Overview
Penelope Leach, the universally admired author of the bestselling classic Your Baby & Child, diagnoses the state of child care in America and the world today.
Who is caring for today's children? How well are they succeeding? What does care cost, and who is paying for it? Leach answers these and other urgent questions with facts and figures gathered from the most current research, brought to life by the voices of parents, including those involved in her own five-year study. She highlights the urgent need in America today to raise the quality of child care and to make the best care available to all families, just as it is in most other developed nations. Setting out clearly and candidly what is known about every aspect of child care-including the often hidden feelings and fears of parents-Leach presents a critical case for change.
Synopsis
Penelope Leach, the universally admired author of the best-selling classic Your Baby and Child, diagnoses the state of child care in America and the world today.
Who is caring for today’s children? How well are they succeeding? What does care cost, and who is paying for it? Leach answers these and other urgent questions with facts and figures gathered from the most current research, brought to life by the voices of parents, including those involved in her own five-year study. She highlights the urgent need in America today for measures to raise the quality of child care and to make the best care we can provide available to all families, just as it is in most other developed nations. Setting out clearly and candidly what is known about every aspect of child care—including the often hidden feelings and fears of parents—Leach presents a critical case for change.
The Washington Post - Sara Sklaroff
I've stuck with Leach's earlier book through my first 3 1/2 years as a mother because it's both child-centric and sensible. Child Care Today, while somewhat drier in style, has the same combination of kindness and rigor. Leach understands that all families are different. At the same time, she's firm about certain things…
Editorials
Sara Sklaroff
I've stuck with Leach's earlier book through my first 3 1/2 years as a mother because it's both child-centric and sensible. Child Care Today, while somewhat drier in style, has the same combination of kindness and rigor. Leach understands that all families are different. At the same time, she's firm about certain things…—The Washington Post
Publishers Weekly
Venerable British child psychologist Leach, author of the classic Your Baby & Child, addresses the overarching question of who is caring for today's children. Based on current research (including her own longitudinal study conducted by Families, Children & Child Care in the U.K.), Leach reports that nonparental child care is an indisputable fact of modern life, and that "discussing whether it is bad for children is no more useful than discussing whether we would all be better off without television or the Internet." The question, instead, is "How can we make any part of children's lives that they spend in child care good for them?" Urging the abandonment of outdated 1950s standards-when most mothers cared for their children at home-Leach blames attitude even more than scanty financial resources for lack of progress. She examines numerous child care options, from au pairs to day care centers, probing the difficult, exhausting decisions that parents face. She also compares and contrasts the child care practices of various countries, noting, for instance, that the U.S. has no mandatory paid maternity leave while in Sweden mothers are offered 480 days with 80% of their monthly wage. Until we embrace children as everyone's responsibility, Leach insists, the "working/caring conundrum" will continue to plague parents, and society will forgo the high dividends that result when an investment is made in quality child care. (Jan.)
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