Comprehension and Discussion Guide

1. What was the ideal model of a typical American family until recently, say, in the 60s or 70s, and what was called to symbolize it?

man: the breadwinner, off to work;

woman: to stay at home, to care for the family; motherhood along with the American flag and apple pie – “sacred” to Americans.

2. What two factors brought women back to the workplace in the 1960s and 1970s?

to sweep women out of the home and back into the workplace;

the feminist movement; to encourage housewives to seek fulfillment in a career;

the economic recessions and inflation; to need a dual income to afford a house,

a car and three square meals for kids.

3. How has the family scene changed as more women pour into the work force?

a vanishing breed; not to fit the model.

4. What overriding, wrenching personal problem do millions of American families consequently face as soon as they have children?

people from all walks of life (not just the poor); to be confronted with; to need daytime/after-school supervision for one’s children; “Who is minding kids?”; “Who can I trust to care for my child?”

to have to return to work/to resume one’s assignment; to go back to full schedule; to find an acceptable family care arrangement; to maneuver to maintain it.

5. Why are American women compelled to go back to work after having a child? Are there any legal provisions for a maternity leave?

the USA, the only western industrialized nation; not to provide maternity leaves with job security; not to guarantee a working mother the right to a leave of absence after she has a child; only 40% of working women receive protection through their companies; brief, unpaid leaves; to force to return to work sooner than they would like.

NOTE: the police department; a year of unpaid “hardship” leave for child care.

6. How can you account for the fact? Doesn't it seem strange for such an advanced and civilized nation?

the absence of national policies to help working mothers; to reflect the traditional values and the traditional American attitudes: “old-fashioned motherhood has stood right up there with the flag and apple pie in the pantheon of American ideals”, to threaten family values; a step to Orwellian socialist nightmare.

7. Has the government encouraged the development of a child day-care system over the years?

not to encourage or financially support the development of day-care centers; to refuse to put the Government’s “vast moral authority” on the side of communal approaches to child rearing; to veto a comprehensive program of child development; to reduce federal role in child care; funding for direct day-care subsidies for low- and middle-income families; to drop by 28% (Nixon, Reagan).

8. Do the arguments in favor of the national policies stand to reason? Why are Americans so much preoccupied about the effects of day-care on children (and parents)?

a whole generation of children; to raised the way it has never been done before; to be reared by strangers; (a major survey of current research suggests ...); extensive day-care in the first year of life; to raise the risk of emotional problems; to mortify guilty parents; to take a personal toll; premature separation; to return to the workplace grieving; to develop stress-related illnesses.

9. Besides, the day-care system itself is riddled with potholes. What are the triple problems facing working parents as regards child day-care?

1. hard to find; the choices disappointingly few (e.g. 2 in Chicago); the options are rarely ideal; long waiting lists; to apply for a spot in a day-care center; to extensively research the local scene; to time one’s pregnancy for an anticipated opening; expectant mothers; a folder of applicants labeled “preconception”; an especially huge demand for infant care; the most difficult child care to supply;

2. difficult to afford; the typical full-time care for one child ($3,500 – $5,500 a year); one-third of the poverty-level income for a family of three; infant care prices ($550), toddlers ($400 a month); high quality supervision costing upwards of $ 100 a week;

Why do they say that a so-called two-tier system is emerging in the USA?

the quality care available to the affluent, and everyone else settling for less; to have always been an issue for the working poor; to be caught in a vise; to find it unaffordable; to put their children into day-care;

What comparison can be made between the affordability of child care and universal education in the USA considering the striking social difference in the USA today?

to learn Latin and Greek; to prepare for Yale, Harvard or Princeton/to be lucky to be able to write one own name;

c) often of distressingly poor quality; to place one's children in the hands of untrained and overworked personnel (e.g. one woman taking care of 9 babies); to encounter horror stories/with babies tied into cribs/to be appalled by the filth; not to reflect the parents’ educational values; to be lined up in front of the TV like zombies; not to give the children the stimulation they need;

10. So how do working parents solve the problem? What are the options if they fail to switch their child into a day-care arrangement?

to work part-time; to alternate shifts; to leave alone; to wander/roam in the streets; wastrels; to tie to the bed post; to rely on neighbors or extended family; to entrust to one’s siblings only slighter over.

11. What three kinds of day-care are currently available?

children under 5:

a) family or home based care; 32%; preschool children of working mothers; to be minded in the homes of other mothers;

b) (an additional 17%) to be in organized day-care centers (preschools); government- or business-sponsored;

c) supervision in the child’s one home by a nanny, sitter, au pair, relative or friend; a sense of security and family; but: to quit; to get sick; to go on holiday; the caregiver; cost and reliability.

12. Why do you think business and industry have been slow to provide day-care centers facilities for their workers?

to acknowledge that child care is an important need, but not to see it as a problem; to provide advice and referrals; corporate personnel policies; to be rooted in the quaint assumption that ... ; employees; to have someone at home to attend to family matters; labor and management.

13. Still, there are companies and employers that promote the development of day-care facilities for their employees. What are they guided by? Are they really so caring or do they see it as a mutually beneficial arrangement?

to be in the forefront; to fill the void; to band together; to share the cost of providing day-care services to employees; on site or near site day-care centers; to spend lunch hours with one’s children; to be profitable in the end; businesses, to have invested/made investments in child care; to pay off handsomely by...; to reduce turnover and absenteeism; parents, to lose an average eight day a year from work because of child care problems; (40%) to consider quitting; to engender company loyalty and low turnover; to save on sick leave due to stress-related illnesses; lessened stress and unexpected leave time; as natural as having clean-air policy and medical benefits.

14. Do such progressive employers and companies also think ahead? Are they shrewd entrepreneurs thinking into the future? Why?

women, to continue to pour into the workplace; the need for supervision (daytime/after-school); to grow; the trend; to accelerate; by the year 2000; women make half of the workforce; the “baby-bust” generation; to force employers to be creative in searching for labor; to be the fringe benefits of the 90s; the economics of the situation; to provoke a change in the attitude of business employers; to attract; to help employees find ways to cope more easily with their duties as parents.

Text B