
A radical idea to improve family life in America: babysit your neighbor’s kids - jseliger
https://www.vox.com/the-big-idea/2018/2/5/16972258/us-america-fertility-rates-babysit-child-care-baumol
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philipodonnell
If you want parents to have more kids and not be so freaked out about the cost
of child care, how about loosening the regulations instead of having people
donate time to each other? My family is in the child care business. The reason
prices are high is that the cost structure is entirely driven by the
government and nearly fixed: minimum wage, teacher education requirements and
the designated teacher-child ratio. Zero room for innovation.

Politicians find child care centers to be easy prey for seeming tough. They
celebrate more regulation and reducing the ratios as 'protecting children' and
then everyone seems shocked when prices rise. They add more and more detailed
regulations but little funding for poorly-paid unaccountable local inspectors,
who flip from threatening to yank your license on one visit to not even asking
about the same thing on the next. Teachers are required to have a bachelors
degree and separate education certificates to look after 1 year-olds.

Trust me, we do not want to charge so much, but our hands are literally tied.
Salary is 50-60% of revenue and most teachers are already payed minimum wage
in many cases. We offer fully free tuition to employee's kids which helps
offset the low salary for someone with several children, but most centers
aren't that generous and we give up revenue to do it because of the ratios.

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newfoundglory
What state are you in? A bachelor's degree for childcare seems like a pretty
high requirement, Washington only requires high school or equivalent +
experience or certification.

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philipodonnell
Florida

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skate22
We found out that a neighbor we were friendly with for years had sexually
abused their kids.

I would not advise anyone to trust someone because of where they chose to live
/ they wave when you're mowing your lawn.

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loorinm
That's one interpretation.

What if you or other neighbors had been even friendlier, sooner. You may have
found out about it sooner and been able to help stop it.

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mikestew
Go on, I'd like to hear how you think this would have played out. Buddy up to
'em long enough, and they'll let the cat out of the bag? Because, as
disturbing as it was, I gave this an honest effort as a thought experiment,
and I haven't come up with anything I'd rely on. Of the situations for which
I've had more than a casual familiarity, it consistently comes out only after
the fact.

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loorinm
There are probably too many variables for us to speculate "what would have
happened" in this situation.

My comment is this: Generally and overwhelmingly, when a group of people is
more interconnected and those connections are stronger, "bad" behavior gets
found out and stopped faster. I think that's true of any group of people.

Of course, "bad" = unacceptable to the group itself.

Someone telling you "I did this bad thing" is not the only way for you to find
out. I think if a child knows there is a way out, that there other people who
care enough to take effective action, they might be more likely to tell
someone. But often there is no one who cares that much. Teachers, neighbors,
other parents, they're all "nice" but they aren't invested.

What I'm talking about is a deep relationship, and that isn't a function of
time spent together, or any other concrete fact. It's organic and emotional.

We can grow those relationships if we choose to. I feel this is the only way
to actually solve a lot of social problems that have been going on for decades
now. Shooters, internet trolling, bullying, abuse, molestation, those people
who pop up every year or so who have been hiding 15 children in a
basement..etc

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skate22
Trying to make kids comforatable enough to come forward is an after the fact
action.

There are people who are REALLY good at acting. As adults we get to choose
what risks to take. Kids have that choice made for them. Also, kids who are
too young might not even fully understand what's going on, so they might not
be actively searching for a way out.

I like your mentality of growing relationships with people, but when it comes
to protecting kids i feel you owe it to them to be sceptical of others. The
risk just isnt worth the free babysitter.

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sjg007
Here's another radical progressive idea, offer consumer grants to pay for
childcare. Then maybe child care will "professionalize" and appropriately
"commercialize". This it to not denigrating current child care arrangements or
facilities but to provide long term stability to the market. We already know
that early intervention and childhood education is a benefit (note education
does not mean formal schooling but rather play based learning).

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Powerofmene
This is a huge pendulum swing from our present state of massive regulations.
The writer forgets a number of things that should be taken into account.

People are much more transient and as such do not know their neighbors the way
they did in years past.

With the media’s hyper focus on all things bad, people are much less likely to
let their children stay with people other than super close friends or family.

Those who have chosen to not have children or who are waiting to have children
until their careers are more est abolished often work very long hours. As
such, they are far too tired to care for the children of others.

There are just a few reasons and there are many, many more.

