Blog #10

Welfare reform forced many single mothers into the work force, all the while dismissing import child care needs. Mothers were happy to be off of welfare and were encouraged by being economically self-sufficient. The mothers in the study all echoed the same struggles, finding quality child care and working with the agencies. Through the Work Experience Program (WEP), mothers participated in training and internships for long periods of time before finding a full-time job. During WEP, the mothers are supposed to receive child care benefits and many continue to use other public assistance programs. As was often found with the mothers in Chaundry’s study, the payments were often late getting to the provider or there was a systematic problem with the payments, in both cases causing conflict between the provider and mother. Some of these conflicts resulted in the termination of care and mothers having to quit the program to look for other child care arrangements and to take care of their children for a period of time. Many mothers used kin care as the primary care for their children most often in the beginning of the child’s life when the mother had to return to work. Kin care was also used most often by young mothers that did not know very much about the system and relied on their personal networks for care. Over time, the mothers began to view kin care as the non-preferred type of care and only turned to it in times of greatest need. Once their personal networks were exhausted in regards to child care, the mothers turned to their personal networks for getting assistance from agencies. The mothers began to prefer agency based care to kin care.

The mothers in Chaundry’s study had to develop survival strategies from the very beginning of work entry after welfare reform. At the time of their initial entrance into welfare-to-work, mothers based their work around child care. They often stopped working when care arrangements broke down or when child care could not be arranged. Over time, mothers began to base their child care around their work. They realized the importance of maintaining a job and being able to be economically self-sufficient. This often resulted in mothers strategically making child care arrangements around their work.

In many of the cases in Chaundry’s study, the mothers were unable to get their preferred arrangement and settled for a second best option. Although the mothers settled for the option that was available and not the most desirable, they did not settle, they continued to search and wait for their ideal arrangement. Some mothers gave up spots or kept their children in a specific care arrangement longer than they normally would because they liked that specific type of care and wanted to keep their child there longer.

The child care options available to mothers is limited in the hours they provide care. Many mothers expressed frustration over having to be at work before the center opened or worked after it was closed and how they would make the necessary arrangements. In Julia’s case, Sonia, the provider, agreed to watch Jacqueline longer than the normal care hours to accommodate Julia’s work schedule. Center care does not provide much flexibility in their hours of care while family day care often can and will.

Chaundry found that the stereotypical idea that the welfare recipients are poor because they are lazy or stupid is far from the truth. The mothers in this study explained their struggles to go to school, work, provide for their children, and receive the benefits they needed. Poor working mothers often have to work long hours and do not have very much to show for it. Many mothers must resort to having multiple jobs in the hope that they can make ends meet. Single mothers are forced to take on the responsibility of providing for their children and often sacrifice a large amount of the day with them because they need to work. With their mothers working long hours at multiple jobs, the children are being moved from provider to provider decreasing their sense of stability. Chaundry, along with other information, suggest that there should be increased and overlapped funding for child care. He suggests that there should be an overlap program between family care and center care. Chaundry also argues that policy should acknowledge single mothers in today’s work force. In the radio broadcast, Robert Rector argues that there needs to be behavioral changes to decrease the number of children born out of wedlock. In the same broadcast, Professor Adair emphasizes the need for higher education for low-income individuals in order to break the cycle.