I don't know what made me pick up this book, since I neither have nor want children, but I still find the whole child care industry fascinating.  In this book, Julia Wrigley describes the dynamics between in-home child care providers and the parents they work for.  What I found interesting (and rather irritating) was not so much what was said but how it was said.  Not since Nickle and Dimed have I heard such yuppie entitlement!  Yikes!  The author was clearly only concerned with the middle-class parents and not with the caregivers themselves.  She spoke of how middle-class parents had to learn "the domination of domestic employees by their middle-class employers."  Not "supervision" or "direction" or "instruction," but "domination."  She must be Barbara Erhenreich's spoiled cousin.  I think the most telling section was near the end of the book.  The author wrote about the problem of depression among caregivers, many of them working long hours for little pay and having little or no social life of their own.  But instead of compassion for the suffering women, the author pointed out that this was a problem because depressed people couldn't properly care for children, and that was a shame for the parents.  I could not believe what I was reading!

At first I felt bad for the caregivers and their horrible working conditions, until I learned that many of them had abandoned children of their own to come to the States and work as nannies.  If people would just take care of their OWN children, a lot of the problems of this world would be solved.  Wrigley described many families who rarely spent time with their children.  These were two-career parents who worked long hours and just wanted peace and quiet (away from the children) when they were home.  I ask:  WHY HAVE CHILDREN????  Sorry, this is a very sore issue for me.  Seriously, why have children if you don't want to spend time with them?  They become nothing more than high-priced accessories.  I feel very sorry for the kids of these losers.  Unfortunately, they grow up to act just like their parents, raising yet another generation of neglected, spoiled, needy rich brats.  Luckily, Wrigley sees the flaws in the system, too (although maybe not for the same reasons I do).  Her solution?  High-class daycare centers where paid professionals can interact with the kids on a positive level.  I suppose this would be a good idea, but I doubt it would do any real good.  The real solution?  For women to choose between career and family, and stop trying to do both! 

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