Blog #10

Working mothers in Chaudry’s study were forced to become more flexible making their work schedule fit the child care schedule. In addition, it was necessary that they use both money and subsidies in order to afford child care while they worked. After the welfare reform shifted the focus from the well-being of children to work first, many women found themselves scrambling for work because their benefits were only offered to them for a limited time. To have to find child care quickly did not always translate into effective and successful outcomes as depicted in the working mothers’ stories. They face child care, transportation, and education issues that make exiting poverty much more difficult. Although the welfare reform reduced the number of women on assistance it has not made it possible for working mothers to find the support they need in order to get ahead as they have to continue to rely on other social services such as healthcare and child care assistance. Therefore one can conclude that the number of people that came off the welfare rolls simply shifted to other services.
It is absolutely essential for the working mother to have dependable and quality health care in order to succeed in the workforce. The women in Chaudry’s study often had to take numerous days off of work in order to submit the proper documentation to obtain approval from the State and when the subsidies fell through and the providers were not paid on time or correctly for that matter, that jeopardized the entire situation creating a burdensome worry for the working mother that again needed to act fast and find new child care arrangements when the previous ones didn’t work out. And throughout the time period that mom is seeking adequate care for her children so that she can work; the children are put at risk for delayed development that may be difficult to overcome later in childhood by exposing them to continuous change and instability.
Working women would like to make it a priority to find a safe and stable environment for their children. However, when that option is not available due in part to “all the red tape” involved with obtaining child care assistance in order to exit the welfare system and enter the work force, it makes it much more difficult for the women to be able to provide for their family. And when the women do find child care they find that it takes up most of their income again leaving the mother at the risk of experiencing financial hardship.
Contrary to what some people might believe about poor families being lazy and dumb, Chaudry found that they are in fact hardworking members of society except working hard is still not enough to keep them afloat. Sometimes it requires working women to have more than one job and this means that they spend less time with their children. Not being able to care for their own children is a great concern for the working mothers but they remain torn between caring for the children themselves and ensure their emotional well-being or keep the children in day care for 10-12 hours days to ensure they are physically taken care of.
I agree with Chaudry recommendation to increase the funds for children’s programs because the children are the ones that require the stability in their critical early years of life so that they can develop and progress normally because if they are not given that opportunity then we are failing these children from the beginning when they did not ask to be born into poverty. It is not fair to penalize the children for the parents’ unfortunate circumstances. If we do not help single working mothers by enabling them to take their children to head start for the benefit of the child’s educational future simply because her single income of $10 is too much in the chart then the message to those mothers is that the lack of assistance comes with the territory of being the working poor. Chaudry argues that it is necessary to also provide access to stable child care for all eligible families because by providing stable child care will benefit the children first. And by making the care accessible to eligible working mothers and families we will see healthier and happier children in addition to increased productivity in the work place by working mothers.