Working Women & Childcare Crisis

Working mothers all over the world are often shamed for their choice of continuing with their career instead of staying back at home to look after their babies. All mothers love their babies and they must be given the absolute freedom to choose whichever option best suits her family.  Many working mothers are forced to quit at work due to lack of support both at workplace and at home and also due to the childcare crisis that they face. Working mothers need a lot of support from both sides of her family as well as at work to maintain work-life balance. Those who get this support from their families are undoubtedly blessed but the proportion of this category of women is very low. In today’s era where nuclear families are the norm, the vast proportion of working women have to rely on daycares or have to make arrangements for a nanny at home. Both options are expensive and often leave a big hole in their pockets. Moreover, making a choice between a part-time nanny, a stay-at-home and a daycare center is quite a difficult task.

Let’s dive into the pros and cons of each one in order to help working mothers to choose the best option for their families.

Pros of hiring a nanny for child care

• Hiring a nanny ensures personalized care and individual attention for the child. This option gives mothers the full freedom to choose how she wants her baby to be bathed, what she wants her child to be fed or what activities she wants her child to be involved in.
• Nanny will take care of your child at your home. This will save the hassle of everyday commute for you and your child.
• Families can avail services of a nanny for a fixed number of hours everyday or can choose a stay-at-home nanny as per their needs and budget.

Cons of hiring a nanny for childcare

• Finding a reliable nanny is a difficult task. While both parents go out to work, leaving the child alone at home with the nanny can at times raise concerns of safety. Hiring experienced nannies from well-established agencies can avert this problem as these hiring agencies run thorough background checks. Working parents nowadays prefer to install CCTV cameras inside their homes and monitor their child with the caregiver via mobile apps.
• While the nanny is on leave, working parents have to resort to backup options for childcare. Working mothers may have to resort to leaving their child in a relative’s home at times when the nanny is unavailable. 
• Hiring a nanny-whether part-time or full-time, is generally more expensive than daycare. 

Pros of daycare

• Children in daycare get a chance to socialize with other kids in a disciplined environment, which leads to overall development of kids.
• Daycares are an affordable and reliable option for middle-class families. Most modern daycares have excellent facilities with CCTV cameras which enable remote monitoring by the parents via app.
• Most daycare centers are located close to offices and some are even available in office campuses. Parents can take a break from work to go and catch a glimpse of their baby at daycare. Additionally, this provides an excellent option for nursing mothers to breastfeed their child by taking a few nursing breaks at the office. 

Cons of daycare

• Daycare centers provide standard, uniform care to all onboarded children. It lacks the personalized care present in home-care settings. Daycares can thus not be the best place specially for children with special needs.
• Children can fall sick more often at daycare centers than in home-care settings. Many children are housed together in daycare centers. If one child is sick, the infection can spread to other children quickly. This is a major cause of concern in today’s times of corona pandemic.
• Daycare centers have fixed hours of operation. Thus if one needs childcare facilities in hours beyond this timeframe, they must look for home-care settings.

Due to lockdown conditions imposed due to the corona pandemic, daycare centers had been closed for a long time. Parents doing work-from-home had to either struggle with a fussy toddler or were forced to hire a full-time nanny during this pandemic situation. However, the good news is that daycare centers are slowly opening. With infection rates slowing down in the country and vaccination programs running in full swing over the country, let’s hope that life slowly returns back to normal.

I hope my guide helps working mothers to sail through the issue of childcare crisis and to choose the best option for their families.

Nasrin Zaman is a software engineer by profession. She likes travelling to various places and enjoying the beauty of Mother Nature. She also loves photography and reading various kinds of books in her leisure time. Connect with her on Facebook or Instagram.

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Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this post are the personal views of the author. They do not necessarily reflect the views of The Mom Store.