Blog # 9

The relationship between working poor women’s conditions and children living in poverty are closely intertwined. Children who are currently living in poverty were most likely brought into that poverty because of the poor status of their mother. If the family the child is coming from is poor and the Mother cannot provide for the child they will be born into poverty. This becomes tricky because you don’t want to penalize the child for something it had no control over yet it isn’t entirely the mothers fault either. It is hard enough for single females to find a decent job with a comfortable salary but when you add a child to the equation it makes everything harder. Single working mothers can only do so much; how can they support a child when sometimes they can’t even support themselves?

Looking at charts from the National Center for Children in Poverty shows that the conditions affect the children and the poverty level. The characteristics of poor children in American are close to the same as working poor woman; most are black, Latino, American Indian, and Asian. If you came to this country as an immigrant your chances of being below the poverty level are high, especially if you are a child coming from a single working mother. Another important statistic that I learned from the charts was that the younger the child the higher the poverty; this is because when the child is at its youngest the mother will have minimal experience working. As the child gets older the mother will hopefully acquire more experience and knowledge that will allow her to obtain a better high paying job. Most of these women we are talking about are very young, some even still children themselves. The jobs of these women to try and provide for their families will continue to be a struggle for years to come.

Blog # 8

Urban poverty is a big factor in creating problems for working mothers. All of the mothers in chapter four have the same underlying concern; what will happen to their children in the future. When you grow up in a neighborhood with no one to look up too you become ok with the notion of living in that area for the rest of your life and being ok with the life style you are accustomed too. In most cases poor working mothers in urban poverty areas must resort to unsatisfactory childcare options and they don’t have a choice. It is either crappy childcare or no childcare which results in losing your job. Most of the mothers in these area’s don’t even have the resources to research childcare options nor do they have the time to find the best one, most of the time it is the cheapest, easiest, and most convenient. If woman are in low wage jobs they will not be able to afford the childcare they need and deserve.

The urban poverty area’s are known for greater violence, joblessness throughout the community, abandonment of homes, welfare, poor schools, crime, and drugs.\ Some children’s parents may even be in jail, this is seen more often with the fathers or boyfriends. Poor woman in mixed income neighborhoods do not face all of these problems although they do still exist. Drugs and violence are everywhere you go but these neighborhoods have a better environment and community providing more security to those who belong to it. Mixed communities are able to provide a better environment for children to grow up in along with having positive role models that can influence the children’s lives in positive ways. Chaudry wanted us to see in this chapter that even though when we think we are able to make more money there will always be more things to spend the money on.

Blog # 7

In the third chapter of Chaudry’s Putting Children First we learn about many childcare sources that Julia put her daughter Jacqueline in. Before Jacqueline was 4 she already had 6 different caregivers. In this certain case it was apparent that they were in this situation because the father had left. Julia wanted to further her education although she barely had any time to spend with her children after working. It’s like a catch 22, you need to go back to school to get a better education so you can attain the better job with the better salary, but who is going to watch your children while you go back to school? And who will make ends meet in the mean time. Single mothers below the poverty line are finding it increasingly hard to even find any type of government assistance because of the strict policies they have. Just because someone may be making a dollar more doesn’t mean that they don’t need financial assistance. When people get stuck in minimum wage positions it is hard to get out because the other jobs offered to you are at the same level. It is sad to watch and see some of the things people have to sacrifice purely because they just don’t make enough money to live the life they are in. In one video a man would have to not fill his prescriptions certain months because he didn’t have enough money to pay them because he did not have any type of insurance. It seems that there is something wrong when Americans cannot afford healthcare when they have full time jobs. These people constantly get stuck in corners and seldom have an easy battle. When Julia was able to move to a full time job she lost her government aid, although that’s when she needed it the most for longer hours of childcare.

Blog # 6

After reading the first few chapters in the book, I couldn’t believe how many different childcare options there were and the struggles woman go through to find them. It isn’t as simple as finding the closest day care and dropping your child off. Most working mothers who are struggling to find childcare are not only worries about providing for their children but making sure they are in a safe environment. There are many concerns that come along with being a single mother, having to worry day to day where your child is going to go while you go to your job so you can put food on the table should not be something that Mothers should have to worry about. The concern of childcare adds a lot of stress for the working mother and also greatly impacts the child at key learning points in his or her life. Mothers want to be able to send their children to a reliable day care that they can trust but this is not possible because they are too expensive and government aid is not enough. Because single mothers cannot rely on traditional styles of childcare they have to resort to friends and family members; which can be strenuous and demanding on your relationships. Also stability is a key aspect to this whole picture; a child needs a constant primary care giver in their life. Cases in the book showed the horrors of random strangers watching your children who do nothing but put the TV on to flimsy family members who were not reliable. In 14 states it is legal to practice childcare without a license, which many women have to resort to because it is all they can afford. This is scary to think about. It is quite clear that those women who have low-incomes with children have to rely on unsafe and rocky childcare programs due to the lack of support from government aid. If we cannot help the mothers who want to help better their children, the children will only grow up to live in poverty.

Blog # 5

In the first chapter of “Putting Children First” by Ajay Chaudry we learn the struggles of single mothers trying to raise a family and work in the public workforce. There are many concerns that come with being a single mother looking for child care. The government continues to pass policies to encourage single women to get jobs, but they don’t encompass plans for childcare. It becomes a big problem when your children are not at the age for full time school and you have a job that does not offer child care assistance. What is a single mother to do when she has no one to watch her children, is quitting her job a sacrifice that she should have to make? The mothers who are able to continue to work while raising children end up working more hours than any average employee and still aren’t able to make ends meet. As supported by the video’s even though low income mothers may be working long hours their wages are not high and the cost of living is drastically rising. As women make more money they decrease their eligibility for government aid programs.

In Annette and Aarons story in the first chapter of the book Annette struggles to make ends meet. She tries getting a second job and when she does her expenses increase, when Annette finds a better paying job, her rent increases. This study showed that as we make more money we desire and demand a better style of living, it can be a vicious cycle for those who are close to the poverty line. Chaudry argues that it is the public responsibility to help these mothers who are trying to work but cannot afford childcare. We need government assistance in financing childcare for working woman along with better guidelines for working mothers in these situations.

Blog # 4

As I have gotten older family has become more and more important to me. When I was younger I couldn’t wait to get away from my parents and be independent. I never understood why my Mom would get so upset when I wouldn’t come home for dinner or why my parents told me they couldn’t sleep until they knew I was home safe. When I decided to come out to Arizona for school from New Jersey I really didn’t think about the impact of being so far away from my family. Since I have been out here for the past three years I feel like I have grown closer to my parents.

Personally I think I have a good functional family. Some characteristics of a good family life are that everyone gets along. In my family there are the day to day stupid fights but everyone respects each other and cares for each other’s feelings. In order for a family to succeed they must be open and have a balance of duties. If only one member of the family is responsible for most of the work with no help from others they will start to feel underappreciated and throw off the balance of the family. I was always told when I was younger you can’t choose your family, but you can choose your friends so pick wisely. In a large family different people have different needs and views, it is important to know how to compromise. A good example of this is when I was younger my sister was really good at soccer so every weekend we had to travel up to 3 hours away to go to her games. No one else in my family was as particularly fond of soccer as Ashley was but we all supported her. A few years later when my youngest sister got into gymnastics Ashley realized how much she had to compromise on the weekends like the rest of the family did for her.

I don’t think there is a clear definition of what is meant to balance a career and family. Every family handles things differently, but it my family when Mom and Dad were happy; things were good. I think in order to balance a career while raising a family you must have an understanding that family comes first. I think that this is a value that has been forgotten within the last few decades. To balance your family and career is to be living a “good life.” The reason this is so hard to achieve is because even though we may want to put family first we cannot always because of financial needs. We are torn between going to see our child’s basketball game or putting in over time to pay the mortgage.

Changes in traditional gender roles have made family and work issues more complicated. Now that more women are in the work force and most families have dual incomes there is not a single one person to put the blame on for the care work issues. As more men are staying home now than ever the changes in family duties are bound to change.

I really liked the solution the UK is trying out in some of their companies to help employees deal with the hardships of raising a family, while still going to work. Employers need to be more sensitive to their employees needs by offering hour differences, compensated time off, and an overall respect for a person. It only makes sense that if a company is willing to stick by your side and help you out when you need assistance that in return you will be a better employee and work harder. Having the support from family members and neighbors can be a great help and relief for most. Even something as simple as having your neighbor gets your kids off the bus for you and watching them for a half hour until you can get home. The simple effortless deeds we can to do help others really do cause a great impact. Balancing your priorities in a family is very important so the family can learn how things work and stay on track. One of my favorite solutions for parents having a hard time raising their family and working is to be able to work from home either part time or when needed. If employers can learn to work with families I believe that in return they will produce better work.

Blog # 3

Care work is described in the clips as all the unpaid labor it takes to raise a family. This can include raising children, taking care of elders, maintaining family relations, and the basic daily duties. My family is a “traditional” middle to upper class family. My father is self-employed and my mother has been a stay at home mom since I was born. I am the oldest in my family followed by two younger sisters. Before I was born my mom had a successful job, but my Dad wanted her to enjoy being a mother and not have to work. I couldn’t imagine what my childhood would have been like if my mom wasn’t always there to bring me my lunch when I forgot it or pick me up when I was sick. Recently since the economy has been hurting my mother has gone back to work. Although it has been 21 years since she has worked in the public, her time as a mother has not been easy. Even though my mom only works part time and my dad works full time when he can my mother is still responsible for all the care work in my family.

“Juggling Work and Care” talked about the efforts being made in the UK to help care work employers in companies succeed. In the UK they carefully addressed that when large groups of woman join the workforce the standard of raising a family is lowered. The more woman work the more they feel they have to keep up with the house to compensate for being the number one bread winner. The UK has really started to ask the important questions of what is more essential woman’s right to work or woman’s right to raise a family the way she wants.

Society needs to reconstruct their notions that household work like laundry, raising children, cooking, cleaning, and shopping are not only woman’s work. Men are just as capable of doing this work as well. As more and more woman our going to work to help manage families financially, males should step up in the households to keep the family lifestyle balanced.