Blog #6

The range of child care used by low-income mothers varies significantly. The different types of care generally fall into four different categories: home-based individualized child care, family child care in caregiver’s home, center care and other settings and types. Types of child care that fall into the home-based, individualized child care is father care, kin care by an adult relative or close family friend, informal care by a nonrelated adult, neighbor, or acquaintance, care by paid nanny or sitter in child’s home, and care by older siblings. Types of care that fall into the family child care in caregiver’s home are family day care (licensed), family day care network (licensed), and family day care group. Types of child care that fall into the center care are group day care and nursery programs, head start and early head start centers, and pre-K and preschool programs. Last, but not least, the types of child care that fall into the other settings and types are mother’s care while working, specialized care or special needs care, and day care in shelters, hospitals or other specialized or service institutions. One thing that mothers have to take into consideration when looking for child care is the setting, the provider, the content and the quality of the care because their children are most likely spending a majority of their time there therefore, wherever these children are staying plays a large role in their development. With Bethany’s story, there were many factors that challenged and put a constraint on her child care choices such as, training for jobs, availability of care providers, subsidy given by welfare programs, reliability of care provider, and conflicts between mother and child care provider.
The type of child care that mothers prefer and the type of child care that the actually use can differ greatly. To me, it seems as if a lot of mothers prefer kin care because trust is a huge issue when looking for someone to take care of your children and who can you trust more than your own family. Harriet, for example, expects her family to provide care. A lot of mothers do not get what they prefer usually because of many different reasons such as money, conflict, or family issues and that is very unfortunate.