The Pros And Cons Of Child Care

Through the shifting trends of maternal employment, children in dual-earner families are receiving varying versions of childcare, which are purported to be detrimental to their growth. From in-home care to the highly regulated child care centers, the social organization of care within the U.S. is constantly adjusting to women’s advancement in the job market. Despite rising fears of parents becoming both socially and emotionally distant with their children due to child care arrangements, studies suggest the contrary to such anxieties. As Pamela Stone expounds within “The Rhetoric and Reality of Opting Out,” highly educated women are often relegated to the responsibility of child-rearing due to gendered structural impediments. Although men have …show more content…
The varying operations of daycares, from home-based care to child centers, allow sociologists to observe the complex and nuanced conditions that day care centers provide. Specifically, by measuring the differences of social organization within these centers, families are able to acknowledge that forms of childcare outside the home are generally positive for socialization and development. Dreby and Wrigley underline the capability of child care centers, exclaiming that “all types of child care are safer than care with children’s own families… [due to] more socially controlled environments… more visible [centers] and involve more daily accountability than the private realm of the family itself” (2005, 754). Aside from the increased input of women within the household, external sources of child care are statistically proven to be reliable sources where workers are trained to handle the time-consuming responsibilities of child-rearing. The data extrapolated by Dreby and Wrigley argues that fatalities within childcare centers are rare and are prevented due to the highly regulated social organization within daycares. Whereas the private confines of the home can be rampant with emotional and physical abuse, the daycare centers provide a formal organization that counteracts forms of abuse. In this case, hired employees have the privilege of delegating roles, which easily mitigates problems of misbehaving children or personal troubles. It is noteworthy to acknowledge, however, that the varying nuances of care are hierarchical in regards to safety. The professional care centers provide a more structured and rely checking on individuals, while private caregiver services can be accompanied with violence and aggression. Nevertheless, child care outside the home