to judge the quality of day
school 40% Organized
child care care, since they don’t know what takes place when they
facility a are not there. If you ever look for day care, two factors
13%
best predict that children will receive quality care: staff
Other who have taken courses in early childhood develop-
nonrelatives b
9% ment and a low ratio of children per staff member
(Belsky et al. 2007; Sosinsky and Kim 2013). If you have
Source: America’s Children in Brief 2010:Table FAM3A.
a Includes day care centers, nursery schools, preschools, and Head Start programs. nagging fears that your children might be neglected or
b
Includes in-home babysitters and other nonrelatives providing care in either the even abused, choose a center that streams live Web cam
child’s or the provider’s home.
images on the Internet. While at work, you can “visit”
each room of the day care center via cyberspace and
monitor your toddler’s activities and care.
Nannies. For upper-middle-class parents, nannies have become a popular alternative
Watch on MySocLab
Video: Working Women to day care centers. Parents love the one-on-one care. They also like the convenience
and Childcare of in-home care, which eliminates the need to transport the child to an unfamiliar
environment, reduces the chances that the child will catch illnesses, and eliminates the
hardship of parents having to take time off from work when their child becomes ill.
Read on MySocLab A recurring problem, however, is tensions between the parents and the nanny: jealousy
Document: The Nanny
Chain that the nanny might see the first step, hear the first word, or—worse yet—be called
“mommy.” There are also tensions over different discipline styles. Feelings of guilt or
envy can be high if the child cries when the nanny leaves but not when the mother
goes to work.
Social Class. Do you think that social class makes a difference in how people rear their
children? If you answered “yes,” you are right. But what difference? And why? Sociolo-
gists have found that working-class parents tend to think of children as wildflowers that
develop naturally, while in the middle-class mind, children are like garden flowers that
need a lot of nurturing if they are to bloom (Lareau 2002). These contrasting views
make a world of difference in how people rear their children (Colarco 2011; Sherman
and Harris 2012). Working-class parents are more likely to set limits for their children