Comments on: Childcare and the Working Mom Debate: A Guest Post by Wingstaff

By: Rabbit

Rabbit — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 18:54:47 +0000

“Childless women are also significantly more likely to work overtime. The vast majority of mothers, 92 percent, work less than 50 hours a week.”

FIFTY HOURS???? Less than 50 hours per week is an issue? Not working OT doesn’t mean a person should get paid less… it means the person who DOES work OT should get paid extra ONLY for those hours. Caveat: I get paid by the hour and have no idea how salaried positions work.

Also, I’m not a mom and I still only work 37.5 hours per week (gov’t cube jockey). I guess that makes me a worthless person who doesn’t deserve fair pay?

By: Cimorene

Cimorene — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 16:37:22 +0000

I can’t believe that article was all, “92% of mothers work less than 50 hours a week” like it was unusual and immoral to work less than 50 hours a week.

Who wants to work 50 hours a week? What kind of life is that? And it’s not like articles like this are talking about people who have to work 50+ hours a week to afford rent; no, this is for people who are expected to work that much in order to afford upper-middle-class lives. Well fuck that.

Nobody should have to work more than 40 hours a week. Full stop. Our culture’s relationship with work is fucking crazy. I hate it.

By: annajcook

annajcook — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 15:41:48 +0000

The "devoted worker" (what sociologist Patricia Roehling has termed The Career Mystique) ideal was only ever really possible for single adults who outsourced caregiving and adult men with a full-time wife who could take care of all the non-work details. SOMEONE has to do the cooking, cleaning, childcare, scheduling doctor's visits, balancing the checkbook, grocery shopping, laundry, etc. No worker should be expected to put in more than 35-40 hours per week without overtime pay or other provisions made for those necessities of life that need to happen. Actually, I don't think anyone should be expected to work more than that, full stop: we need time that isn't owned by those who pay us for labor.

By: panickitten

panickitten — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 15:36:06 +0000

as I read the last line of that article, all I could think was “F— YOU!”

I say that as a mother who is married but in no way can we afford to have me stay home. I have to work full time because with my crappy state job, we can barely afford to make ends meet.

We have my mom as our daycare provider but she’s already high in years so we are looking for other options with son who is 3 already. Looking for trustworthy daycare is tough.

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Wed, 16 Feb 2011 14:33:01 +0000

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By: damemarchant

damemarchant — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 14:29:24 +0000

I also think that we as a society need to get over the idea that childcare is a luxury for women that choose to work.

Historically, people have not raised children alone. In the past, extended family and neighbors shared – yes, that “village” Hillary talked about.

We have to replace it with a paid village, because a spontaneous village doesn’t exist anymore for most people. People are more mobile and move away from family, neighborhoods are empty during the day because everyone has to work to make ends meet. Health care and housing have skyrocketed, and the last 30 years have seen an increase of worker productivity, but no increase in the compensation that workers get. (Easy credit made people feel ‘richer,’ because they were able to aquire more on less salary).

This is not due to “selfishness” on the part of women. I love my work, and my fulfillment makes be a better parent. Women entered the workplace and society at large, and society refused to step in and fill the child care gap.

This is the care and nurturing of future generations we are talking about, not some luxury. We need to extend public school and care options to preschool.