Child care difficulties haggle working parents

Wednesday, January 6, 1999

Child care difficulties haggle working parents

Erratic employee schedules make it hard to match rearing
needs

By Hannah Miller

Daily Bruin Senior Staff

Picking the right day care can be like choosing from the menu at
Jerry’s Famous Deli. It takes hours, it’s a tremendously
time-consuming process and it always involves sacrifices.

"A lot of people are conflicted about someone else taking their
child," said Gay McDonald, director of UCLA Child Care Services.
"Parents agonize over it."

Not only is child care centered in a battleground over gender
and social roles, but it’s often simply a practical nightmare. What
hours do the parents need care? How many people do they want
looking after their children? Do they need care in the San Fernando
Valley, Riverside County or close to campus?

These questions are exactly why Child Care Services provides an
outreach service with hundreds of child-care options.

"The whole purpose of the network," said McDonald, "is so that
workers can know what child care providers are there."

For example, one caregiver specializes in watching the children
of nurses, whose 12-hour shifts usually don’t fit with standard
8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. day care schedules.

Medical Center employees have some of the most erratic hours.
Doctors go on call, residents work late hours and lab work can
stretch for half a day at a time.

On any given afternoon, many of the parents streaming out of the
Bellagio Child Care Center are spouses of medical students or
physicians doing their residencies at UCLA.

"(My daughter) likes it here," said Veronique Hart, as her
three-and-a-half-year-old jumped up and down and screamed
"Monsters!"

Hart’s job does not offer child care, and her husband, a medical
student, depends on her to pick up Simone before the Child Care
Center closes at 5:30 p.m.

"The hours are agreeable, I suppose," Hart said. "They could be
more flexible."

Flexibility isn’t the only issue for parents. For Paul Duweui,
it’s the Teletubbies.

"Child care changed him in days!" said Duweui, pointing to his
still-a-bit-shy tot Colin, clinging to his leg. "Just from the
interaction with people. Before, he just watched TV all the time.
‘Teletubbies.’ Now he’s much more outgoing."

Like Duweui, many parents prefer that child care provides a
miniature social scene for their children. Many home-care providers
(those who take care of children in their private home) limit the
number of children to four or eight. That allows a small ratio of
caregivers to children, which many feel is important for children
to feel secure and to simply ensure that children are getting
enough attention.

Home care is by far the most common form of day care, for a
number of reasons: the intimate setting, the security and the
simple fact that lower costs make for lower fees.

The ratios at UCLA, just named one of the top 10 programs in the
country by High Scope Educational Research Foundation, are set as
low as two-to-one for infants, and four-to-one for toddlers.

La’Tonya Reese Miles, a graduate student in the English
department, said that her 13-month-old son Jabari has made friends
with his five playmates.

"He cried a lot when we started," Miles said. "But now if we’re
not ready to leave, he’ll put on his coat, walk to the door, and
say ‘bye bye.’"

For Miles, the most important thing she looks for in child care
is that the day care has some structure. "The childcare’s like a
school. I want to make sure he’s socially challenged," she
said.

But Miles’ case demonstrates one failure of UCLA child care: the
limitations and expense.

When Miles – whose husband is also a student – first realized
she was pregnant, she discovered that UCLA Child Care wouldn’t come
close to meeting her needs.

Not only was the waiting list too long, but student grants were
only available "if you were making no money," Miles said.

Even part-time work usually disqualifies students from grants.
So Miles called a municipal child-care line to find a provider near
her. Now she pays $145 per week for full-time home care, which
compares to $202.50 a week at UCLA.

In this area, child-care experts say there’s a delicate balance
to be struck. Corporations have occasionally made it "too easy" for
parents to leave their children in day care as a way of encouraging
them to work longer hours.

But more often, parents feel torn over the decision to place
their children in the care of others. It’s an understandable
phenomenon, especially when grandparents are applying pressure for
parents to stay home. It’s a generation gap in understanding.
Although the percentage of single parents and two-income families
has been climbing steadily since the late 1960s, those involved in
the child care field say that child care is still feared and
resented by some segments of society.

UCLA Child Care confronts the problem head-on, sponsoring
regular workshops on topics such as "Do You Have to Feel Guilty?"
and publishing a Working Parents newsletter to help parents
confront their fears and problems.

"Times change and situations change," said Toby Cronin, a senior
administrative analyst in the Neuropsychiatric Institute who was
involved in UCLA child care at its very beginning.

"There’s a lot more non-traditional students nowadays. But it
always takes 15 years to make anything catch."CHARLES KUO/Daily
Bruin

UCLA’s Kirk Stark and his wife both took leaves from work to
care for their daughter Olivia.

Comments, feedback, problems?

© 1998 ASUCLA Communications Board[Home]