Does America want Moms to stay at home?

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-02-2005
Does America want Moms to stay at home?
987
Mon, 12-12-2005 - 11:28am
It was actually dh that suggested that America (gov't I suppose) wants Moms to stay at home. From what I have learned from these boards daycare is hideously expensive and maternity leave is very short. Many have said they couldn't afford to work because of daycare costs. Compare this to Canada where we have $7 a day daycare and Quebec is increasing maternity leave to 2 years at 55% pay or 1 year at 75% pay in January. With the $7 a day daycare Moms can easily afford to work, and with the paid maternity leave Moms can easily afford to stay home. It seems that in the states you're 'forced' into situations because it's your only option. Can't afford daycare? Stay at home. Maternity leave too short or have to work to support the family? Go back to work. Would any of you prefer if it would be easier financially to make either decision like it seems to be in Canada or are you fine with how it is?

Image hosted by Photobucket.com

Image hosted by Photobucket.com


Pages

iVillage Member
Registered: 12-29-2004
Thu, 12-15-2005 - 4:01pm
Doesn't make a difference to whom?
iVillage Member
Registered: 04-05-2003
Thu, 12-15-2005 - 4:14pm

"I know people from all over Canada that go to my University and said they never learned compound interest (besides that it exists) in elementary or high school. That's not using only my *own* experience."

That is still YOUR experience. YOU and the people YOU know. I have never seen a handgun. I don't know a single person who has. Does that mean I can say "Canadians have never seen a hand gun"? No.

iVillage Member
Registered: 11-12-2003
Thu, 12-15-2005 - 6:13pm
Hungry? My kid's school has a free breakfast AND lunch program. And don't know about improperly dressed... but if you're inside, how does that affect learning?
iVillage Member
Registered: 11-12-2003
Thu, 12-15-2005 - 6:16pm
To anyone. The increase in prices and costs eats up any benefit the higher wage would have had to begin with. Raising minimum wage doesn't only raise the wage of the person making it, it bumps up everything. If a counter worker is making 5.15 and her manager is making 7, and the minimum wage is bumped to 6.75, the managers wage will be bumped too, as will her boss' and her boss'.. etc. The costs for the company for employing people will dramatically increase.. and who pays for that? They won't eat it.. they increase the cost of their goods and services. I was an economics major for long enough to know that I will never agree with a minimum wage. :)
iVillage Member
Registered: 09-15-2003
Thu, 12-15-2005 - 7:09pm

It 'should' be, sure. But, imagine: you're 8 and your mom has a live in boyfriend (sometimes) and she has kids by him and he's not your daddy. Your daddy is a man you've never met. Your mom doesn't work and neither does her mom and all of you live together in a cramped two bedroom apartment. Sometimes you get to bed at 10 but most of the time you finally fall asleep around midnight because it's just too noisy to sleep. Sometimes you have breakfast but it's whatever you find your self because everyone else is still sleeping. You walk to school though a violent neighborhood. You come home and some times some one is there but most of the time it's just you and the tv.


It's tough to impart an education on a hungry, tired, kid.


Meldi
iVillage Member
Registered: 11-12-2003
Thu, 12-15-2005 - 7:19pm
Very true. It's even harder when you don't even try. I don't know what the solution is for education, but what they are doing now is not working.
iVillage Member
Registered: 12-29-2004
Thu, 12-15-2005 - 7:58pm
Sounds like voodoo economics to me, CM. By that kind of reasoning, prices should have gone up a lot more slowly over the past few decades than they have, 'cuz the minimum wage most definitely has. If you break out the stats, you'll see what I mean. Inflation just ain't about the minimum wage, not by a long shot.
iVillage Member
Registered: 11-03-2005
Thu, 12-15-2005 - 8:15pm

<>

Where did she say it was?

iVillage Member
Registered: 11-12-2003
Thu, 12-15-2005 - 8:17pm
Well, that would be true if I said the minimum wage was the only thing that affects inflation. It is not. But it does cancel itself out pretty quickly.
iVillage Member
Registered: 12-29-2004
Thu, 12-15-2005 - 8:52pm
CM seems to suggest that increases in the minimum wage automatically result in across the board price increases that somehow obviate the benefit. Am I mistaken?

Pages