Even then. One day as a nation, I hope we will wake up and realize that daycare needs to be subsidized as a service for all Americans. If you want people to have children and for this nation to grow, this is what's needed along with healthcare and retirement.
The only thing they understand is that the government is taking their hard earned money. The government has enough money as it is, they don't need more.
It's their money, and they need it now!
Oh, the government needs that money to "better our country"? But that's socialism, and we all know how great socialist societies turn out! It's just a stepping stone for communism, and they'll be caught dead long before any communist ideals corrupt their perfect American Dream!
I think it'll be more helpful to understand why regular Americans might come to this conclusion, and why they did come to that conclusion in good faith.
As you get older, you get more opportunities to see bureaucracy and misallocation of funds in the work place. You often see a separation between those in your organization that likes their job versus those in your organization that just wants to climb the ladder. To use The Office as a reference, a lot of Americans feel that they are Dwight, who just wants to do their job and they want their job performance and knowledge to be respected. But then they see someone like Ryan who jumps the corporate ladder without being qualified, or they see something like Michael spending the year-end surplus on a bad purchase.
At the same time, as a regular American with lots of bills, you start budgeting everything. You don't buy milk from store A anymore because it's a whole damn dollar less at store B. You are at your table trying to figure out what cheaper cereal to buy because Lisa needs braces and your tax return is $300 less than last year.
So from your point of view, the government has already asked enough of you and they're not even using your money wisely. They don't deserve another goddamn dollar until they start spending what they got correctly.
The issue is a lot more complex than that, of course. But notice only Republicans are flaunting the idea of "accountability". Now their solution is to fire minorities and then give billions to private companies that they answer to, so I rather not accelerate to that dystopian future. Democrats are trying to "save the programs" but they don't offer solutions of accountability at all. I know they just threw that guy in jail or regular people just want to see money being spent in their real life in a tangible way.
I'm starting to feel like complexity is the major divider between those who tend towards conservatism and those who don't.
When presented with a problem that is complex with numerous variables, myself and others, except that we don't understand everything, but that other people do and we should put them in charge of it.
Conversely, there seems to be an appreciable part of the population that is presented with that same complex problem, gets offended that they don't understand it and then assumes there is a conspiracy driving that misunderstanding.
You can afford to have children because of the lack of social safety nets and assistance. You could afford children with mandatory paid maternity/paternity leave, free daycare, free school, etc.
This would be true if I was the type of person that believed in outsourcing child raising. But I would not be interested in sending my child to be raised by strangers. The issue isn’t the cost of daycare for me. It’s the cost of everything else.
And if you are at this point we are not asking for you to pay more taxes, we are asking those that make plenty to. But republicans exist so..
Well, the comment I replied to wasn’t really directed to people who make plenty.
When yall start going after the 1%’ers I’ll take seriously your talks of free daycare. Because the Fact is that regular Americans who are already taxed up the ass shouldn’t be the ones subsidizing it.
Just calculated my daycare costs for one child last year and it was a little over 10k. The daycare is great, not the biggest or best place around but, the teachers care and they definitely give my child the education and freedom he needs. I'm always sad when they have to announce unfortunate tuition increases just so they can pay the staff more. These teachers should be paid so much more for what they do and would gladly pay more in taxes for that.
Imagine all parents who didn't have to stay home would be able to work because of the rising costs of daycare. Signed a Canadian who pays 8 dollars a day as opposed to $50.
My country (Canada) has just started doing it the last few years. It's one of the best investments a country can make. I am benefitting from it now with our daughter, but I will support it forever. It makes a huge difference.
To be fair though we have also had 12 month parental leave for a long time, which has somewhat recently been given the option to extend to 18 months (but with the same total amount of EI pay distributed across a longer period). So typically very few kids are going to daycare before 12 months.
If you want people to trust the government and want to participate in society, you need to take care of them. Something people don't understand is that by giving people benefits like universal healthcare, daycare, unemployment payments, social security/retirement, disability, and fair wages, they are much more enthusiastic about participating in society and their job. Those expenses pay off over time, even if we only look at things through the cold and detached purely economic way that many Americans are tricked into adopting. More people feel hopeless and depressed because every single part of our society constantly tells us that no one gives a single fuck about regular people.
As a Canadian - mothers get 57 weeks of paid maternity leave and publicly funded daycare costs $10/day. We also get roughly $250/month (this number varies based on family income) from the "Canada Child Benefit".
It's truly a gamechanger. Having a child without these supports in place is unfathomable to me.
It is insanely expensive. I don't think people without kids realize how much it costs. In my state the average cost is around $1400 a month. For infants it's much more expensive, like over $2000 a month. You get maybe 2 months credited back through tax refunds but otherwise there is no other assistance. Our state passed Universal Pre-K which ranges from $1000 - $0 a month depending on age and income.
This is prohibitively expensive for most people. If you have two kids it's a fortune. If we helped subsidize daycare, people could actually enter the workforce, maintain their existing careers, and build some amount of wealth. As it stands now, the first 4 years of your kid's life will obliterate your savings. It's disgusting that this country wants to force women to have kids and then basically denies any aid whatsoever to kids after they're born.
Also respite care and in-home care for disabled adults and the elderly. These are necessary things! They should be available for people who need them, because you never know when you're going to need them. If you're lucky, you'll live long enough to need/want a care worker to come by a few hours a day. They help with cleaning, they cook, and they make sure you didn't have a bad fall. And they make next to nothing.
We get rid of this idea women need to be in the workforce to be "equal" and that a career doesn't define them.
A bunch of people without kids or that don't even want them really like pushing ideas that are fucking stupid.
Men can be caregivers too, but if you're breast feeding in no way does it make sense for the man to be the one at home.
I have a 1 year old and we're both fortunate to WFM. I can't imagine leaving my baby in daycare at this age or earlier. Legitimately heart breaking.
We should be pushing VA type programs for women. If you get pregnant under 30 or whatever and have a child the government will provide tuition to university for you after.
Daycare is a fucking joke and travesty. These babies should he with their family.
A tax deduction helps but doesn't pay the rent every month.
My government subsidizes daycare down to $10/day up front cost for everyone. This is a lot more significant and useful to people than a boost to their tax refund once a year.
Tax refund once a year? We can adjust how much is taken out every paycheck so that we get the discount every pay check. We can now make it so we get $0 back and owe $0 on our tax filings if we do the math right.
In the US and UK, this seems to always be the case. The workers there earn minimum wage and have a shit job some of the time. Then the nursery owner drives in their flashy car, does an hour of work, leaves, and earns a stupid amount of money.
There needs to be more control of these nurseries to make them more affordable for parents.
Yup extremely unlikely . My wife works at daycare barely making $15/hr. She got a $.25/hr raise! How gracious of you master! They don’t even make a livable wage for all the work they do. She makes art work for the classroom too, and helps out extra. It’s ridiculous. I get angry every time I think about it. Her coworkers usually use Uber because they can’t afford their own cars.
My mom owned a daycare most of my life. Some days, she literally paid to be there instead of the other way around. So let me tell you, even if she owns it she's likely not making a decent wage.
You are very correct. I worked in a daycare for 9 years. I loved those kids and would cheer like this when they started walking. But I still only made $11/hour after being there 9 years.
In all likelihood she’s making less than fast food workers. Not that fast food workers should make less, but I think we should value these jobs more than we do currently
I work from home in my pajamas and spend some of the day on reddit, and while my knowledge is specialized and valuable to my employer, I honestly don't work very hard most days.
I've thought many times that even if everyone in the country made exactly the same wage, I still wouldn't ever want to do an "easy" job like food service. There is nothing in my mind that convinces me that they shouldn't make as much as anyone else, cause they certainly put in the work. The amount we pay people who do the real work to keep this country moving is sad and shouldn't be accepted.
May I ask what you do? My company just went through a buyout and I'm miserable. I've been there for 14 years and it was tolerable, even fun sometimes. I think I want to try something new and the thought of working from home in my pajamas is extremely intriguing (plus, I would save the 250 mile commute per week). Feel free to PM me. Thanks!
I work in tech in a position that will probably be replaced by AI in a few years, so I wouldn't recommend it. LOL.
250 miles commute per week is nuts, I'd say start looking. I'd definitely take a pay cut to work from home, (I actually passed up a promotion to keep doing it) it's absolutely a life changer and my stress has dropped immensely. I will never work in an office again unless I have no choice.
I appreciate you sharing. Here's to hoping AI doesn't replace you and you can continue enjoying your less stressful work environment.
I put so many miles on my vehicles just from work. I've been considering how much I would save just in gas, maintenance, and depreciation of my car alone. I really have to figure how what I spend (plus my time in the car) and see what I could comfortably live on. I've made decent/respectable income and it would be a change. Your perspective helps a lot, thank you.
My entire paycheck for the month paid for my first apartment plus $300 from my partners paycheck. It wasn’t luxury, new or great but a roof so it’s not like I could really get something as others would say ‘in budget or more affordable’. That being said, I financially wouldn’t be able to afford a place to stay AND food or other necessary things without help.
I once told the director that I could make more at a Walmart with less abuse (I was verbally abused by staff, amongst other things). They told me I could leave at any time. I loved the children too much though and the families of the children were really great and appreciative of me and other staff members, so much so that they gifted us birthday gifts and brought random things in for us like paid for all our lunches, brought snacks in, etc. I was glad I could be that person they felt safe leaving their children with, that plus the children made the job all worth it. But the pay feels very low for everything you do in a daycare. Unfortunately but fortunately, the pandemic helped me escape an extremely toxic environment that I still emotionally suffer from but I am healing! I wish daycare workers were paid more for all that they do. I really sympathize for anyone in daycare work who is or feels they are just getting by. You’re all worth so much and do amazing work! You may be unseen by your boss or the corporate people, but know that you are appreciated by someone! ❤️
I just watched this video a few times in a row because it’s just soo sweet, found myself thinking “that wonderful woman deserves a raise!” Then realized that’s obviously not gonna happen. Then thought how cool it would be if Reddit found her Venmo and just made her whole year.
I worked in a daycare. First steps were huge for us!! But if a parent asked… No they didn’t. This was before cameras, and we didn’t want to disappoint parents that they may have missed such an important event. Usually the parent would come in beaming the next day, telling us how the kid took their first step last night after dinner. Goal accomplished. 😉
Not always, they could have just noticed a lot of signs. My Mum was an early childhood teacher for a long time, she constantly tells us when milestones are coming up.
My ex worked daycare and she said they'd see a lot of first steps, but they'd always tell the parents that "little Suzie is really trying to walk. Going to be taking her first steps soon so better keep an eye out" so the parents didn't miss out on witnessing the "first" steps.
You still cheated on that wonderful lady. Bet your mistress ex was also wonderful man. Life is so unfair to some people. But don’t worry your karma clock is ticking.
Where should I start. This mf cheated on his ex ( married for 16 together for 25 ) with a woman 15 years thn them who was also engaged to her boyfriend of 8 years ( Together since they were 18 they had wedding in months ) went from seeing his kid everyday to 8 days a month ( mf was busy travelling the county with his mistress ) had a child with his mistress got married to his mistress left Pennsylvania and move to Florida ( fresh start with new family ) don’t see his eldest son at all now . Both exes still single ( ex wife never dated anyone ) ( ex fiancé gave up the idea of marriage) after 10 years ( ex fiancé lost the most went from wanting a family at his 20’s being or alone at his mid 30. The eldest son has no motivation or goal in life. I know this mf well.
It's a shame here in the US we don't get more time off work to spend with our kids in the first year or so. This video is nice, and the daycare worker is wonderful, but this really is one of those moments that the parent should get to experience. It absolutely kills me sending my little ones to daycare at this stage in their lives. I feel like we are missing out on so many of these moments 😢😭
We pay about $400 per week for daycare...it's wild to me, as someone that could afford to pay a lot more than this, that daycare isn't subsidized. You want us to work and be productive, someone's gotta care for these kids!
I got burnt out doing tech work and worked at a kindercare for 8 months... Woof. I loved the kids and they loved me but I would have gotten more money working retail and despite charging $500 a week per kid, there were rats in the building. This was in Needham, MA about ten years ago.
It’s so sad that we live in a society where we can’t be with our children to witness these steps firsthand. This just illustrates how much life we are missing when we fulfill corporate ambitions.
My sister's a daycare worker. Most daycare workers are like this -- they think of the children in their care at any given point in time as if they were like an especially-involved aunt or uncle. There's genuine joy when kids reach milestones in their care.
It's criminal how undervalued daycare workers are in society.
LMFAO no. What all places need is proper parental leave so parents get to experience these joys with their kids instead of strangers. America is so used to being a shit hole this is considered a good thing.
I got burnt out doing tech work and worked at a kindercare for 8 months... Woof. I loved the kids and they loved me but I would have gotten more money working retail and despite charging $500 a week per kid, there were rats in the building. This was in Needham, MA about ten years ago.
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