I was passing

the child care centre early yesterday morning and still feel disturbed by the sight and sound of a small boy clinging to the fence and screaming hysterically for his mother. One of the staff tried to take him inside and he screamed, "Don't touch me!"
I wonder if his mother really needs to work? What is it doing to him if this is what happens each day?
Putting your child into day care at six weeks and going back to work seems strange to me. Very few people would earn enough to make it financially worth while to return to work - yet they claim they need to go back to work. An accountant I know has sat down with any number of parents and showed them that they are losing money by having children in day care, running the extra car etc. They still insist they 'need to work' for financial reasons.
If the Rudd government removes the childcare subsidy what will happen then? Some will continue with professional day care. More will demand that their parents or stay-at-home siblings take on the care. There will be more private paid care - with the potential for abuse.
We will however continue to perpetuate the myth that both parents need to work for financial reasons and because they have over-committed themselves.
There is now a culture which says, "I have a right to (paid) work." Bringing up children is not considered to be 'work'. If you are a stay at home mother you are somehow a lesser being than those who go to (paid) work. Helping out at the local school or volunteering in some other capacity is not an alternative.
So, we have small children screaming hysterically for their parents. We will have yet another generation of children who will grow to expect lavish gifts in lieu of parenting. No doubt someone will tell me this is good for the economy. Perhaps it is fortunate that readers of these ramblings are few and far between.
Of course there are parents who work and manage to spend time with their children - which is probably why Vanessa has never told me how awful my attempts to write really are. Jane is probably tearing her hair out and thinking I learn nothing from her blog either. True - cats are terribly independent and do not care to be told how to wash themselves.