Who Will Take Care of Your Children If You Have to Work?
"At work, you think of the children you have left at home. At home, you think of the work you've left unfinished. Such a struggle is unleashed within yourself. Your heart is rent."
—Golda Meir
If you can't stay home full-time with your children and have to continue working, what kind of child care arrangements can you make? These articles will help you learn how to navigate the sometimes difficult route to finding the best possible child care outside the home, or within the home if you can afford a nanny.
Getting Child Care: Where Do I Begin?
If you've never had to find child care before, you're beginning from square one. But this article will give you a good start in the search for finding the type of child care that is best for you and your child.
5 Steps to Choosing Quality Child Care
Start looking as far in advance as you can. No matter what type of care you are considering—a child care center or care in someone else’s home—finding the right child care option can take some time
Knowing Your Parenting Philosophy Makes It Easier to Select a Caregiver
Since there are many different kinds of childcare arrangements and providers, finding the one that is most compatible with your parenting philosophy can help you make a selection that fits you and your child best. As I write in A Philosophy of Parenting Gained From Long Experience and Have a Plan and Know Yourself, knowing where you want to head in the job of parenting sets the foundation for many decisions you will make throughout your parenting years, not the least of which is whether or not you will work and what kind of care you want to provide for your child.
Matching Your Infant's or Toddler's Style to the Right Child Care Setting
What is your child's personality style? How does she react to the world around her? How active is she? How social? Is she tolerant of changes and choices? These and other issues need to influence the type of care you choose.
What if your mom volunteers to help out? Great? Well, not necessarily. At least not if you haven't figured out some of the pitfalls before you begin. This article gives you a heads-up.
How do you go about interviewing the primary care provider? By using these questions for a phone call and then making an on-site tour, you can have confidence that you've done the best you can, or that you need to keep looking.
Flexible Work Arrangements: Pros and Cons
When parents are unable to get flexibility in their child care arrangements, flexibility in their work arrangements can make all the difference. Here are a few of the options you may want to consider in meshing your work schedule with your child's care. Find out if your company offers any of these options.
Should your boss support family friendly policies?
Why should your boss allow you greater flexibility at work? Only because it produces higher productivity, more customer satisfaction, lower turnover rates, lower absenteeism, and a more committed workforce. This article gives statistics on companies that have made flex time work.
Want to get some flexibility and support for working while you're also trying to raise a child? Sometimes it isn't easy to get a boss to cooperate, despite a corporation's lip service to families. Here are ideas for how to strategize in order to get what you want from your employer.
Telling the boss you're pregnant
Whether you entered into pregnancy with great planning and joy, or simply discovered one day that a blessing was coming your way before you thought you were ready, what do you do about your employer? How and when should you tell him or her? What will you do if your employer doesn't take the news well? What's the best way to break the news?
What is Employer-Supported Childcare?
Employers are finding they have to create new and better ways to retain their employees and are looking for ways to hang onto good employees. So, with record numbers of mothers in the workforce, they often try to provide child care benefits. What are some of these plans and might your employer offer them?
A Proposal for the Restructuring of the [Job Title] Position Held by [Your Name]
How can you convince your boss to allow you to telecommute, work flextime, or use some other form of a flexible work arrangement? This article gives you a well-written proposal so that your boss will see you've thought through the specifics of the arrangement and are committed to making it work for the company. You can use this outline as the basis for writing your own proposal.
Do you think you're ready for a nanny—one of those marvelous creatures who, according to the International Nanny Association, are "employed by the family on either a live-in or live-out basis to undertake all tasks related to the care of children"? First, discover the limitations of the position and how to get one who is certified. Also, learn just what duties she or he will willing to take on, in addition to nurturing your child's cognitive, emotional and social development.
More and more infants and toddlers are spending time each day in some type of child care setting. All children—especially infants and toddlers—need a child care setting where they can thrive with caregivers who understand how to promote their healthy growth and development.
SIDEBAR TO ABOVE ARTICLE:
What Do Kids Think About Working Parents?
Do you sometimes feel as though the debate over staying at home or going to work is designed to make stay-at-home-moms feel good and go-to-work moms feel guilty?
If you're in a quandary over the issue, be sure to read the well-written book, Ask the Children: What America’s Children Really Think About Working Parents. Here the author, Ellen Galinsky, has done her research based on extensive interviews with children and she shows that children are no less happy or healthy when both parents work. However, they do suffer when the workplace is stressful and they have unreliable schedules.
This can be a great book for parents who must work, or who are considering going back to work. An example of the original, compassionate, and realistic recommendations she makes is to share with your children what is enjoyable about work as much as what is difficult about it.
Finding Caregivers Who Will Work In Your Home or in Their Home
Here are two of the many organizations that provide childcare nannies, au pairs, and other substitutes for a live-at-home mom.
Heartland Caregivers, Inc. has been screening nannies for placement with families nationwide since 1984.
Nanny.com can help you find an agency that will assist you in screening several kinds of childcare providers.