Why Child Care is So Important to American Families

<div style="text-align: justify;">The tangled, uneven, and ever-changing growth of child care throughout the world has been consistently tightly interwoven with the role of women in society, the economy, a new understanding of early childhood development, national interests, and human rights.<br> <br> It is not surprising that the ways we care for children has changed dramatically over the years as our understanding of a woman's role in society has evolved. As society's interest and support for women's expanding role waxes, new educational models have been developed, refined, discussed and eventually discarded or utilized for specific populations. As society's interest has waned for women's expanding role, support for child care models has languished.<br> <br> We no longer live in the same world as the 1950's or even the 1960's. Lassie and Leave it to Beaver as well as Father Knows Best are now fondly remembered reruns that no longer reflect today's family.<br> <br> Today, more than half of all mothers of infants are in the work force employed outside of the home. As a nation, we have more than five million children, under the age of 3-years-old who require some form of daycare. Many parents opt to use family based care while others opt to use more organized center based care. It's estimated that perhaps as many as one in four children in America live in a single parent home. This change in family composition has been attributed to an upward swing in the divorce rate and an increase in many women deciding to be single parents. This means there are many, many women who are solely responsible for the care and financial security of their children.</div>

Why Child Care is So Important to American Families

The tangled, uneven, and ever-changing growth of child care throughout the world has been consistently tightly interwoven with the role of w...

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