To Stay Home or Not?

I read this great article from the washington post titled Who Should Care for This Child? its an interesting and thought provoking article about making decisions about child care and all the factors which must be considered. Is a full time stay at home really the best or only if that is what her aspirations are? Can a woman afford to stay home or is child care to expensive to be worth it? Would a child be better served by a mother with a career who has more finicial resources available? The author of the article says... It depends! On what works the best for the parent, because whatever works best for the parent will ultimately be the best for the child too=) Now does that sound like someone from the sanguine camp to you? I thought so... but I am curious what your thoughts and reactions are to the article.

Paid Versus Unpaid Labor.

I've thought a lot about the issues that were discussed in small groups the last few minutes of class on wednesday (and during class) concerning the cost of rearing a child and the argument that the costs are private and the gains are public (of successfully raising a child) I don't know how to fix/change/influence this, however, Lucas had an interesting idea that I would like to explore a little more in this blog.
It is based on social security benefits, I'm acknowledging right now that there is a lot that I don't know/understand about social security...mostly because I have never expected it to stick around long enough to influence me on the other end. Okay so the dilemma is that a woman who chooses to stay at home and raise children IS eligible for a certain percentage of what her husbands social security benefit would be... So, IF her husband has a decent job, anf IF they are married for at least 10 years, and IF she is unemployed for 7 years (I think thats right) then she is eligible for the pecentage. The problem here is that being a mom (i.e. homemaker or whatever you want to call it) is labour! It's just not paid, so perfect example of private cost (her loss of income) and public gain (all the kids who are raised to be industrious taxpayers). Not being a policy guru or a economics whiz I have no great solutions only frustrations and questions about a topic that I think is important.
Especially in light of the lady who just had 8 babies (on top of the 6 that she had) is there a way to support moms who are doing unpaid labor without encouraging unemployment and dependency on a government system? I haven't read anything yet that was worth posting, so I'll keep reading and add it later if I find anything helpful or profound. In the mean time I always welcome your thoughts and or opinions.

Socialized Child Care?

It is not my intention to beleaguer this topic. However, we have already read (and discussed some) about maternity leave, paternity leave and parental leave in general. I have also posted some information (and opinion) on child care, the history of it and the current trend of it often being very unaffordable.
I found this little clip on youtube that discusses all of these issues and how they are approached in Sweden (there's lots of info that comes from Sweden) It's only a few minutes long if you want to watch it click here and then I would be interested to hear your thoughts and opinions.
To me the idea of affordable child care for everyone is highly appealing. Sweden goes so far as to guarantee a spot for each child in a facility. However, when discussing this topic with some friends they indicated their belief that any program which is "socialized" decreases in quality and effectiveness. As an example they cited health care in other countries. Now I am not trying to change topics here but it is an interesting idea. Would child care programs decrease in quality if there were some federal policies which increased the availability and affordability of childcare? I am so far without a definite opinion on this, for an opinionated person that is not comfortable!!! So if anyone has idea or opinions on the topic I would be highly interested in your thoughts.