Winter 2003 - The Bush Administration

Spring 2003 - Too Much

Full Time Family
by Andrea Boyle

Shrieking laughter and playful chatter announce the presence of children. Hand-made crafts of bright yellow and orange paper hang lopsidedly — warming the beige walls and welcoming newcomers. The smell of apple juice and dirt permeate the rooms as a whistle blows for attention in the playground.

A petite 4-year-old girl yells “Hi big Michael,” from her classroom to Michael Waters, owner of Kid’s World, a privately owned day-care facility in Bellingham. The children rush to give high-fives to Waters as he walks by.

“Hello to you, too,” he shouts over the din of children playing.

Recess is almost over for the pre-schooler and soon lunch will be served, marking the midway point for a child who spends eight hours a day playing, learning, eating and napping at Kid’s World.

Kid’s World is the daytime home to roughly 400 children in Whatcom County, Waters said. With five facilities on three campuses and another facility opening in the coming months, Waters encounters children with a wide variety of home lives.

“We have every kind of family at Kid’s World,” he said. “I see single-moms working full-time, two parent families that are both working full-time or families with one parent working but pay the tuition to have the option to drop their children off a few hours at time.”

Day cares like Kid’s World expand because parents are spending a growing number of hours away from home in order to meet the demands of a career. Americans are working more than ever before; one third of Americans work more than 50 hours a week, according to the National Sleep Foundation.

“Across the economic scale families struggle to balance long hours with quality childcare,” said Robert Drago, a professor of labor studies and women studies at Pennsylvania State University. “While childcare helps socialize children and prepares them for school, the vast majority of child care has a direct affect on children’s cognitive development. They are more likely to display anti-social behavior, have health problems, including their diets, and are more likely to engage in at-risk behaviors.”

According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Administration for Children and Families, 57.6 percent of children under the age of 6 live with working parents.

Sixty percent of children enrolled in Kid’s World are from single-parent households, Waters said.

According to the National Center for Health Statistics, 50 percent of American marriages dissolve in divorce after ten years. More mothers are re-entering the workforce when their children are still too young to go to school.

Waters said he talked to a woman who wanted to return to work after having her third child.

“After crunching the numbers with her over the phone, we realized after all the costs were said and done with paying full time childcare for her three children, she would be netting $30 a week,” Waters said. “She began to cry as she realized it was much more advantageous for her to stay at home with her children then it would be to leave the home and work full-time.”

Drago said some effects of overworked parents include seeking higher standards of living, which forces parents to work longer hours and keep their children in child care longer.

“Maintaining a standard of living is harder then ever,” Drago said. “Mom and Dad are forced to work full-time just to make the car payment.”

Courtney Imhoff, a full-time working mother of two, has to juggle motherhood and a career. Imhoff is a human resource manager and safety administrator for Imco Construction. She works from 6 a.m. to 3 p.m. leaving her 10-year-old daughter Hilary and her 6-year-old son Luke to be woken by a nanny and taken to school every morning.

“I didn’t work for a little while after Hilary was born,” Imhoff said. “I went to school for a while but then decided it was better to work.”

Hilary was in full-time day care when she was 1 year old and Luke was in full-time day care by the time he was 6 months old, she said.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, of the 3.7 million mothers with infants 1 year and younger, 36 percent of them are working full time and 17 percent are working part-time.

“I like to work and I like to work hard,” Imhoff said. “I admire my friends and sisters that don’t work but I love to work and I love to own my own home. We have five acres and three horses, Hilary gets to ride horses and Luke does Tae Kwan Do, that is a great reason to work.”

Because Imhoff’s partner, Troy Dykstra, travels with his job three to four days a week, Imhoff is left as the sole caretaker of the children.

“I make an effort to be out of the office by 3 every day to pick Luke up from kindergarten and meet Hilary at the house by the time she gets off the bus,” she said.

“I feel like I am spending more time with them now than I ever have before because I am home with them after school.”

Parents are getting more creative with jobs and schedules, so they can have their children in child care less, Waters said.

“Hilary used to complain a lot about me not being able to be there 24/7, but now I make sure to be at the things I need to be at,” Imhoff said. “I’m not trying to say everything is perfect, Hilary used to cry everyday and wouldn’t want to go to school so she could be with me, but Hilary also has private horse lessons and her own horse.”

Every kind of family bring their children to day care: some live with grandparents, single parents, dual income families or young parents. They all need help, former Kid’s World Director Lisa Swank said.

“There is a drastic difference between kids who are picked up after work, fed dinner, read to and hugged and kissed than the kids that are picked up and set in front of the TV for the remainder of the evening,” Swank said.

Parents struggle to have more time with their children while still remaining financially mobile, Waters said.

“I see a lot of parents working really hard to be successful and continue to be consumers but also keep their kids out of full-time day care programming,” Waters said. “I have seen a real shift, not away from having nice things and nice cars, but in making time to spend with their kids.”

Children are resilient, Waters said. They are able to tread through incredible situations. Group care can be challenging for children; they sometimes learn how to deal with aggressive behavior where if they were at home they wouldn’t necessarily learn those traits.

“Everyone wants to blame child care, but child care is not where the problem is,” Swank said. “The kids who have stable lives thrive and do great, but kids who don’t have stable homes were the ones who tended to struggle more.”

Spring 2003 - Too Much

Full Time Family by Andrea Boyle

Full Time Family
by Andrea Boyle