{"id":3241,"date":"2021-10-25T08:48:19","date_gmt":"2021-10-25T13:48:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/trot\/?p=3241"},"modified":"2021-10-25T09:02:14","modified_gmt":"2021-10-25T14:02:14","slug":"should-caring-for-kids-be-a-social-responsibility","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/trot\/2021\/10\/25\/should-caring-for-kids-be-a-social-responsibility\/","title":{"rendered":"Should Caring for Kids Be a Social Responsibility?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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Image: A little white girl sits on an adult’s lap in front of a laptop, her small hands covering the adults as they use the computer. Image courtesy of <\/em>Nenad Stojkovic<\/a> CC BY 2.0<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Democrats in Congress continue toward passing sweeping infrastructure legislation. Part of the infrastructure packages would provide funding for childcare including universal pre-K for three and four-year-olds, aid for working families to pay for the costs of daycare, and paid family leave. Social science research helps place this current debate in perspective, connecting it to larger conversations about who is responsible for paying the costs of raising kids, the consequences for families of the private responsibility for childcare, and what international comparison can show us about alternatives. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Part of the question concerns whether we should think of raising children as a social, rather than individual, responsibility. Public investments in childcare, whether through public assistance to cover the cost of childcare or a public system of universal childcare, are one way that countries communicate who is responsible for reproductive labor: the work of having and caring for children. In the United States, this is often thought of as the responsibility of individual families and, historically, mothers. Feminist scholars, in particular, have critiqued the individualization of responsibility for raising children, emphasizing that the work of having and raising children benefits society across the board. Having kids creates the next generation of workers and tax-payers, carrying on both practical and cultural legacies. Scholars argue that because we all benefit from the work of reproducing the population we should all share its costs and responsibilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n