{"id":214,"date":"2014-11-03T07:17:00","date_gmt":"2014-11-03T13:17:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2014\/11\/thats-not-a-choice-we-want-americans-to-make.html"},"modified":"2015-02-26T23:09:52","modified_gmt":"2015-02-27T05:09:52","slug":"thats-not-a-choice-we-want-americans-to-make","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2014\/11\/thats-not-a-choice-we-want-americans-to-make.html","title":{"rendered":"“That\u2019s not a choice we want Americans to make”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Yes, Obama said that with reference to stay-at-home mothers. \u00a0Yes, he will weasel out of it by saying he was misconstrued, as with the \u201cyou didn\u2019t build that line.\u201d \u00a0And he\u2019ll say that his point was actually that he wanted women not to be limited in their choices by unavailability of daycare.<\/p>\n

The Federalist<\/a> pushes back against this rather well, and I hadn\u2019t originally planned to write on this because so many others have pushed back already. \u00a0(By the way, I\u2019m adding them to the ol\u2019 blogroll, even though I\u2019m not quite sure about them as a source.)<\/p>\n

But here\u2019s the thing: \u00a0he\u2019s talking about government-provided \u201cpreschool,\u201d but the preschool years are actually the smallest portion of pre-schoolage childcare, and the easiest to manage. \u00a0It\u2019s the infancy and toddler years where families have difficulty finding acceptable care (\u201cacceptable\u201d meaning \u201ccare that feels sufficiently home-like\u201d) that\u2019s easy on the budget, because of the lower caregiver-child ratios needed. \u00a0His argument of \u201cwe need to prevent women from becoming stay-at-home moms\u201d only works if he wants government to provide free (or generously sliding-scale-based) daycare at all ages.<\/p>\n

And \u201cfree daycare\u201d doesn\u2019t grant but takes away choices. \u00a0Really \u2014 imagine a world in which takes were high enough to fund daycare centers of exceptional generosity, open as many hours as desired, with ratios low enough for the youngest to never be left in bouncy seats or swings for long hours. \u00a0That\u2019s pretty much the story in Norway, if I remember correctly. \u00a0And the result is \u2014 because the high taxes necessitate two earners and because of the social pressure and the lack of support structures for SAHMs (e.g., playgroups or even neighbors who do likewise) and the need not to feel stupid by rejecting a freebie \u2014 women don\u2019t really have the choice to stay at home.<\/p>\n

UPDATE 11\/6:\u00a0 Found it!\u00a0 An article in the Christian Science Monitor<\/a>, though probably not the article I originally read on the topic, supports my memory of the story in Scandinavia.\u00a0 The key quote:<\/p>\n

\u00a0There is also an expectation that all mothers should go back to work since there is such an efficient and affordable system in place to take care of children. Here, there is more pressure to have a job to go back to after maternity leave, whereas in the US you would be criticized for prioritizing your career ahead of your child\u2019s early formative years.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u00a0And here\u2019s another article<\/a>, one woman\u2019s experiences as an American raising a family in Norway. \u00a0 <\/p>\n

Because everyone works, there\u2019s really no playground culture. When we moved here last March, my kids hadn\u2019t gotten into Barnehage [daycare] yet, so I was alone with them all day from March until August. There was nothing to do. There are minimal kid activities, kids museums, playgroups or classes like in the U.S. because no one doesn\u2019t work! Kids are all in Barnehage and parents are all working.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yes, Obama said that with reference to stay-at-home mothers. \u00a0Yes, he will weasel out of it by saying he was misconstrued, as with the \u201cyou didn\u2019t build that line.\u201d \u00a0And he\u2019ll say that his point was actually that he wanted women not to be limited in their choices by unavailability of daycare. The Federalist pushes […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2209,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[161,5,162],"class_list":["post-214","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-daycare","tag-obama","tag-stay-at-home-moms"],"yoast_head":"\n"That\u2019s not a choice we want Americans to make"<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Yes, Obama said that with reference to stay-at-home mothers.  Yes, he will weasel out of it by saying he was misconstrued, as with the "you didn't\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2014\/11\/thats-not-a-choice-we-want-americans-to-make.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta 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