Comment on Doesn't add up
partofthevoice@lemmy.zip 9 hours agoThere’s absolutely tradeoffs. Yet, the parents that take their kids to my sister have a different kind of tradeoff: don’t go to work, or find affordable childcare. My sister winds up in this halfway point, servicing those people.
It’s true she doesn’t stock a defib. She watches those kids well enough, though, and has a cell phone to call 911 in case of emergency.
It’s not the picture perfect setup. It is making sure plenty of families can continue putting food on their table, though. Sometimes that’s what’s important (imo).
It doesn’t scale. But, you could have a lot of nonscalable businesses — a “gig economy” as they call it. A gig economy can scale even if the independent pieces don’t.
Yes there are tradeoffs.
Your “yet somehow a struggling mother can take on babysitting” is wholly because of these tradeoffs… and depending on specifics, may be getting paid less than minimum wage.
She effectively is operating in the gig economy. That’s a whole can of worms itself.
AA5B@lemmy.world 8 hours ago
As counterpoint, I know at least a couple home daycares, which were more convenient and less expensive for their customers but:
my aunt had an unhealthy basement rec room after multiple floods, and was not very mobile
an old college friend had gone conservative and refused to either get Covid vaccinations or to require any vaccinations of their customers. Can you imagine if you found out you were sending your kids to a germ factory where any kid could have anything?
partofthevoice@lemmy.zip 8 hours ago
Yeah, I don’t really disagree.
We could have nice things, but logistically it’s not feasible at an affordable cost. So a gig economy steps up to fill those gaps. Yes, that comes with risks. You will find horror stories, they’re valid. Nonetheless, this is closer to how childcare had been done for centuries. It’s a regression from the modern liberal way, but it certainly isn’t unfamiliar.
What would be more ideal is if the state could partner with gig workers to ensure adequate resources. Perhaps there’s a way to redraw the lines here, so that we don’t find ourselves in a situation where you work to afford childcare and are otherwise broke. That’s also not a way to live.
AA5B@lemmy.world 8 hours ago
So true. When we had our second kid, we found the cost of daycare for two younger ones was approaching her salary as a teacher. That’s ridiculous. Luckily I made enough to support us and she always said she didn’t mind staying home to care for them, but most people probably can’t afford that