The Widening Gap: Why America's Working Families Are In Jeopardy And What Can Be Done About It ebook

Most people have a job that allows little leeway for spending necessary time nurturing children and older relatives when they need special help. After all, employers are hiring the employee, not the family. Right? Well, read on to learn what some of the consequences of that system are now.
Many people feel overwhelmed today by how to earn a living, take care of the family, and raise children. For women who work outside the home, a recent study showed that the average work week is 85 hours for work, commuting, home chores and errands. Even with that tremendous effort, what's to be done when your 7 year old suddenly becomes very ill at school? How do you get your child home after an after-school activity? If you don't have much money, who takes care of your 3 year old?
The conclusion of this book is that millions of children are being shortchanged in the process. And the children who are being shortchanged the most are the ones with the most significant needs and with the lowest-income parents. As a result, we face a future of underprivileged youngsters numbering in the tens of millions becoming ineffective adults, rather than having a society that provides equal opportunity for all based on their potential to pursue the opportunity.
The book is based on four quantitative studies, comprising interviews with a total of 7500 people. These studies focus on finding out how family needs are being met, and what the consequences are for children. These studies appear to be the first quantitative studies to take the anecdotal evidence we see all around us of problems, and find out what is happening to all of U.S. society.
Most U.S. children are being raised in households where every adult works for a wage or a salary. School days and school years are shorter than work days and years, so there are many uncovered hours. Half of those who would like help with child care cannot get any, adequate or not. Many of the rest have inadequate child care because adequate care is not available to them or too expensive. Children are mostly being left to fend for themselves. As the cases suggest, this is often dangerous. It is never good for the children.
When children are ill, they are sent to school anyway. If they need attention because of special or just doing their homework, often one parent has to work evenings or weekends and cannot spare the time to help out while the child is home from school. If the family only has one parent at home (as so many do in our divorce-riddled ranks), these children are raising themselves.
In addition, one household in four is helping an elder relative.
Children in school who are having the most problems are the ones whose parents are around home the least.
Life as an adult in these households is "predictably unpredictable." As a result, something unexpected happpens about once a week in 30 percent of the households that requires someone to leave work. The women in the family usually rise to the occasion. Their employers often take it out on them in terms of reduced promotions, raises, and security.
The U.S. model for dealing with this has been to either rely on employers to provide help voluntarily, or to ignore the issue. As Dr. Heymann points out, many employers are never going to see this issue as being in their self interest to solve. In fact, the problem is largely invisible because people who leave work to take care of parents or children rarely tell their employers that's what they are doing. Other excuses or no excuses are provided.
Dr. Heymann argues for increasing the social safety net to cover children better. Since so many people cannot afford or find good preschool care, she argues for this becoming something that the community offers . . . in the same way it covers the later grades. Since these formative years are very important, large educational gains should result. Dr. Heymann also argues for many kinds of paid leave from work to help children.
Beyond that kind of legislation, there are things that employers can do. Focus on output rather than attendance. Provide more flextime. Allow more work to be done at home.
Government can do more. Let routine administrative things be done by mail or telephone. Provide after-school care at no cost in every school. Have transportation so elderly people can get to appointments, and children can get home after the work day ends. Have teachers available to help students after school whose parents are still working.
Although the author did not suggest it, my reaction is that we probably need to start a large number of experiments to see what works well and what does not. These experiments could be funded by companies, company foundations, and community foundations. From such experiments, we can find the most effective ways to improve this crushing burden on the development of children and on their parents. Although the working poor need this help the most, everyone needs help in some instances. The question is simply what the best ways are to improve things.
Investing more in helping our vulnerable children and older citizens will repay us handsomely. Let's find the best way to do it!

According to a poll taken of readers of "Redbook" magazine, family comes first. However, those polled revealed that they felt that the American family is in crisis right now. Stress comes from all sides: work, school, other family members who might become ill, etc. This book, a brilliantly researched and argued treatise on childcare in the 21st century in America, shows unequivocally that Americans need to focus on this problem. I was disheartened to read of 11-year-olds called on to take care of younger siblings while Mom and Dad work. I sympathize with the parents who are struggling to find ways to pay for daycare; I did that when my kids were 4 and 2.

This book is amazing. It synthesizes all of the various reasons that today's families are under more stress and strain, and how public policy can be revised to help. From drastically changing demographics, to public policies that have failed to keep pace, it covers a sociological history of family and work life over the past century. It also provides solutions for change. I see this book as a good starting point for researchers and policy makers to brainstorm on practical solutions. It's a useful resource for any lit review having to do with family and workplace politics, including school change, daycare change, elder care, and protection of the family unit. Great book. I felt hopeful by the end, in spite of all the work that needs to be done, b/c the solutions are possible.